Over the recent weeks I have noticed that the A/C in my Golf has taken longer to start working i.e. actually cooling the air. For the first five minutes or so it just blows out ambient (warm) air until the A/C unit appears to kick in and start chilling the air. It then appears to run fine and maintains a steady temp

Does it just need re-gassing or is it likely that there is another fault and a more costly repair on the horizon? Also, if anybody knows of a decent A/C repair service in the Cleveland area I’d like to know.

Ta.

How old? Mine and my wife’s Golfs both had compressor failure about the for year old mark, as did my father in law’s A3.

The air-con in our 2007 car was a bit duff, had it regassed and the difference is amazing. It works straight away!

It’s a 2006 and probably hasn’t been re-gassed before. Hopefully not a compressor failure as seems to work reasonably well when it decides to.

Could be the clutch on the compressor on the way out?

The compressor on my Ibiza (probably the same part) failed at about 7 years old. Cost me £500 fitted to have it replaced.

If it does eventually run cold, it is unlikely to need re-gassing I would have thought. If a re-gas was in order it would never run cold.

If the gas is on the way out jitwill still get cold eventually. Best bet is get it regassed as its the cheaper option, you’ll notice the difference anyway. If that doesn’t fix it, then reassess your options.

Could be the clutch on the compressor on the way out?

+1

The “works when it wants to” bit suggests it *could* be something else. I bought a 2003 A3 earlier in the year with the air-con not working (should have tested it first I know..), assumed a re-gas would sort it. Turned out the clutch on it had gone, so new compressor time. Luckily had a warranty which covered it 🙂

Thanks for your suggestions, is there a way of testing if the compressor clutch is on its way out or failed?

Looks as though a re-gas first, but would rather not throw away money on a re-gas if the gas will be lost again if they need to replace the compressor.

Thanks.

A re-gas should cost around £50, that’s probably your cheapest option to start with.

Should there be another issue, the company may be ‘nice’ (providing you use them to fix the other issue) and give you another free re-gas after they have fixed whatever needs fixing.

Wife’s Civic has just had a new compressor clutch…. at 2.5 years old 😕 Thankfully, under Nonda’s warranty. It went when I was giving the car some welly overtaking something then just stopped producing anything cold.