Aircon Problems

[Guest paule230]

Dealer says to let him know of out come. Told him I will pay for testing and re-gassing (that way I know its been done correctly).

Will let you know of out come

[Guest paule230]

Well had my re-gas. I can only highly recomend the company . The man that came round explained everything he was doing and why he was doing it. My air is now lovely and chilled.

Total cost was

[Guest alan]

2003 seat 130tdi se

digtal a/c failed ..don't know why...nothing obvious under bonnet
thought it probably sensor problem or perhaps fuse

seat dealership came up trumps ..replaced pump, condenser and other parts foc

very pleased with service as i did not have dealer service history...but had serviced the car my self with all parts purchased from dealership.

when asked why they had replaced all these items hey said that all the items replaced had been superceeded and woul;d have probably given a problem later

[rwtomkins]

That link is for Air Con John, I believe. He's been recommended before on this site. Good to know he's still around - I'm wondering how soon I'm going to need him!

[Guest airconman]

Hi all,
There seems to be some severe dissatisfaction with the Galaxy Air Con system from members of this site. First of all let me say I do own a 2.3 Gal. and I'm not just here touting for business.
I run a Mobile Vehicle Air Conditioning business down on the south coast and from my experience the Galaxy system is no worse in any way than many other makes of car. In fact it is a far better system than some of the so called " up market " marques. One of the major problems I come across has nothing to do with the vehicle at all but is directly the fault of the main dealer mechanics who mis-diagnose faults, over charge for parts and labour and give the customer nothing but a load of drivell because they have not got a clue what is going on with the system. Knowing how to fit a compresssor is one thing but knowing what is happening at all points in the system is another.
Vehicle systems will loose a certain amount of refrigerant over time, mainly because it has flexible hoses fitted in the system and the wall make up of these hoses are not 100% leak free. The other main reason for a system loosing its charge is us! If the system is not run on a regular basis the oil in the system does not get circulated with the refrigerant and the system seals dry out and leak - particularly the compressor shaft seal. The majority of systems once proven leak free can simply be vacuum de-hydrated and re-charged with some system oil replaced in the process.
As a guide I charge

[maghouse]

Airconman - thanks for the information - sure the other members appreciate your comments. I see you are in the Pompey area - if I may - I will keep your number but hopefully I will never need to use it (in the nicest possible way) I guess you carry out all Aircon work ?
Rob (Pompey)

[GSMGuy]

Cheers Aircon man, don't suppose you have a reliable contact in the NW, brother is having probs with his A...


Mike

[Guest paultdise115]

I have had pretty much the same experience as most people here.

Bought a used Alhambra from a non-Seat franchise, it was needing a re-gas (flashing display).

Took it to Seat for the re-gas. They diagnosed a leaking dryer and replaced it and re-gassed the system at

[Guest MATT]

if she was told to do that then OK - just telling off for posting the keys in the wrong letter box.

If she did it all on her own - then she wants firing.

and for the phone incident - that would put a capital F on the word 'Firing'

all well - life has its problems.

including an

[Guest catteeclan]

Good info hear chaps.

Got a Sharan tdi. After 1 1/2 years noticed the air con wasn't cooling as good as it was. Had it topped up and all was well for a short while.
Now I have no air con and a strange smell in the cab. I've no doubt the evaporator's leaking, huge job, big money. Not looking forward to the summer.

Be riding the bike alot more though.

[seatkid]

How do those people say [i]all aircon systems leak[/i] explain how a bit of aluminium piping with wings springs a leak at 3 years old?

Some say its [i]to be expected[/i], I say its p**s poor quality.

At least I'm not the only one with problems, and it seems the a/c quality issues are as bad as ever irregardless of age of vehicle....

I suspect some people who voted No or partial failure some time ago would now be voting Full failure. So poll results are now likely to be biased.....

[Ivor]

Is this a total failure?...

Mine's had 3 compressors, 1 evaporator and 1 condenser, 5 recharges, all under warranty , the fault was eventually found as a leak in the evaporator which was the last thing replaced. They also overcharged the gas on one occasion, causing the compressor to almost stall the engine on idle due to overpressure each time it engaged the clutch. I had to switch to "econony" to turn it off so it didn't get damaged and take ages explaining what was happening before they agreed.

A year after it was finally fixed, on a bright sunny day as the sun was shining through the front grill, I noticed what a botch up they had done with the condenser radiator. We are talking top price main dealer here. In order to replace the condenser radiator, they appear to have used a hammer and chisel to hack out gaps in the vertical struts so the lugs of the radiator would fit in/out so they didn't have to remove the struts. AND, one of the sides isn't even bolted on. They seem to be made out of a composite fibre material and it's all frayed where they hacked at it. I complained at the next service and got them to look at it. When I went to collect it, they said the service manager was on holiday, but a mechanic has had a look at it and it is "safe". Gee whiz.

