Aircon Problems

[NikpV]

normally ghia comes with autochanger at least mkII does.

Should be able to fit the sony with a loom adapter

[raymac]

Just back from air con specialist and it's news i'm afraid ,the condenser is knackered and with fitting and vat 329.00 but the mazda dealer who sold me the car and also told me they had done the aircon after taking it back twice will be footing the bill had a chat with the manager and he said he will talk to the owner about giving us a discount for our forum, i'll keep you informed.

[sahar]

Mine was cool but not cold. So had it re-gassed and aircon serviced at specialist air con garage (not frauds). It now is cooler but still not cold I was expecting this model's air con to be ice cold. Is this a wrong assumption?

My previous car (3 months ago) was a honda accord...and the air con on that was so nice and cold that even on a blistering hot day when you breathed, the exhaled air sometimes formed a mist. If only I could have a galaxy with a Honda Air Con - sweet!

[jkspoff]

UNBELIEVABLE ! The hottest week of maybe the whole year, and guess what for the 3rd year in a row A/C has completely packed in. Had it regassed for 50 quid last month and after was blowing icy cold air. Now the climate control panel is flashing and no cold air............I've just about had enough of this repeated failure.
Booking it in for a full system check, fortunately I have a warranty that covers A/C, but I need to pay the 65 quid plus VAT for the investigative work. The only problem is if they find no problem with it then they will charge another 40 quid to regas it, making it over 100 quid.

[Triple Trouble]

My CC works sporadically at best but no flashing control panel. When it decides to play ball it is coooling but not 'freezing' and the air is definitely drier. When it throws a strop nothing but normal outside air comes though BUT I have noticed when driving a slight hesitancy from the engine every 5-10 seconds, and at idle this is pronounced as almost a judder through the car and a slight rumble. Anyone got any ideas please before I get the stealers to look at it?![size=3]

[mustie]

i have a 97 galaxy and i have no idea if my air con works or not theres no change it tempreture inside when i put it on ....

just something else to go wrong


how can i tell if its working or not blower motor i have on 2 tempreture dial is set to cold and push the air con button in ??

[Ogben Schmutzel]

Warning: Answering this survey with 'No problem' can cause sudden failure of your system!

Oggy.

[Guest 3.5bullet]

[quote name='mustie' post='67244' date='Jun 12 2006, 18:57:41']
how can i tell if its working or not? blower motor i have on 2 temperature dial is set to cold and push the air con button in ??
[/quote]



it's as you describe to operated the air con, if it all works? then the yellow light in the center of the knob should illuminate, you should hear a clunk from under the bonnet as the ac compressors clutch kicks in and you should be able to hear the radiator cooling fans kick in? and a little while later cold air should bow out of the vents? i take it that none of these are happening?

[Guest BagPuss]

[quote name='mustie' post='67244' date='Jun 12 2006, 18:57:41']
i have a 97 galaxy and i have no idea if my air con works or not theres no change it tempreture inside when i put it on ....

just something else to go wrong


how can i tell if its working or not blower motor i have on 2 tempreture dial is set to cold and push the air con button in ??
[/quote]

This is the problem we have.

AC Light is on, Recirc Light is on. No change in temperature.
Couldn't hear a clunk under the engine, even with the bonnet up.
Wondered if its been disconnected?

Is the AC Motor on the left under the Air Filter Box?

[jkspoff]

OK, thats it !!! as posted earlier, air con failure for the third time in 3 years, this time its big bucks, had it diagnosed at 2 garages, Ford have told me it needs a new compressor and a new condensor, even though it had a new compressor 18 months ago, total cost

[Andrew T]

How confident are you of the diagnosis of these garages ?

When I had similar problems the Galaxy went to a general garage who spent a day playing with it and then said they couldn't fix it, it then went to an aircon specialist who did the same and suggested I took it to a Ford dealer to get it diagnosed. The ford dealer asked for

[greg_68]

This thread is exactly the reason I will not be buying another Galaxy.

I have already spent

[Andrew T]

Yes I have to agree with you Greg, even Citroen, bloody crappy Citroen managed to make an AC system that lasted for 7 years in my Xantia without any attention, so it really shouldn't be beyond the wit of the alledged God Volkswagen.

Poor component quality is only part of the issue though, the seeming inability of Garages to identify and resolve problems correctly causes huge problems for customers. In my case several hundred

[seatkid]

Just look at the number of views on this thread!

Its a pity this poll can't be updated as I'm sure most of those that voted "no problem" at first now have suffered the same fate as others....At a guess I would say that >90% of owners have major problems with their aircon after 3 years or have suffered major cost.

The design is faulty in many ways including (but not limited to)
- incorrect or very poor quality materials used - should aluminium pipes corrode/split? - are they wrong spec or finish?
- undersized capacity - even when it works, its not very effective
- incredibly service-unfriendly - changing an evaporator or even the pipework is a nightmare
- evidently there is no workshop procedure for fault finding either....leaving us open to being "ripped off" by dealers who haven't a clue...

