MrT

Also check your wheel nuts in case the local hoody has been trying to steal your wheels. I have seen this happen before where only the locking wheel nut has been left keeping the wheel on.

I wonder why the the fuel pumps for diesels are supposed to fail when petrol stops them from being lubricated? The fuel pumps for petrols don't fail due to lack of lubrication from diesel. Are diesel owners being given inferior fuel pumps?

The phone mute contact will be in the black socket to the left on your picture. It could be that the wire in the plug for the phone mute is touching ground somewhere which activates the phone mute. Try the radio without that plug connected and see what happens.

I believe this is intentional and the centre vents deliver a low volume of fresh unheated air to prevent stuffiness and drowsiness.

No, when it is on HI it should also come out of the foot vents, quarterlight vents and the windscreen vents.

How does the nitrogen test work? I would wonder how you would detect leaking nitrogen as air is about 80% nitrogen, is something added to it?

I was quoted

I seem to have exactly the same problem at the moment. Recharge the gas and it works perfectly for around two days then the performance starts to drop off again. No sign of any UV dye leaks to me, so it is going to be examined again next week and have a sniffer test. It could well be between the radiators or in one of the places where the pipes are not visible. The pipes do look rather vulnerable running virtually the whole length of the car underneath. I have had the grill off and the condensor bung out and looked at the top of the condensor and there is no dye there. The UV dye they have used has an unpleasant smell and I would notice it if it were coming through the air vents.

Even a Ford dealer should not just top up a system. The normal equipment that is used is computer controlled and vacuum empties the system, weighs the contents and puts in the correct weight and mixture of refrigerant and oil. If this sort of equipment was used, it is unlikely to be overfilled. It would not take a very big hole to let out all the refrigerant in 5 minutes if the hole was on the high pressure side. If it is under warranty I would let Ford sort it out, it is their problem and any more problems they create they will have to fix. The flashing can also relate to the fact that you lost pressure before, the unit does not reset itself automatically and requires either the HVAC alarm to be reset by clearing it on a diagnostic machine, or alternatively by removing the power from it for several seconds.

I did it to a mark 2 and you require new wiper arms. I got the arms and blades from ebay for

It should not be a problem to swap them around by moving them on the shafts. You have to take care about the area the wipe afterwards and make sure they do not collide with the trim, the edge of the windscreen or each other. IIRC on the MK1s some had identical length blades and some had one about 2" shorter to stop them colliding. Not sure if the different sized ones was a bodge on the LHD to RHD conversion.

On my Mk2 I do not need any screwdrivers to remove the bulb, it is just remove the plastic waterproof cover at the back of the light, then unspring the wire clip holding the bulb in place and put it all back in the same order. Sidelight bulbs are more difficult having to go in through a sliding slot cover in the wheel arch, especially if you have big hands.

Assuming it is the type enclosed behind the rear louvres in the back panel, you could check that the sound deadening material has not moved and is covering the sounder.

It must be odd that mine was built in Portugal yet they put the wipers the correct way around for RHD.

Has anyone any experience or first hand recommendations for a air-con specialist in the Watford - St Albans area? I have lost pressure and must have a leak somewhere (the condensor was a favourite on my year) and I don't want to go to a Fraud dealer. A friend say his works lorry/fleet workshop can do it for a good price (he gets a discount) and they have all the computerised air con re-gassing equipment. How specialised to you have to be to do a good job on air-con?

On mine (when it works) I only see, to get warm air through the handbrake vent, the cold air comes from the ceiling vents.

Surely if you overfill the system the high pressure cutout switch will disengage the compressor?

I am getting similar symptoms at the moment and I cannot find anything wrong. I wondered if I have overcharged the system. Oddly enough I am still getting the puddle of water under the back from the rear unit, but the air in the car does not seem cool after a while.

Velcrohead, what were the symptoms of your over overcharging?

I have never had the starting problem but with 1/4 tank and front end down, the gauge shows empty and the warnings come on.

Do I have a problem or do the air direction flaps controlled by the climate control usually take ages to move? From when I press a button, it seems to take 10-20 seconds before the air stream changes. There never seems to be a large blast up the windscreen, just a slow stream, yet the air out the dashboard face vents is like sitting in a gale when they are the main source.

The price is not too bad if you consider it includes a pressure gauge, the tin, the hose and there is no P&P if you are near a Halfords. All the little bits add up. I must admit I am reticent about putting a leak sealer into anything in case it blocks up what it shouldn't. A curious thing that an air-con specialist told me and I don't know if it is true, is that car air conditioning systems will actually still operate on a very low level of refrigerant so an air con failure due to low levels almost always means that something more serious is wrong (leak) as a serious amount of refrigerant has been lost and all systems lose a little refrigerant in normal use without noticeably affecting performance.

If you can fit Bosch Aerotwins, they are the best.

I had this years and years ago on another car and the problem was the water (coolant) level had dropped and the sensor was out of the water, when the water level rose or moved in a different path with the heater on it reached the sensor and got a reading. Have you checked your levels and for an air lock in the cooling?

My air conditioning seems a lot weaker than it used to be, it used to be so cold that your arms would feel uncomfortable after a while from the cold air blowing on them. I have the full dual system with climate control and the air just does not seem cold enough either out of the front dash vents or the rear roof vents. I can get the outlet temperature to around 12C (poor thermometer) at low fans speeds and 23C outside. With higher fan speeds or higher outside temperature the outlet temperature is around 15C. On the recent very hot days (outside reading 35C) it appeared that there was no cooling effect at all. My garage has done a leak test, weigh and re-charge and pressure tests and they all were OK. The compressor cuts in and out with the Auto/Econ buttons and there air is definitely slightly chilled both front and back. The fans seem to be working at far higher speeds for the same temperature settings as before and they are pumping air through at a very high volume. The noise alone is irritating as it used to slow down when the car cooled. I have checked the unit with VAG-COM and no errors are reported and you can see the loads change in the readings when you turn the compressor on. If you turn the fans down manually, you can hear the usual hissing/slurping noises around the passenger dash/footwell area. This goes on for a bit after stopping the engine. The heating all works if I turn the climate control to a high temperature. The outside temperature gauge appears OK. The sunlight detector appears to increase the fan rate in strong sunshine. So there appears to be nothing wrong, but it just seems to lack its old cooling power and constantly running at high volumes of air /fan speeds. Any ideas?