Air con - The truth !!!

[JAKESANGEL]

Help again, I've been told by Volkswagen that the air conditioning in my 2001 Gti will only come on once the outside tempreture reaches  approx 5.5 degrees plus and will become colder as the tempreture outside rises. I only ask cos i dont think the aircon seems particularly cold at any time compared to previous cars i've had or even my girlfriends ka. It may be that it needs re-gassing and then i'll feel like a right twit for my question but in other peoples experience does this sound familiar. Basically i want it really cold and it aint !!! any advice would be greatly appreciated, cheers guys.

[nadlad]

what ure saying makes no sense at al because if air con only comeson at 5.5 degrees the outside temp, then in summer the temp is usually around 25 and that when u put air con on when its hot not when the outside temp is 5.5, think u need re gssing

[JAKESANGEL]

It didnt make much sense to me at the time either thats why i have asked for advice on this forum but your explanation doesnt seem to make sense either as air con isnt just meant to be used when its hot it can also be used to remove moisture from inside the vehicle as per the handbook, hence my query. But cheers for the imput mate appreciate it, best thing to do as you say is get it checked then re-gassed if needed.   

[Mantamad]

I can't remember if it says this in the Golf handbook (sure it does though) but I do remember that previous cars I have had with air con, all say that is doesn't work below 4ºC so they are correct in that respect.

Even at just above 4º its probably difficult to check how cold it gets with air con on as your outside air temp is cool anyway, the air con does not really need to cool it any further. Certainly with an outside temp of 10º when you turn your heater dial to cold and put on the face vents, switching on the air con should have a noticable effect on cooling the air to the point where it is uncomfortable to hold your hand at the vent.

I would wait until the warmer weather to test it for sure though - I see you are comparing it to a Ford Ka, if this is anything like the 5 year old Ford Puma I owned (which had not been re-gassed), its air con was incredibly cold and I found that it was colder than the air con system in our 2 year old Discovery or indeed the Astra I was using prior to buying my Golf.

If you are still not sure that its as cold as it should be, take it to an air con specialist who can measure the quantity of gas in the system and advise if a re-gas is necessary. IIRC the going rate for this is around £70.

Hope this helps

[JAKESANGEL]

Cheers mate, thats exactly the kind of constructive response I was looking for. Guess I just wanted to put my mind at rest which you have done. I'll wait till it gets a bit warmer then have it checked cos im driving over to holland the last week of june, so i wanna make sure its fully operational. Nice one bruvahhhhh

[Bazzer]

well I thought mine was playing up tbh. I noticed it's not been too cold in the winter, but if it's not designed to come one below a certain temp, I can understand that....

I'll give mine a crank on the way home tonight and see if I get stiff nipples! 

[BigDaveC]

Jesus mate !!

[Mk1Mad J - 16v]

air con isnt just meant to be used when its hot it can also be used to remove moisture from inside the vehicle as per the handbook,

  the dash in the mk5 hire car i had in spain a couple of months ago got soaked whenever i ran the air-con?

[Bazzer]

Yep, mine's pretty cold now... 

[ub7rm]

A good way to check A/C is to run the AC the the heater hot for a good 5-10 mins, then turn it down to cold and turn the air recir on, the air should cool down very rapidly.  If it doesn't cool down quickly then you most likely need a re-gass.

Ron