Air Conditioning 130 PSI Alhambra

[glowplug]

Greetings all, just joined and thought I would share my aircon experience with you.

I bought a 54 reg 130 TDI SX in freezing cold January from a dealer and even at that point suspected that the aircon was not working but could not argue with the chap when he said the ambient temp was too cold for it to engage. However come warmer weather it seemed I was right. To be honest, I should have done my homework better, but have always equated VW with quality so had no reason to believe these would be any different. I subsequently have discovered that the aircons on these cars are notoriously unreliable. Anyhow I have a very strong automotive mechanical background (dad was a mech and I spent since I was 5 years old under cars, tractors, bulldozers and working on motorcycles) and as such I am not afraid to tackle any task. As such I set about analysing the problem.

Firstly if you are to set about working on aircons you must have some basic knowledge. Haynes do a VERY good book on the subject. They are not hard to fix, I have yet to find an aircon specialist who has a university degree. So long as you understand the basics and follow common sense AND have the right tools it is not hard.

1. You NEED to have a manifold gauge set. These can be had for £40 off ebay (and you need to RTFM -- Read the ******** Manual)
2. You must NEVER EVER Release the aircon gas into the atmosphere, take it to a Kwik Fit or similar to remove the gas before opening up the system
3. If you diagnose that the compressor has failed you MUST replace the condenser and flush the rest of the system. Again a flushing kit can be had off ebay for +- £60
4. A Vaccum pump (the cheap venturi type at £16 are fine for pulling 28 inches HG)

Back to the story.....so I connected the gauges and my low side was reading high and my high side low, which told me the compressor was shot. Purchased a new one off ebay for £130 (119 + post) from Germany, some flushing agent, a new condenser, some PAG46 oil and a new expansion valve (+ new seals, purple euro type)

Engine covers top and bottom must come off, alternator out, battery out, battery covers out, front bumper off, bumper guard off. Take out condenser, remove front aircon pipes, evacuate the refrigerant (please NOTE I am fortunate enough to have my own recovery machine and gas bottle, if you don't then as said previously take the car to a Kwik Fit or similar and ask them to remove the gas. You will probably take it back to them to refill anyway so normally they will just charge you for the refill on the understanding that you will come back in a few days to complete the job ) remove compressor and expansion valve (PITA of a job and needs small fingers and tiny ladies arms --- of which I have neither). Removed the compressor and moved it to the bench, took out the sump plug and drained the oil to see how much was in there. Let me say it was obvious someone had done this job before due to the shoddy workmanship ( a prime reason why i NEVER EVER EVER trust my cars to anyone else).

The oil that came out was PITCH black and full of aluminium filings. A sure sign the compressor was gone. To be honest apart from the gauge readings I knew it was gone because when I turned the inner shaft by hand whilst still in situ there was no resistance whatsoever. A meagre 90 mls of oil came out. My car has dual climate control meaning it should have 240 mls . Even taking into account what may be in the pipes, condenser and evaporator this was way too low and told me that the muppet who did the job before had just fitted the compressor with the default 135 mls which is the amount for a signal zone system.

Anyhow, I took off has many pipes as I could, flushed the system as best I could (you need a good compressor as well as a flushing kit) reassembled, filled the compressor with 220mls of oil (knowing the difference would be made up with the gas I put in) vacuumed the system, recharged (unfortunately I do NOT have an F-Certificate so cannot buy a big bottle of gas) so had to do with the Halfords bottles. Hey presto one freezing cold aircon.

Like said not complicated and in total cost me around £300 to do the job.

Hope this helps someone else.

[wyndham]

I was like you and assumed my Alhambra would be VW quality. I have an 09 Alhambra Stylance. 2 months out of its 3 yr warranty the air con packed up. It needed a new compressor ,pump etc and the dealer wanted over £1000 for the job. I complained to Seat and they reduced the bill to about £500 and after writing to them again they did the job FOC. The car had only done about 21k miles at this point. Now 3 years and another 25k miles on the same has happened again. the whole sytem has to be flushed and all major parts replaced. latest estimate is £1370. I thought I was just unlucky but reading some other posts it seems that the Alhambra air con system is not the best around. I hope after this that it lasts longer than 3 years. It is being repaired at an independant garage so they will not be using VW parts so I am hoping for better things. Failing that it looks like changing the car before another 3 years is up and it breaks again.

[glowplug]

You could always do what I did and fix it yourself. It's not hard. Flushing is a WASTE of time. The channels in the modern evaporator and condenser are way too small for flushing to have any effect. You have to replace at least the condenser as well as the compressor.