There are advocates of the "regular servicing" mantra but my experience shows (to me) that dealers are very good at breaking things that were previously OK (and charging you for it)

IMO VW have a well known habit of steadfastly refusing to admit a problem even when presented with overwhelming evidence. I don't know about Ford, but do recall that in the Cortina/Sierra days they wouldnt change the design of known weak items (e.g. bushes etc).

With the old Shalaxy being a "joint" venture I think we possibly have the worst of all worlds with regard to design faults - unless its a safety issue it won't ever get fixed. But thats history now that Ford and VW have gone their seperate ways.....

The only issues I have had are the a/c and regular suspension failures (ARB links and tie rod ends every 30,000 miles) - otherwise its been the most reliable car I've ever owned - 8 years/70,000 miles - and it averages 52mpg (mixed motoring,ave speed 40mph, last 3000 miles) which makes it more economical fuel wise that my little Skoda Fabia 1.2 (isnt that silly?)

but I don't think I'll be buying another.....

[Andrew T]

I was under the impression that the design work was entirely done by VW and then productionised by Ford. Certainly a lot of components are recogisable as generic VW parts.

[jkspoff]

Well, here goes again, the Galaxy is off into the garage again tomorrow for air con diagnostics and hopefully full repair of the system for the third time in as many years. Fortunately my third party warranty will be taking the brunt of the cost, but I have absolutely no confidence in any garage to diagnose and repair long term the galaxy air conditioning system. I have to use a network garage as the warranty company won't pay dealer prices. Anyway, I should only need to pay 20 quid excess all being well. At least if it lasts another few years then it'll be worth it. I can't understand how it can be so difficult to reliably repair, there appears to be a leak in the system, diagnosed by Ford as the condensor, but this seems to have a knock on effect with the rest of the system faulting, through seized compressor etc.

Warranty company insists that repairing garage must provide a 12 month warranty on all work carried out, so that means a years worth of cold air at least !

If it makes anyone more comfortable in the thought that apparently the most unreliable part of any average family car is firstly the electrical system and secondly the air conditioning system if fitted, according to a recent reliability survey. So maybe its not just us VW, SEAT and Ford Galaxy owners that are suffering !

Nearly 12,000 views for this post, now that must say something about this vehicles A/C !!

[jkspoff]

Check out this web site for a guide on how air con works, and a list of common faults from different manufacturers.

[url="http://www.bba-reman.com/content.aspx?content=aircon_compressors_controllers_condensors_exchangers_driers_evaporators"]http://www.bba-reman.com/content.aspx?cont...ers_evaporators[/url]

[tim-spam]

Aircon systems on most cars are notorious - the Japanese are the best (no surprise there), but even they have problems. However, the Japanese have been clever enough to make most of the major parts easily accessible. For example, to change the evaporator on most European cars requires virtually the whole dashboard to be removed, whereas on the average Japanese car the evaporator is very much easier to access.

The main problem with aircon on the Sharan / Alhambra / Galaxy is the inability of the dealers either to understand the system, or to fix it properly. This leads the initial problem to become much worse each time they fiddle - if they fixed things properly in the first place, the vast majority of the problems experienced would never happen.

There are also some things we can do - for example, if (when?) the system gets less effective, switch it off and don't use it until it is repaired. If the refrigerant has leaked out, some of the oil will probably have leaked out as well, and if you continue to use the system, the compressor may fail. The most common problem with dealers is that they open the system up to repair something, and do not replace the drier. This then leads to moisture in the system, followed by ice particles, followed by compressor failure. So again, if the dealer is repairing something, insist on a new drier, and demand to see the evidence.

Of course, you shouldn't have to do this - at the money they charge, they should be competent, but most experience tells us otherwise.

[graemer]

My Galaxy is now 5 years old - air compressor clutch has failed. Compressor was starting to give some problems so a new one it is . According to my A/C guy this is not bad for 80,000 miles. Still very disappointing and bl??dy expensive.

[jkspoff]

OK, update on my A/C repair, condensor has now been replaced, but now they say the pressure switch has gone, so part on order as none in stock anywhere local, should be tomorrow. Anyone know anything about pressure switches ? Apparently it sits on one of the pipes leading to the compressor, known to Ford parts as a solenoid switch. It is showing up as a fault code, the compressor is switching on but then straight off again because of it. So another day with Gal in garage. Switch is

[Masked Marauder]

There are two IIRC, one for over pressure and one for under.

[Guest BagPuss]

Finally gonna put mine into the Garage.
Found a little garage in a village on the way to work,

[jkspoff]

[quote name='Masked Marauder' post='69093' date='Jun 29 2006, 15:34:00']
There are two IIRC, one for over pressure and one for under.
[/quote]

Lets hope they have ordered the right one then !

Why would this part fail anyway ? Surely its doing now what its supposed to do........unless its shutting off incorrectly, I always have my doubts when it comes to garages, I don't know why !!

[jkspoff]

[quote name='BagPuss' post='69095' date='Jun 29 2006, 15:42:20']
Finally gonna put mine into the Garage.
Found a little garage in a village on the way to work,

[greg_68]

[quote name='jkspoff' post='69135' date='Jun 30 2006, 09:30:33']
[quote name='BagPuss' post='69095' date='Jun 29 2006, 15:42:20']
Finally gonna put mine into the Garage.
Found a little garage in a village on the way to work,