Aircon craped itself

[craig_the_german]

Air Con Compressors

Hi all,

You guys with the MK5s are not alone, a lot of us with MK4s and Polos have had the same issue. Mine %^&$ itself over the Christmas break, and I'm just saving the pennies for a new one.

You would think that VW would have worked this issue out by now.

[Transporter]

I've just found this thread.
I'm also a victim of the faulty aircon in the MKV: Lucky it seems to have the problem just before end of warranty so got the VW dealer to look at it on the last warranty service.

Although we took our Golf to VW dealer to fix the aircon, they sub contracted the job out to a 3rd party.

The dealer said that we get 12 months warranty on the replacement - but 9 months later and the aircon is really performing poorly again!


Should I take the car back to the dealer who arranged the sub contractor under VW warranty (note: I'm really unimpressed with that dealer's service), straight to the sub contractor - or can I go to another dealer and get them to look at it and be covered by the 'warranty' on the replacement?

If it is the warranty on the same fault, which was already repaired by one dealer, you will have to take it to the same dealer. Unless it is a new or different fault.

[TonyTA]

If it is the warranty on the same fault, which was already repaired by one dealer, you will have to take it to the same dealer. Unless it is a new or different fault.

Thanks for the tip. Problem is not as bad as it was (there is some cooling happening now at least) and there is no smell like there was previously so they symptoms are definitely different but it is still a problem with the replacement unit - which is the only part of the car still under warranty.

[Mungus]

Bummer! Hope mines not the same...

A bit depessing reading this thread.

Ours is a 2007 Mk 5 1.6 comfortline, and the A/C gets used a fair bit.
Noticed today (wife usually drives the Golf) that even on full cold its blowing warm air. Sh*t I thought, (having had dramas with the A/C on a Subaru Liberty RS turbo a few years back).

Anyway any A/C gurus out there?
Symtoms are; (when switched on)

• No cold air...
• Blower works as requested and
• RPM goes up a wee bit (as expected), however...
• There is no loss of power when switching on nor is there any small click or clunk type noise (Like a relay switching and / or the compressor taking up load or "clutching"

I'm no A/C expert but is there a fuse or relay controlling the compressor, that I can check before I assume the worst? Just that it seems like the some of the expected actions are taking place, but that the compressor isn't "switching on". Or maybe like others found the compressor has just sh*t itself!

Also I did notice a month or so ago that it seemed to take a bit more RPM and fan to get the cold air flowing. So maybe a bit of gas loss creeping in?

Pity it went out of warranty 2 months ago! Bummer.
BTW these replacement jobs have cost how much? (or were they all under warranty?)

Checked all the free manual PDFs from another link on this site, (Russian), but alas no A/C sections there. (of course)

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

[Johnbu]

I just got my MY07 GTI aircond compressor, etc.. replaced under warranty.

I asked the tech how much they will bill VW, he said $2-3,000.

As it is only been 2 months since warranty expired- I would ask the dealer to see if VW will still cover all or a portion of it as it is a design fault.

Hopefully the replaced one in my car is a better design.

[Maverick]

A bit depessing reading this thread.

Ours is a 2007 Mk 5 1.6 comfortline, and the A/C gets used a fair bit.
Noticed today (wife usually drives the Golf) that even on full cold its blowing warm air. Sh*t I thought, (having had dramas with the A/C on a Subaru Liberty RS turbo a few years back).

Also I did notice a month or so ago that it seemed to take a bit more RPM and fan to get the cold air flowing. So maybe a bit of gas loss creeping in?

Pity it went out of warranty 2 months ago! Bummer.
BTW these replacement jobs have cost how much? (or were they all under warranty?)

If you have a regular service history with a Volkswagen dealer you won't have a problem getting 100% coverage.

If you have a service history with Ultratune or similar you should get a portion covered by Volkswagen.

Dealers know the drill and there have been people covered out of warranty for well over a year or more. In Germany there is a five year warranty with 50% labour covered in the fourth year and none in the fifth year.

Volkswagen Golf, GTI, Passat, Jetta and Eos Air Conditioner Compressor Failure

[Mungus]

If you have a regular service history with a Volkswagen dealer you won't have a problem getting 100% coverage.

If you have a service history with Ultratune or similar you should get a portion covered by Volkswagen.

