Good morning,
I have had an issue with my A3's air conditioning for about a year now.. i've just never needed to really get it sorted because.. well it's England, how often do you use Aircon haha.
The Audi A3 I have is the SE TDI 1.6l 2013 model.
Basically, it was working fine - air blowers normal and then the air flow turned ice cold when I turned A/C on. On a road trip to Newcastle last April I turned the A/C on and.. nothing. The blowers were fine but everytime I pressed the A/C button, the red LED came on as I pressed down on the button but the second I took my finger off the red LED went off.
So, I thought I would take it to Halfords for a quick regas.. they regassed it and kept the thermometer in the vents to check the temp. It filled it and in doing so it meant that the red LED stayed lit after I had taken my finger off which lead me to think that it had simply ran out of "gas" in the A/C. But, it still wasn't going cold.
Fast forward a year and I am still in the same predicament - Red light comes on and stays on but the blowers don't change air temperature at all.. not fun in this recent hot spell that we have had. And with two roadtrips coming up (one from Manchester to Newquay in August) I am looking ahead to trying to get this sorted in advance.
Had a quick check around the car last night - now I must admit I am a complete novice when it comes to anything mechanical like this but I am pretty good at learning stuff and being able to fix simple things myself - I know where the fuses are and all that sort of stuff so I am not completely useless but definitely no expert.
I identified what I am pretty certain is the compressor in the engine, driven by a belt at the front left of the engine. This belt is constantly running when the engine is on - not sure if that should be the case (i'd presume it should only be on when the A/C button is on?) but there is definitely a high pitched whirring sound added to the engine noise when the A/C button is pressed and i am 99% certain it is coming from what I think is the compressor so... in my eyes I am pretty sure the compressor is working as it should.
My original diagnosis is that there could be a leak where the "gas" (sorry I don't know the name for it atm) in the A/C is just completely leaking out when filled. This is backed up by the fact that I think the compressor works as it should when it is pressed and having it refilled enabled the red LED light to stay toggled on when pressed as opposed to going straight out when you take your finger off the button.
Audi want £60 just to look at the car and that's before they quote me a ridiculous price to change something that's probably quite rudimental. Any ideas? I looked at the fuses last night but I couldn't get the aircon one out (need some needle nose pliers) but with it sounding like the compressor is activating when the button is pressed I can't see it being an issue with the fuse or else nothing would happen, would it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Lee
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