Cool air right side, hot air left side!

[MYSKODA]

Hey everyone,

Well i am happy to say that i am a proud owner of a used 2009, my 10 skoda octavia sedan 118 tsi, DSG (45 500kms). I have been enjoying every minute spent in it. Love how it drives and handles, and how responsive it is.
The dealership i purchased it from threw in 12 months warranty. Which i thought i was cool. My dilemma at the moment is that hot air is coming out of the left side vents and cold air out of the right, when the a/c is on. Once i turn the gauge on the left all the way to hot and back to cold it seems to fix the problem. I also get a knock noise from under the left side dash panel.
I'm just wondering has anyone experienced the same issues. If so i would love to hear the outcome and what fixed the problem and what caused it.
Cheers in advanced guys!!!

[buzuki]

temperature flap motor might be getting stuck, the light knocking you hear is the flaps reaching there end stops.

[spud75]

AC coolant. Needs a regas. Had the exact same issue in my A4. Cold on the right, just blowing normal air on left.

Went in for regas, nothing else, came out pushing freezing cold air out all vents.

Stock standard, the AC units are designed for euro weather, my A4 was a UK import. The AC was not designed to cope with Australian heat, so imports into Australia should have bigger AC cooling. Basically, the coolant gets cooked, and needs to be re-gassed. Having been driving the car during Black Saturday (registered 50.5 deg air temp on the temp on the dash that day) and through a few other hot Australian summers, it finally gave in.

Now, I am not sure if they put in different units for the Australian specc'd Skoda's, I would suggest not? My first step before pulling the entire dash out to investigate vents flaps etc, would be re-gas the AC and see how it goes.

[Socceroo]

AC coolant. Needs a regas. Had the exact same issue in my A4. Cold on the right, just blowing normal air on left.

Went in for regas, nothing else, came out pushing freezing cold air out all vents.

Stock standard, the AC units are designed for euro weather, my A4 was a UK import. The AC was not designed to cope with Australian heat, so imports into Australia should have bigger AC cooling. Basically, the coolant gets cooked, and needs to be re-gassed. Having been driving the car during Black Saturday (registered 50.5 deg air temp on the temp on the dash that day) and through a few other hot Australian summers, it finally gave in.

Now, I am not sure if they put in different units for the Australian specc'd Skoda's, I would suggest not? My first step before pulling the entire dash out to investigate vents flaps etc, would be re-gas the AC and see how it goes.

Hey Mate,

I received my car back just today after being repaired for a similar issue. I had cool air blowing from the right side, warm air blowing from the left side. Basically rendered the A/C useless in anything above 30 deg heat. The first time it happened under warranty, I had it re gassed, issue went away - for about a year.

Took it back to the dealership and they pretty much just re gassed it again, car was fine for about 18 months. Then during our Spring heat wave the issue reoccurred. Car was now out of warranty.

Blacktown dealership (who were very easy to deal with and book my car in) had since closed. They told me at the time if the problem reoccurred it would certainly be covered by good will request, so I contacted Skoda Australia to set everything in motion. I send them all relevant documentation, service history etc.

I booked my car in with Penrith (3 week wait) and they couldn't diagnose the issue initially. Took another 3 weeks to book it in again and they held my car for 3 days before they worked out what it was. Diagnosed issue was that the blend door motors have failed (I know, the what now?).

Here is where the s*it fight started.

The consultant told me Skoda would pay for the part but not the labour, as I had not serviced it at the dealership. The labour was quoted at $1400 for 10hrs labour as they had to remove the dash. I told them this was unreasonable as the problem was not fixed effectively under warranty and I did not have to service my car at a Skoda dealership. I mentioned in a court of law, agreeing to pay for the part was effectively admitting liability for the fault and therefore the labour should be covered as well. I asked to speak to the supervisor - apparently there was none...until....

Fed up with the ring around I threatened Skoda with fair trading and mentioned that under Australian consumer law if something breaks under a reasonable period of time it should be covered. A Skoda with a failed A/C at 100k almost certainly falls into this category. I also said that if I wasn't provided with a reasonable outcome I would voice my concerns on the Skoda Aus Facebook page (respectfully of course) and mention the consultants name and extension line. Suddenly, the consultant had a manager.

An hour later I received a call saying Skoda would agree to pay for the parts and labour. So to answer to your question is that the blend door motors were stuffed Just thought other people might like to hear the story, in case they ever find themselves in a similar position.

Took another four weeks to book the car in and they held it for another three days to install it. I have the car back now, however I probably won't be able to tell if the problem is fixed properly until I get another hot day. I don't think I'll be waiting too long with our recent weather.

[MountainBikeMike]

Happy ending. Still ghey having your car away for almost a week

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk

[spud75]

Glad you got a good outcome after all the stuffing around skoda gave you.

Unusual to have stuffed blend doors but also curious a to why a regas fixed it for 18 months? Did ac work overtime to compensate for stuffed doors?

I would still say for anyone wirh a similar issue, first step and easiest is a re-gas. Obviously if problem re-occurs or doesnt resolve then something else is awry.

[Umai Naa!!]

Re-gas isn't cheap though, regardless of who's paying for it.

I reckon they performed a basic setting of the system, which may have fixed it temporarily.

As for the original poster's issue, I'd say one of the upper dash temperature sensors has died if it has them. I've found you can swap them left to right, and vice-versa, to see if it changes the vent temperatures.

[Socceroo]

Glad you got a good outcome after all the stuffing around skoda gave you.

Unusual to have stuffed blend doors but also curious a to why a regas fixed it for 18 months? Did ac work overtime to compensate for stuffed doors?

I would still say for anyone wirh a similar issue, first step and easiest is a re-gas. Obviously if problem re-occurs or doesnt resolve then something else is awry.

Yeh I would always pump the air con pretty hard to get the car cool. It was strange, the left side would slowly lose its cold and it would get progressively worse over time. I think 2 summers ago I didn't notice as much because we had that unusually cold and wet summer.

[MYSKODA]

Macarthur Skoda got back to me with a faulty heater flap, approx cost to replace $500. Also need my clutch packs replace, due to 2nd gear shutter/shudder, $3000. Lucky i got one year warranty through the dealer.