I'll post a photo when I get around to it, but if you have had your condenser radiator replaced, I suggest you have a look at the mounting lugs.

[Guest Dunny]

[quote]Mine's had 3 compressors, 1 evaporator and 1 condenser, 5 recharges, all under warranty , the fault was eventually found as a leak in the evaporator which was the last thing replaced[/quote]

There doesn't seem to be any incentive for the dealer to troubleshoot these faults correctly. Anyone can change components randomly in some vague hope of fixing the fault.

Dealers really give me the hump (specially after they bent one of my sills this week )

[gazza007]

They love trying everything rather than looking for the obvious cause.
Lets face it they get paid for warranty work by the manufacturers.

[Guest mashbury]

Evaporator failure diagnosed in autumn 2001. Was quoted

[Ivor_E_Tower]

[quote name='mashbury' date='Mar 15 2005, 22:33:21'] Why have they designed it so you can't have cold air on your face and warm air on your feet? All you can get is the same air temp out of all vents. [/quote]
Current thinking is that you shouldn't have blasts of air at all, the air should be diffused into the cabin and be the same temperature everywhere. So no warm feel, cold face any more. Shame

[Rallim]

My A/C wasn't working when I bought the car last year from Arnold Clark. Arnold Clark said they would have it straight back and fix it... just needs regassing they said... uhuh... . It took 2 months to get it sorted out with it going back several times to an a/c garage, and finally for 2.5 weeks at VW. Turned out to be the outside air temperature sensor was faulty and thus wouldnt let the A/C turn on. I now doubt if it really went to VW, as Arnold Clark seem quite often 'a stranger to the truth', like telling me when I was having turbo trouble that the VW dealer equipment couldnt talk to my car (a VW sharan) as it had a Seat ECU.... and so they would get one of their garages to look at it. I came across the sensor when looking to fitting foglamps and it was hung off its clip attached by a cable tie with electricians tape wrapped round it... doesn't look like the work of a dealer... and to add further woes they lost my engine tray whilst fixing it!

Gordon.

[Guest FlyingDutchMan]

Firstly the system was empty and it was regassed plus all hoses checked on my 115PD. After a week, the compressor had to be changed after a mysterious leak made it loose all the gas. It was all done under warrenty (despite European import) and the garage did s good job (Platts of Marlow are quite good actually). After that had the system checked over by a friend who is an aircon specialist and it worked perfectly getting down to 4 celsius.

[oioisavaloy]

Evaporator leak, Dash out 8 Hours, New evaporator, gased, now working a treat.
Its beyond me that I had to take the dash out to get to a piece of "muck" metal.

Sav.

[deadpool2e]

Had it re gased after flshing dash. aircon said still not working nead a new compresser,but is giveing it a week as the regas may lub the compresser into working?

[deadpool2e]

had new compresser fitted but panal is still flashing, so i went to fords and asked if they could reset it for me. they told me it was coming up resurc valve malfunction?? and this is behind the dash. anyone know a easy way to fix it?

[Guest akneeshaw]

I had what i thought was a rather complicated problem with the aircon which I reported on the forum last July.

Well I didn't get it fixed straight away - but you'll see from the July notes that the Coventry Main dealer Allen ford were a joke when I asked them to look at it.

Recently, a local firm called VRS in Coventry was recommended as someone who could deal with such things.

As MOT time came round I booked the car in with them, and in passing I mentioned the air con. Coincidently, on the morning I took the car in, it decided it wasn't going to idle at less them 3000rpm and became almost un-driveable - so that was an additional problem they had to deal with.

So they fixed the idle problem - some blocked fuel jet they said. Did the MOT and traced the air-con problem to to wiring fault beside the dash - regassed the system and it worked, All for the princely sum of

[NedKelly]

It's pity Ford didn't join forces with Honda or Toyota when first designing the Galaxy, i've had a Toyota from new for 8 years and never had a single prob (and the air-con still works a treat).

Must admit though for all it's faults/quirks i still love my Gal.

[Guest cjsgasman]

air con light comes on on switch but fan wont run have been told to take to auto electrician which sounds expensive checked three fuses under dash all ok, any help would be usefull also wiper linkage seized

[Guest b_sharp]

I have a '99 1.9tdi
My Climate control has worked for three weeks since buying the car, but since the weekend - I have the 'flashing control panel' on startup. The cold air seems intermittent. What do I do next anyone ? Is my climate control up the spout ?
Help !