Climate control help

[Bong Water]

Hey guys

I didnt get a book with my car so hope you can clarify a few things

I have only had my car during winter months so never used the air con, I am going to assume that "Econ" is the air con. The car is an A4 on a 2000

On my mates Leon (which is a slightly different system) when he presses auto the air con light comes on and the compressor runs so basically the auto button runs the air con too.

On mine when I press the auto button the Econ light does not come on, but you can turn it on whilst it is in auto.

I have started to think that my MPG is a little high and I have simply been leaving the climate control set to auto all the time, if this is running the air con then it would explain why, however when I swith to manual there does not seem to be any difference in the sound of the car, only the when I switch the thing of totally does it seem to 'cut out' in the engine bay

Could someone confirm whats going on here!?

Thanks

[jonbaker]

Hi mate,

I have the manual to hand as I'm reading up on a few things at work!!! needed some info on this myself...

The 'econ' button is not the air con button. 'Econ' is the economical button which when selected saves fuel by switching of the compressor that operates the cooling system. The temp' inside the car can't be lower than outside when this button is on.

This system is fully automatic. Just select the desired temp' between 18c and 28c and press auto. It will then heat up or cool down depending on the current temp' inside the car and keep it there. The manual recommends you use the auto button all year round.

If you want pure heat blasting out select the option above 28c which is 'HI' or to have pure air con, select the option below 18c which is 'LO'. These are the only 2 options which aren't regulated automatically.

Once you have selected the desired temp' if you press and hold the 'auto' button the passengers side temp' will be set the same as the drivers side.

I think it remembers your desired temp' through your key, so the next time you get in and press 'auto' it will remember your preference.

You say yours is a 2000 so is it a b5? mine is a b6 so your system might be different?

Hope this helps, it helped me! will put this 'auto' business to test later.

[Bong Water]

Hiya, thats helpful thanks, a few things there that I didnt realise.

Mine is a B5 and is single climate not dual.

The econ button I find very confusing, when econ is lit, the engine makes less noise as it was off. When it is not lit the engine makes more noise as if it was on.

I have just been running the car with auto all the time, I thought econ was air con but it doesnt seem to be the case now.

I must admit I am highly confused!

I am now guessing with your post that I should have auto and econ selected all the time? As at the moment I have been driving around with just auto selected and not econ and my petrol consumption seems high

[jonbaker]

when econ is on it switches off the air con compressor so maybe thats why the noise goes down. If econ is on, the car will never cool down lower than the temp outside as the air con compressor is off.

Just select your desired temp and press auto and it will automatically keep the car temp' at the selected temp'. It will only have an effect on fuel if its constantly cooling down and because its winter, i can't imagine that to be the case.

[Bong Water]

Ah ok, the first line makes perfect sense now.

However you then say run it in auto all the time, which is what I have been doing, with Econ switched off which means the compressor is running and affecting my MPG, are you saying the recomended setting is econ and auto or just auto, because in just auto, the compressor runs constantly as far as I can tell, which is why I am getting bad fuel consumption

[jonbaker]

Just run auto on its own. It will only have an effect on fuel if its cooling down. Say you select 22c. it's winter so its not hotter than 22 so it will just be heating up to 22c and staying there. It may go above 22c in which case the air con will then bring it back down to 22c. Only when the car is cooling down will it have an effect on fuel. That is my understanding of it anyway ;) i could be wrong!

if you run auto with econ (if poss) then it will never cool down to selected temp just up to selected temp.

[Bong Water]

Ok thanks, that does make sense but now I am worried that something is faulty as that is exactly how I have been using it, on auto with no econ. The noise from the engine is constant, even when I pull up at home its still running, my car was recently serviced and apparently had no codes so I am a bit confused :confused:

Thanks for your help though

[jonbaker]

Ok thanks, that does make sense but now I am worried that something is faulty as that is exactly how I have been using it, on auto with no econ. The noise from the engine is constant, even when I pull up at home its still running, my car was recently serviced and apparently had no codes so I am a bit confused :confused:

Thanks for your help though

No worries, that's as far as my knowledge goes though! lol good luck with it

[paul b]

You don't notice a huge difference in noise, Audis are put together well. I can here it in my other car, a Vauxhall Astra, but that's different. As the other replies say just run it on auto all the time. You can tell if it has dual climate control if it has 2 different screens for the temperature setting. To check if it is working, simply put it on LO and see if it kicks out a constant supply of cool air out of each vent, if it doesn't it may need a re-gas. When I bought mine, cool air was only coming from 2 vents in the whole car. My first guess was an aircon pump, but before I did that I had it re-gassed just to be sure, and hey presto, it works fine to this day.
Paul

[Bong Water]

The problem here was myself getting very confused with what the econ button does, I have no instructions and thought it was for the air con but its not.

I fully understand it now and would like to thank you guys for your help and putting up with me yesterday as I was a reet space cadet after a rough weekend and things took a while to sink in! Thanks in particular to jon :beerchug:

Anyway, I was running it normally in the first place, its just that the Econ button, when switched on, shuts off the compressor, hence the less noise, which is where I was getting confused!

Thanks again

[mluton]

This might help:
http://www.vw.ca/SP/ca/pdf/en/vent.pdf

[Bong Water]

Cheers dude thats handy and confirms everything