climate control glitch

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steve184

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Anyone ever had climate control stick on econ mode (ie, AC switched off) - had this today, thought, its gettin ****** warm in here, and couldnt feel cold coming out of vents event tho temp on 19, then looked down and econ light was on, but when i pressed it, the light went off only while i held the button in, once released it the light was on again. Stoped my engine at some red lights and restarted and it worked again

Anyone had this? Is it trying to tell me something??
 
Yes I had the same problem much on a hot day like these, apparently a stone had punctured the A/C radiator (you could see the damage). cost to repair £750 so I claimed under insurance £250.
 
well - ive only notice it happen once, could this be a one off or is it pretty conclusive that once is enough and it will happen again... i know exactly why it would happen however, car has just been repaired following a minor front end bump - main radiator and some other parts were replaced, and i know from the invoice the ac was re-gassed, so obviously there was some damage to the ac system also.
 
got to the bottom of this - had an ADT out today from roadside assist, and they have confirmed the pressure in the system is too high - 29bar and should be 10bar with engine running apparently, so its causeing the system to shut down to prevent damage. This is obviously an issue with the recent repairs i had done where the ac system needed regassing. Just don't know why people can't follow the book wiht these things raqther than just guessing!
 
maybe they gassed it to the 8L requirements. kwik fit did it to somebody else on the forum already....
 
does the 8L take more than 525 grams then?
 
perhaps thats whats happended then - but whatever happened its resulting in more than double the pressure in the ac system than what should be there.
 
well took it back to the garage and they re-gassed it based on what i told them about what the ADT said - and hey presto on way home from work today and econ light stuck on again - so over-gassing is not the problem

Anybody clued up who knows what this could possibly be?
 
yep read it all - all exactly whats happening - had the system emptied vacuumed out and refilled with exactly 520g of refridgerant - i watched the guy do it, so its got the right amount of gas in it - but for some reason it is still tripping out and is going into econ mode
 
It could be fault high or low pressure sensor. Or the compressor itself, but not so likely with those symptoms. Have you got access to vag.com? If the HP or LP cutout was either at fault or simply kicking in there should be a log.

To be honest I would say that the fault was caused directly from the repair or indirectly from it being over pressurised!
 
hmmmm - well when the ADT put his computer on it (vag com i presume) he said it had logged a fault of overpressure, ie, it was hitting the 29bar threshold the sensor can read and then the ECU was shutting the system down - causing to go into forced econ mode.

balls.... i can see this being a back and forth affair - as some days (cooler days) the ac seems to work ok enough for the garage to not see a problem, yet i get a wet damp muggy day the day after and im sat in a car which is misting up to the hilt inside and getting really warm

They are trying to say its prob a seperate issue with the console in the dash but come on.... what kind of coincidence is that, after a small bump, suddenly start havin issues with the ac
 
Yes if the car was logging the pressure cut out before then you need to get it looked at this time for sure. That's the first step in the fault diagnosis. Where abouts are you?

If you want to replicate the fault on a cooler day you could try turning the temp down to Lo and turn the fan speed down. This will increase the pressure in the system. A normal system should be able to cope with that though.

The fault should still be logged anyway so this should be necessary unless you clear the faults then do it to make sure you're reading the right data.
 
Kitsch said:
Yes I had the same problem much on a hot day like these, apparently a stone had punctured the A/C radiator (you could see the damage). cost to repair £750 so I claimed under insurance £250.
Click to expand...

That really annoys me, why don't manufacturers put mesh in front of the vulnerable evaporator to protect it. Might be worth thinking about.
 
A4Quattro said:
That really annoys me, why don't manufacturers put mesh in front of the vulnerable evaporator to protect it. Might be worth thinking about.
Click to expand...

I just went to have a look at which radiator is positioned where. It's quite hard to tell but it looks like the engine cooling radiator is at the back and the condensor (not the evaporator as that's in the dash) is at the front. The intercooler should be at the bottom correct? They have to put them that way round as if the radiator gets hit you break down, rather than just lose air con. But a mesh would be a good idea yeah.

A lad I know has taken the lower grille off of his GTI Ed30 because it "looks better".
 
staz1000 said:
I just went to have a look at which radiator is positioned where. It's quite hard to tell but it looks like the engine cooling radiator is at the back and the condensor (not the evaporator as that's in the dash) is at the front. The intercooler should be at the bottom correct? They have to put them that way round as if the radiator gets hit you break down, rather than just lose air con. But a mesh would be a good idea yeah.

A lad I know has taken the lower grille off of his GTI Ed30 because it "looks better".
Click to expand...



Yeah sorry, I realised my mistake, its the condenser at the front, the refrigerant gets cold when it evaporates and warm when it condenses..doh!

The intercooler is normally off to one side, on my A4 it was in front of the NS wheel.
 
There might be a blockage in the system.
Its not unusual for the dessicant bag in the receiver dryer to break up and you end up with balls of dessicant spread throughout the whole system. It tends to block up the TX valve first (or orifice tube) which then causes overpressure in the system.
 
nope none of these! turns out the fuse for the fans had blown and hadn't been replaced, ie, i'm driving around with no fan function at all unbeknown to me - what a stupid mistake to make by a garage which could ultimately cause engine damage (although pretty unlikely im told on a diesel)

As i said earlier, why can't these places do the job properly?
 
I talked about the fans in the FAQs thread I posted Steve.

I assumed you had checked the fan was running.
 
well yes but i presumed the 'highly-trained audi technicians' wouldn't have missed such a simple thing as this
 
I was just about to say its the fuse as Mattandrew & few others had same fault with econ staying on, but beaten to the post.
 
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