Dealers know the drill and there have been people covered out of warranty for well over a year or more. In Germany there is a five year warranty with 50% labour covered in the fourth year and none in the fifth year.

Volkswagen Golf, GTI, Passat, Jetta and Eos Air Conditioner Compressor Failure

Well we hope so. Thanks for the reply. We took it to Essendon VW yesterday and they confirmed that the compressor has failed. They put a PWA (Pre Work Authorisation) into VW OZ and next week we should hear how much they will cover. The Service department receptionist basically told me your story when I called to book it in, however the "technician" was a bit less positive when relaying his finings to me. We'll just wait and see... But given we bought it new off them, its been dealer serviced since new and barely has 40,000 KMs on it I would be most dissappointed if they don't cover it.

If they don't I may approach VCAT for their view, as its a common fault with this model that was TSB listed back in 2007, AND they know its expensive to fix. In my game (aviation) anything like that gets swapped out during a scheduled service visit. In my view a manufacturer / distributor who knowingly sits on that knowledge, hoping it doesn't go "BANG" until the warranty has expired should (may) be liable.

Hopefully though I won't have to take it any further and VW OZ will step up and do the right thing... (We are thinking about buying a new MK6 TDI later this year, but we sure as hell won't if they run away from this one).

[Hilly]

I wonder what proportion of vehicles need to be affected before it becomes a recall fault that the manufactuerer can be made to repair for a certain model of vehicle. if it was a safety item then it would happen, but I guess air-con falls into a bit of an "optional comfort" category.

Interesting the note about 5 years warranty on parts in Europe - that would go a long way to helping make the cost a bit more reasonable.

[Mungus]

Bit of follow up. Got the car back with a new compressor etc. Got charged $364. VW OZ paid for the parts and half the labour. So not too bad.

However a pity we paid anything given the "plague" proportions of this defect on MK5s. I still feel they should have checked for it during regular servicing.
We noticed the A/C was getting less effective just before the warranty expired, (but we assumed it was just gas leakage and so would get it fixed on the next service) yet VW didn't put up for 100% of it.

[Maverick]

Bit of follow up. Got the car back with a new compressor etc. Got charged $364. VW OZ paid for the parts and half the labour. So not too bad.

However a pity we paid anything given the "plague" proportions of this defect on MK5s. I still feel they should have checked for it during regular servicing.
We noticed the A/C was getting less effective just before the warranty expired, (but we assumed it was just gas leakage and so would get it fixed on the next service) yet VW didn't put up for 100% of it.

You can't check for something that occurs suddenly and that occurs inside the compressor. It's not something that deteriorates over a 12 month period but it's something that occurs very quickly.

Even if pulling the compressor out of the car and pulling it apart would help who's going to pay for this? It would add $200 to the cost of every service at least.

[Mungus]

Maybe missing the point here. Not talking about exploratory surgery here...
It only takes a a tech a few seconds to turn on the A/C during a regular service to see it it actually works.
If it doesn't then guess what should be done?

BTW I asked a friend who is a VW NZ techie, and they do not check the A/C during servicing, except when an A/C filter change is scheduled.
He mentioned that a few of their guys started doing it as they felt bad about so many compressors failing... (And while it was a topical warranty issue). He also mentioned that quite early in the process of the compressors failing they usually have some gas loss, so its not a "sudden" failure at all.
The siezure of the compressor is often just the grand finale!

[JP2]

Maybe missing the point here. Not talking about exploratory surgery here...
It only takes a a tech a few seconds to turn on the A/C during a regular service to see it it actually works.
If it doesn't then guess what should be done?

BTW I asked a friend who is a VW NZ techie, and they do not check the A/C during servicing, except when an A/C filter change is scheduled.
He mentioned that a few of their guys started doing it as they felt bad about so many compressors failing... (And while it was a topical warranty issue). He also mentioned that quite early in the process of the compressors failing they usually have some gas loss, so its not a "sudden" failure at all.
The siezure of the compressor is often just the grand finale!

In my own opinion, there is no point to check for the air/con which isn't in the service schedule. If it fails, customers of course will turn back and it gets replaced without question. This is not a safety issue here. Nowadays, any companies in business don't like creating drama and harming its own reputation if its replace rate isn't significantly high. At the end, there will be a cost involved.

[Mr Messy]

The compressor on my parents' 2006 Jetta 2.0T died this week. Add another to the pile, lol.