Aircon removed

[neil]

The aircon hadn't worked on my car for the last couple of years so bit the bullet at the weekend and decided to remove it. Spoke to a mate in the trade and he got me another belt - part number 06A 145 933 D from volkswagen. Started sunday morning taking things nice and steady and had it all removed from engine bay by the afternoon - compressor, pipework and radiator. It was a bit fiddly getting all the pipework out, a lot of it was carefully cut with a hacksaw blade so it could be worked round other bits in the engine bay and we found the hardest part of the job was getting the bumper + headlights lined back up at the end!!
At a rough guess all the weight removed is about 12-13kg, not as much as I thought but all dead weight in my eyes. The belt fits perfectly and it might be in my head but the car does feel slightly more responsive.
neil

 

[Willie]

Neil,

Thats good news, I'm planning on doing this soon.
Do you have any pictures of this?
I was thinking the compressor it's self would be about that weight.
Did you remove the pipework from behind the glove box aswell?
No CEL's after the removal or fault codes?

 

[neil]

Didnt take any photos as forgot the camera ! I only removed the bits from the engine bay , where the pipes go through the bulkhead , I cut about 5cm from the connection and folded the end over with a hammer then re-attatched to the car so the pipe was sealed (if that makes sense).
Had no lights come on on the dash but havent got vagcom so dont know if there are any fault codes that have come up. Basicly removed the whole front of the car - bumper, headlights, crash bar, fmic and slam panel to make things easier , especially as this was my first go at 'major surgery' on the car.

 

[Willie]

So your heaters etc still work just the air con bit thats been removed?
I'm planning on getting rid of the lot.

 

[neil]

Yup, heater still works , just the aircon side of things gone.

 

[Willie]

Cool
I'm planning on removing the lot at some point but good to know I can remove the air con and still have the heaters working to clear the windscreen and cool down on track days.
I'm going to be fitting plexiglass windows next year, then I'll get rid of the whole heater matrix etc