2007 Passat aircon cant keep up

[nickpage]

Hi Guys,
The aircon on my 9-yr old Passat TDi cant keep up with summer temperatures. It works well up to 23ish daytime temps, but if its hotter or the car has been parked in the blazing sun all day at the airport or simliar, it never blows cold even after a good run. It's been getting progressively worse over the past 2-3 summers. The local VW main dealer gave me an 'system assessment' and claim the control valve in compressor isn't modulating the pressure correctly and causing the compressor to cut in and out.
Another auto-electrician (over the phone) reckons it could be low on gas and we should reclaim and weigh it first up. Wouldn't the gas just be long gone by now and the never blow cold?
All help or opinions is welcomed.
Thanks

[booba]

I have a similar issue on 2012 b7 passat. same symptoms. i was going to take it to vw next week but will to my local mechanic.

[mikegrove]

recovering the gas will tell u whether any gas was lost from the system. if no visible leaks are present it can be recharged with leakdye added. gas cant leave the system for any reason other than leaking out. most of the time. compressor front seal. if they recover the gas and it still has the right amount u can look at components like compressor destroking or tx or condensor etc

[ZR36]

Can you get a different (colder) gas? Or do they all use the same refrigerant?
I want greater cooling capacity without having the fan bull**** loud on flat out.

[h100vw]

Can you get a different (colder) gas? Or do they all use the same refrigerant?
I want greater cooling capacity without having the fan bull**** loud on flat out.

There's just one gas.

You need the fans running to remove the heat from the coolant, just like you have in domestic systems.

gavin

[mikegrove]

yeah only one legal gas at the moment mate. there,s a new one coming out soon. dont know whether the system will be colder with it. old r12 was colder than r134a.

[Snail Style]

There is also hychill, which claims to be cooler. Can't really comment on it from experience but it does work. I'm up north and can always check pressures over if you wanna drop by.

[timk]

I had the same symptoms in my fifth gen Golf, not sure if it uses the same compressor. I fixed it by sourcing and replacing the RCV in the compressor. Unfortunately you need to degas then regas to do the swap.

This is the type of compressor I have:

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3952/14960146354_03c318ecc9_c.jpg

This is the new RCV, it is held in with a circlip:

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5614/15620987952_a25079eb01_c.jpg

The labour charge including removing and recharging the refrigerant was $220. Before the RCV change, the A/C would take 5 minutes to get cold, and even then it wasn't anywhere near as cold as it gets now.

Unfortunately VW don't sell the RCV as a separate part and the likes of "Mr Cool" couldn't source it either. I ended up buying it from a place in the US.

Not sure if this is your problem but thought I'd mention it.

Cheers!

[Domatron]

DO NOT I repeat DO NOT put hychill into your car. It a hydrocarbon gas meaning it is flammable. R134a which is what the ac in your car is designed to run on is not. If you have a leak this can obviously be bad. The company who market hychill are a bunch of cowboys who don't know what they are doing. I am an engineer working the refrigeration gas industry so believe me I say Hychill is a bogus product.


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