CLimatronic Air Con Problem (sometimes)

[bigdave1972]

My 2004 Alhambra 1.9 TDI has developed an air con fault that I need some help with.

If the air con was last set to 'Lo' then it will come on fine and get nice and cold etc.

If, however, the unit was set to 'economy' or any other setting (including all temps in 'auto' mode then it refuses to get cold. When looking at the compressor is comes on for a couple of seconds, then goes off, then comes on - with the cold pipe not really getting cold. No matter what I do in this situation it won't come on and stay on (even in 'lo' setting). Turning the engine off and removing the key and restarting does nothing (even if I set it to 'lo' first). But if I set iut to 'lo' and turn the engine off and come back hours later it will work again fine!!!

I have no flashing on the air con display when I turn ot on and all the fans and heater etc all work ok. I had an air con engineer come and look at it the other day but it was set to 'lo' when turned it on and it refused to go wrong whilst he was there. He tested the mechanical side of things and couldn't find any faults with the compressor etc.

Any ideas what could cause this?

[bigdave1972]

Can ANYONE help????:confused:

Update: I had a mobile engineer come and have a look at the air con and it refused to play up when he tested it (typical). He DID say that there didn't seem to be any issues with the physical components and it was likely an electrical problem.

VAGCOM doesn't report any logged faults at all.

Could it be a problem with the pressure switch?
Or the evaporator overfull of oil?
Or even the climatronic box on the dashboard?

I don't know what the range of symptoms would be for these though.:zx11:

[bigdave1972]

Another update - it appears the air con won't work if the outside temp raises above 24 degrees celsius. At this point the compressor simply stops being on (spinning on and off every couple of seconds as it would if the climatronic detected ambient internal temp was already too low/ok)

I'm now wondering if the outside temp sensor is faulty - although the temp reported on the climatronic display is correct.

Help!!!!!!

[progressive]

Hi, I am experiencing the same problem on my mk4 Golf tdi. The air con is switched on and the compressor engages and disengages continually dropping the revs of the car and causing a fluctuation in power when driving, especially at low revs.

I am not sure what to do as I do not want to replace a costly compressor if the problem is to do with the sensor.

Have you had any luck with yours?

[bigdave1972]

I sorted mine in the end. Don't know if this will apply to yours but mine had actually been OVER gassed. This meant the pressure switch was turning it off as soon as the gas warmed up.

I let a little bit out at a time until it started working. I checked it with a guauge and it was still well inside the range. Good luck with yours!

[Alihambra]

The clutch is magnetic on the compressor, and as on any clutch the gap will get bigger with use as it wears, when it gets hot in the engine bay the magnitsm in the clutch gets weaker till it reaches a point were its not strong enough to engage it; until it cools down again.Some clutchs you can make a puller and take one of the shims out, it can some times be done in sitchu with out emptying the system with the rubber hoses you can wangle it around. I have done this succesfully on a classic V70 volvo.Good Luck.