Air con problem

[Liquidfusion-S3]

Guys, only had my new car for 5 months and it's done less than 1000 miles on the clock however the aircon isn't cold anymore even when I turn it all the way down.
What's the best way to go abouts getting this fixed?

I went onto the Audi website and they want £60 alone just to 'look' at it.... wth....


Does it need a simple recharge (only 5 months old) or is there something more sinister?
I've always kept it on fan speed 1 and temp around 20.5c

 

[jaypers777]

I'm confused. So you bought a new car which is under warranty and they want £60 to investigate? Can't be right surely. Tell them to check it out at no charge.

 

[Liquidfusion-S3]

Oh so the £60 is for cars out of warranty then I presume

 

[jaypers777]

Did you buy from a dealer, or online? Should be irrelevant anyway. Best bet is to phone the dealer you bought from, or one locally and explain the situation. If the car is new, it should be a free investigation. Only issue with a charge would be if there is physical damage to the unit, which would then be a different conversation.

 

[Liquidfusion-S3]

I bought it directly from a dealer up north but I'm based in Kent.
Weird.... I just tried the air con again in the car and it's cold again, going to cancel the appointment for now.

 

[jaypers777]

I am stating the obvious, but if you are using the auto/cilmate control setting, the level of coldness will depend on the ambient temperature etc.

 

[Bittern]

I think you may have pressed the AUTO button twice without realising it, which will put the Climate Control system into ECON mode(econ will display). In ECON mode the air con system is switched off(hence no cold air) but the led light on the air con button is still lit.

Just a thought!

 

[j0nny2013]

you have the same problem as what I did mate.

They only charge you £60 for a recharge but you dont need a recharge, you need to explain there is an issue that requires looking at under warranty.

Mine is 7 month old and needed a new valve due to electrical fault.

Probably what you need by the sounds of it. Were not the only ones!

Mine is sorted now and all back to being cold and free of charge of course!

 

[Liquidfusion-S3]

I'll drive it a couple more times to see if it acts up again, I did see the 'eco' mode when I was fiddling about with the air con trying to find out what it was, I turned off the eco mode but during the drive it just wouldn't get cold.

Got home parked up, left it for about 30 minutes and tried the car again, aircon got cold so I don't know what the problem was... maybe the S3 was having a blonde moment or valve electrical fault like jonny says

 

[Blackwhite]

Definitely need the air/con this week. In the middle of a
Heat wave( 3 days of 90 or higher) Today is 98 degrees with
possibility of going to 100 or more.

 

[Vertigo1]

Had exactly the same thing last month - coming and going but never as cold as it should be.

Mine needed a new compressor, all sorted under warranty, just take it to the nearest dealer and tell them you want it sorted.

 

[Johan]

Ive had the aircon control unit swapped twice under warranty already.

 

[Magicmcfc]

Just a question does the fan at the front of the car stay on all the time when air con is on?.
Have had a strange noise from engine compartment when air con is on. Audi said it was normal when air con is working hard.
Link to video below



Thanks Paul.

 

[Liquidfusion-S3]

I'm not sure, but all I know is my air con is very intermittent, sometimes it blows cold air most other times its blowing warm air at me.
Have it booked in for mid month and getting a courtesy car for the day or so.

 

[cuke2u]

When the ambient temperature is hot the fan will probably be on most of the time. Our fiesta also does this as soon as its started up, you can hear the damm fan from inside the house...

 

[Liquidfusion-S3]

Dropped the car off this morning at Audi and picked up a white A3 TDI courtesy car, was hoping for a TT but can always hope lol
Apparently it was a faulty compressor, they replaced it and seems to be working for now.

They left my car on and the dash cam was running throughout the whole process lol
Looks like access to the compressor must be under the car as I couldn't see them doing anything at the front apart from re-gassing it. Saw the car elevate and them working under it.

All done under warranty, thankfully it wasn't a faulty condenser as that would of stung me £800 or so!!!

 

[steeve]

It's warranty just take it in and get the dealer to investigate.....

 

[DickiePhitt]

Is there a more widespread problem with intermittent air con on Audis?

The reason I ask is that today a mate of mine with a Q3 was telling me he thinks his a/c has stopped working - it'll be the 4th time in 3 years it'll have been in for an a/c fault. As we were in my S3 we put my a/c on to see how quick/cold the a/c was and all we got was warm air.

I planned to drive past the dealer and book the car in on my way home but when I next started the car up the a/c was working fine.

Then my mate phones me tonight to say his a/c is also working OK now.

I don't think it was down to my pressing the Auto button twice as I only tried pressing it when there was no cold air after a few minutes.

Hence my question whether there's an Audi-wide issue with the switching or something.

 

[Cymru09]

Mine started playing up again. They've fitted a new compressor this time round. All good so far!

 

[Liquidfusion-S3]

I googled around for air con problems in regards to Audis and apparently it is a common problem across all models, so much so that the Audi garages keep the compressors in stock expecting to change them when it goes tits up.

Not very reassuring, not knowing what the cost will be once the car is out of warranty.

 

[CyberD]

Hi everybody,

My first post here, from Brazil. I got my new A3 about 3 weeks ago, it's a 2.0 220HP already built in Brazil, at Audi's new plant. The car is great, I'm loving every aspect of it. But it's not all flowers, a few days ago the air con compressor failed to engage. I though it was something I did wrong, because after some fiddling it turned on and started to cool.

But today it happened again. The car was parked under the sun, very hot (summer here), when I started it I hit AUTO, the fan turned on at a moderate speed but no cool air. The fan speed varied correctly as I turned the temperature knob, so it looked like everything was working well, but hot air only. I started driving, after more than 5 km still hot air only. Switched off A/C, turned on again, nothing. Switched the whole climate control off (pushed the central knob), waited a few minutes, on again and finally cool air.

Looks like the same intermittent defect already mentioned by others in this thread. The car has only 1300 km on it, it's very sad to require service so young

A few days ago I VCDS'ed (new verb? to tweak a few things, and I was thinking if this failure was related to the mods I did. But I concluded not, one because I did only minor changes which are unrelated to HVAC, and two because, again, others here are having the same problem. Anyway, what I changed:

- needle sweep
- visual aid for parking sensors
- oil temperature on DIS

Any thoughts?

Cheers,

CyberD

 

[Liquidfusion-S3]

Sounds exactly like the issue I had, take the car in and have them look at it.