As the weather warmed up, I realised there was a problem with the air con – it wasn’t blowing out any cold air. So, I thought, ah well, it needs a recharge. No major worries and not too expensive. Last weekend, I was describing it to a passenger who said, “hang on, there’s cold air coming out of this vent”. So, y’know how there’s normally four vents across the dash facing the driver and passenger? Well, one of them, the left-most has cold air blowing out, whereas the other three (centre pair, and driver’s side) have only ambient air coming through. The CC system cannot get the car cooled using only this vent. Even with the other three closed.

Car is a 60 plate Audi. Anybody had anything similar? Anything I can diagnose myself? I’m guessing not as it seems something is keeping the cold air diverted from those other three – maybe an electrical fault?

It’s dual climate control is it?

It’s dual climate control is it?

Ah, yes, sorry, I omitted that. It is indeed. But I guess that the left side is governed by the two LH vents? And now that you mention it, there are vents that come out at the back, and at the rear passenger window pillar. None of these appear to blowing out cooled air either. 😕

Ah! Thought it may be a problem with the control on that but maybe not.

Christ. I don’t even have single climate control, and DD has dual. 😡

Close all the vents, switch on engine then turn fan on full, and open vents slowly after a few seconds, somthing may be jammed in vent, also see if you can shine a light down vent to see if there is a blockage in the vent,sometimes kids jam stuff in vents.

or somewhere in the system there may well be a blocked filter or stuck solonoid controling air flow.

Could be that its low on gas, and the evaporator is only getting enough refrigerant to chill one side. Recheck your gas and see if its dropped.

Failing that, are there more than one temp sensors, if its dual zone? Is one going bung?

Could be that its low on gas, and the evaporator is only getting enough refrigerant to chill one side. Recheck your gas and see if its dropped.

Is it possible for an idiot to check this kind of thing?

Failing that, are there more than one temp sensors, if its dual zone? Is one going bung?

Way above my pay-grade. 🙂 I think, tbf, this is going to take a visit to my mechanic. I just kinda like to go armed with enough information to be slightly dangerous.

If you could check it yourself you would not be asking for advice on here 😉

I suspect if it’s connected to the appropriate diagnostic equipment it will reveal the readings from the relevant temperature sensors and air distribution valves.
Sounds like a complex system….which model?

If you could check it yourself you would not be asking for advice on here

Look, it’s a bloody car. I lift the bonnet, make manly sounds, yeah, check that out. Truth is, apart from the coolant level, oil dip-stick and windscreen wash fluid cap, I don’t really have a bollix what’s going on in there.

I did fix the clutch switch to get the cruise control working again on our last car. That was my greatest ever automotive repair triumph.

Oh, and I replaced a heated wing mirror glass.

Sounds like a complex system….which model?

Last shape A6.

dip-stick

A dip-stick? **** me! How the other half live!

Naughty!

Can’t help but my beemer is doing the same thing – I suspect mine is proper bolloxed though.

Heated wing mirrors working OK?

Heated wing mirrors working OK?

Only had it just over a year and the winter was too mild in Brizzle to ever have to use them.

It sounds like a problem with the flap motors in the heater box. The motors can stick or go out of calibration and you get warm air out of some vents and cold out of others or the other problems is that you get stuck with just hot air and no temperature regulation!

What you need to do is get the car looked at by someone with VCDS Audi diagnostics, preferably not a main dealer, and if they carry out a basic settings adjustment for the heater, it’ll reset the start and end positions for the flap motors and it should cure the problem.

Dual zone climate control? Oh the poverty,,, triple zone climate is now standard across a lot of Audis. Got to keep the kiddies at the appropriate temperature so they fall asleep.

There’s an easier and first-step check you should do.

On this car, there will be a ‘low side’ port, thats the fill port for the A/C refrigerant. Take it back to the place that regassed it and tell them its not working. They’ll hook up a gauge to this port and read off a pressure.

To my mind, it sounds exactly like low gas. FWIW, I’ve had the same phenomenon on other, non-VW cars, and this was the cause. If you imagine the evaporator ‘filling up’, and the cabin air-flow is ducted over it, where its cooled. When the gas is too low, only a chunk (usually the inlet side) gets cooled, and voila! you only get cold air out of one side.

They have motorised flaps in the system to divert the air flow. The ones in my car are a bit whirry and when you turn the ignition on sometimes you can hear them homing (or something that sounds like that).
Maybe some of yours are stuck or need resetting?

How would low gas affect the air distribution?

i thought big G was kidding, but google reckons not.

What you need to do is get the car looked at by someone with VCDS Audi diagnostics, preferably not a main dealer, and if they carry out a basic settings adjustment for the heater, it’ll reset the start and end positions for the flap motors and it should cure the problem.

Yeah, I guessed. Thanks for your advice. My mechanic is an Audi & Saab specialist, and he’s a good guy so it’s going to have to go into him. Could just do without the hassle and expense. 😐

@codybrennan, I may not have been clear in my OP. I haven’t had it re-gassed as I discovered that the LH vent was blowing out cooled air before ever sorting out any re-gassing. My mechanic also specialises in air con, so would diagnose and gas it himself anyway rather than subbing it out to another garage.

Cheers for the help folks. 🙂

bigG – Member
Dual zone climate control? Oh the poverty,,, triple zone climate is now standard across a lot of Audis. Got to keep the kiddies at the appropriate temperature so they fall asleep.

POSTED 6 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Pfft the Phantom I was in last week has 5 zone climate control.

i thought big G was kidding, but google reckons not.

I thought he was just being an unhelpful arsehole. Which Google has confirmed. 🙂

i thought big G was kidding, but google reckons not.
I thought he was just being an unhelpful arsehole. Which Google has confirmed.

Happy to be of help. If you’re in Central Scotland I know a good VAG (no pun intended) specialist that should be able to sort the problem much cheaper than a dealer will.

Yeah, I guessed. Thanks for your advice. My mechanic is an Audi & Saab specialist, and he’s a good guy so it’s going to have to go into him. Could just do without the hassle and expense.

It shouldn’t be expensive to sort, it takes about 5 minutes with the VCDS. The only reason I know about it is that I had exactly the same problem with the Climatronic on my A4. I used a mates VCDS stuff and had it sorted in next to no time.

TrekEX8- imagine behind the dash there’s a fridge. Behind the fridge, there’s a blower. The blower blows ambient air over the fridge, into the cabin.

Now, imagine only half (one side) of the fridge works. The end result is cold air one side, warm air the other. Regardless of the distribution system, the ‘fridge’ is only cooling the air into one half.

1st step- gas pressure check.

If you’re in Central Scotland

Probably wouldn’t be worrying about trying to cool the car down then. 🙂 Nah, I’m in Brizzle but the chap who does the car and van is an indie anyway, but thanks for the offer. It’ll still cost more than I want to spend of course – as it’s a car and it always flipping does. 😐

Why not just ignore it?

Problem solved.

I too have issues with my air con
It’s easily solved by giving the air con chaps £700 of my hard earned money though…. 🙁

DrP

Thanks codybrennan, hadn’t thought of that, sounds like a good place to start.

my hard earned money though

you are public sector what do you know about hard work?

You can get into the climate control diagnostic menu by holding down a button combination (Google it). This’ll give you flap position as a percentage and you’ll be able to see if it opens when you change the temperature.