Anyone know about air con?

[Silver940]

Air con on our Alhambra is playing up. Just had it regassed and although you see the end of the compressor spin when the air con is on the air does not get cold.

I suspect the compressor although spinning is not actually doing it's job properly but is there anything alse that could give the same symptoms

Cheers

[marshalla]

The compressor drive might be spinning, but that doesn't mean the clutch is engaging to actually drive the compressor. The most likely cause for this is lack of gas as it's all leaked out.

When your system was regassed did they do full pressure test on it first ?

[Silver940]

The chap was happy with the system when he regassed. It was only done yesterday. My Golf that has the same make of compressor makes a distict clonk as it engagaes, although you see it engage on the Alhambra there is no clonk associated with it.

[HellDiver]

Probably the clutch is stuck, particularly if it hasn't been used for a long time.

[Silver940]

The bit inside the pulley definatley stops and starts as expected when the air con is switch on/off, suggesting the clutch is doing something, is there more to it?

[anonymous-user]

Is it cycling on/off quickly? This usually means low charge (so leak in your case).

[KaraK]

what engine/year is the car? There were some VAG engines that had terrible problems with the clutch failing on the compressor, had the exact same symptoms with my Octavia and it was diagnosed as clutch

[marshalla]

Presumably it was also checked for temperature after it was regassed so was working properly then ?

(trying to work out if it's an existing fault or something that has happened since regassing)

[Chester Drawers]

Can you feel any of the pipes to/from the compressor? Low side should get colder whereas high side should get hotter

[Silver940]

Existing fault, had got to the stage where it didn't trigger the compressor having slowly got less effective, hence the regass, they had checked beforehand and reckoned the regass would fix it. I suspect there is a small leak but only enough to drop the pressure over a couple of years or more. I am guessing they assumed it was fixed rather than checked. Wifey will be speaking to them about that.

My Golf hasn't been regassed in 11years and 184kmiles and is still very good.

[marshalla]

If it had lost gas, then the oil wouldn't have been circulating either - possibly a dry/perished seal somewhere (though that should have shown up under a proper pressure & vacuum test)