Climate Control/VW service woes

[retsila]

Just re-read this before posting, and noticed how long it is. Please stick with it, and any advice at the end would be muchly appreciated.

I've had my car for about 16 months, an the air con has stopped working intermittently
has anyone else experienced the same problem? (I had a quick search and nothing jumped out)

Basically about 50% of occasions during the nice recent weather, i get in the car, set the temp to LO, the fan about midway, and i get lovely warm outside air coming, about 40% of the time it works fine, and the other 10% it starts to work, then stops after about 10 mins of driving. it doesn't matter what settings i have, whether i use the auto function, or have the air recirculating or not.

Of course, the VW are about as competent at identifying problems as my mum is at ski jumping. They had the car last week, after about an hour of dropping it off, I got a phone call to say there was no problem with it. I advised the helpful chap I was competent in the complicated art of using climate control, and I can assure him it doesn't about 50% of the time. I had laser eye surgery the day i dropped the car off and couldn't drive for a week anyway, so I asked if they'd try it again over a few days.

I went to collect the car on Monday, and low and behold i got in the car, started the engine, sat there for about 10 minutes & nothing worked. I left it running, flagged down a receptioninst, and got the servive fellow (not a mechanic, just the monkey that takes your money) to come and witness. He agreed it wasn't working, and I have now left the car with them again. So, they phoned me this morning, and said they were sat in the car & it's working fine, and they'll only fix it if they can identify the problem, which kinda makes sense, although I don't get the impression they're trying very hard to find it. They have given me a courtesy car (no scirocco mind you) and intend to keep the car a few days to try and replicate the fault.

So the questions I have are:
1). has anyone else had the same problem? if so did you find a sure fire method of replicating the fault? and do you know what vw did to fix it.
2). What do I do if they insist they cannot recreate the fault. I have proved to them myself that it doesn't work, & don't know what else I can do.
3). Should I just push for them to replace the whole climate control unit?


I am off to the south of france in the car next month, expensive ferry crossing already bookes, and am very nervous that i'm gonna be doing the drive without any aircon. 2 kids in the back are gonna be way too much hard work.

Thanks in advance for any help

Al

[skippy]

Hi Al,

I can't say I have heard of this issue (on the Scirocco at least), I think mine has lost a little efficiency as its 2 years old and it does not feel quite so icy cold as when it was new, but it still keeps you nice and cool. Sounds like yours has a faulty compressor or something, so yes, I would be pushing VW to replace the unit. Always so difficult to prove when it is an intermittent issue, but if they care to test it, I am sure they will find a fault. There could be some leak in the system or other fault there.

[BAIKAR]

Havent had this on the scirocco but on my x type. A few weeks or so ago i switched on the aircon and it pumped out luke warm air for about 10 mins before it ran cold. Was driving past a kwik fit and got them to check it but it had started to blow cold by then. The compressor was definately working as you can hear the clutch coming in. Its either low on gas or the compressor is not doing its job. Have they even tried checking the gas?

[retsila]

So, got the car back and all seems ok. They told me they replaced the control unit, thought it was fine, then it stopped again. After some further investigation they apparently found just a crappy connection, and replaced the plug.

Most annoyingly, the service rep gave me the impression that the diagnostic tool showed up a fault when they plugged it in, but also kinda implied they hadn't plugged it in on it's previous visit. Why the f*** not??

Anyway, hopefully all sorted, and the last time I have to visit the stealers for a while.