Aircon not working

[bear1987]

Hi again

New problem now, if I turn the ECON on then absolutely nothing happens i.e. no clicking or drop in revs and more importantly no cool air.
I brought it to a guy who said it was low on gas, refilled it and said it was working.
But when I tried it nothing worked.
Is the compressor was goosed would it still try engaging and decrease the revs or would it act like nothing has been turned on?

Thanks.

[RichardSEL]

The revs do not decrease whether you have aircon on or not.
If you have Climatronic (two window display) you can see if the controller is reporting errors in the left hand pane when you select diagnostics
If you have Climatic (three knob system) you'll need VCDS to see if there's any errors being reported at the HVAC module

The most common compressor problem is the clutch. See if the centre screw head is protruding out of the centre pulley?
Do you get any cooling if the car is in forward motion, say above 40 MPH?

ECON is no aircon just the blower should work. Does the blower work on any of its settings?

[bear1987]

Yes I have the climatronic version, how do you see the diagnostics?
But some news on this, today it seemed like the AC kicked in.... when the button was swtiched off so if I put the AC on then the air would warm and the car felt less restrictive (that drop in performance when the AC is on) and if I turned the AC off then the air would get freezing and the car would feel restrictive. I'm probably using restrictive in the wrong sense but hopefully it makes sense.
In other words the aircon works the opposite to what the button says. Weird right?
Btw, what is the actual difference between ECON and AC?

[RichardSEL]

My hard drive on my main PC has decided to give up. And all my help .docs are on it or a SCSI backup unit that's also fed from that PC. Job for today to try and rescue

If anyone here has a copy of my Climatronics help .doc could they shout up soas OP can PM his email address?

There are two buttons that should be pressed together to start the diagnostics process on the Climatronic control panel. If the HVAC module is not reporting any fault the left hand pane should end the diagnostics check with the letters ''iO'' meaning ''in Ordinung''or all OK. If you gargle ''Climatronic Diagnostics'' there's plenty of info that comes up from forums -- if there's a fault reported it will be shown as a hex number in the left hand pane. Convert that into a real number and use it as a fault code on the Ross Tech Wiki and that will tell you what it means.

I don't know why you're getting Aircon with your ''button'' (what ''button''?) switched off. But does this mean your blower is now working? I don't know what you mean by ''restrictive''.

ECON is just the blower.

Later: Just found a printout. ''To access the available information hold down the ECON button and press the up pointing arrow button. Release when both displays change to indicate zeros... A self test of flap motors can be carried out by pressing the ECON button and the --> marked vent direction button.''

Hope that helps. On this printout I've scribbled what my individual readouts are -- mine's an '06MY tFSI Estate

[bear1987]

I figured it out and to be honest I feel like an idiot.
I always thought ECON was the essentially the AC button so I always had the ECON turned off.
When the temp outside hit a certain temp the AC suddenly came on (I had the lowest temp selected) and the air became freezing. Once I turned the ECON on the fans would blow warmer and slower so I thought that some weird phantom was living in the car.
So.. the aircon works fine
Does the AC in the Passat only work after a certain outside temp is reached? Cause I've had the AC on all the time throughout the winter unbeknownst to me and the air was never cold. Then the warm weather hit and the AC went on.

[Quatrelle]

I'll answer this in case Richard is in a cupboard somewhere tearing his hair out

The aircon kicks in when the outside temp reaches whatever you've dialled in to keep the car cool. Econ effectively turns the aircon off, and folk use it in the winter when the outside temp is below that which you want inside, and cooling (aircon) is unnecessary. I leave my aircon turned on all the time to keep the seals supple.

All of which you've probably guessed by now.

[bear1987]

Ahh so If I put in say 20 degrees for the inside of the cabin, the aircon won't engage until the temp outside also hits 20 degrees?
Whereas if I select LO then the AC will come on regardless of what the outside temperature is?
thanks for that though

[Quatrelle]

Mine's set permanently at 19 (bit warmer down here!), aircon on all the time. When it's colder in the cabin than 19 the aircon helps dry the air, even with the heater, so you get a quicker demist, especially when you get in the car in wet clothes.

The 'econ' setting is designed to save fuel by turning the aircon off when you don't need to cool the cabin.