Intermittent Air Con Fault

[Cobstar]

A few weeks ago I switched the Air Con on and nothing happened. No lights on the Air Con or Recycle buttons and it definitely wasn't working. Mentally added it to the list of things to do. Switched the Air Con on next day and it worked :confused:

It's been fine again up until this morning. Went out this morning, early and it was still quite frosty. Bet the neighbours love to be woken by the sound of someone scraping ice off car windows just after 5 am. Found the Air Con wasn't working again. An hour later when I started the car again, the air conditioning was working. Any ideas as to what the problem is?

[Michel]

I have had similar problems on very cold mornings...

My guess is that if you leave the a/c and recirc 'off' when you switch the car off in the evening there is a possibility that some of the valves will be frozen shut first thing.

After a while it will defrost and 'work'.....

Any other ideas?

[The Spanish]

My A/C doesn't work on cold mornings just after starting the car, but this is normal.
It disengages automaticly.

When car warms up a little it will start to work.
If you look closely on the Screen while pressing the A/C bottom you will see a flash of the A/C symbol going on/off very fast.

One question though, why will you turn on the A/C when windows are froze on winter at 5am? :confused:

Rafael

[s2driveruk]

i *think* that it is designed not to work below a certain temperature...something like 5 deg c?

Anyone confirm....

David

[Cobstar]

Well that's a relief to find it's normal for the S2/RS2s. Never noticed this problem on the only other car I've owned that had air conditioning.

Use a good old fashioned scrape to clear the ice from the outside of the windscreen but then normally end up with mist on the inside when engine starts and being lazy prefer to use the Air Con to dehumidify. It was around 4 to 5 degrees C when I went to work and AC worked, so may well have been colder first time I took car out this morning. Think it was probably a cold day last time too.

You live and learn. Thanks for the advice guys.

[Michel]

Couple of answers....

The Spanish,, I don't think we have the CLimate COntrol system your car has with a screen. We have the manual version which does not tell us much...

Secondly, on cold mornings using the a/c does two things....a) it heats up the car quicker than using the hester.. at least on mime it takes few minutes moving thro traffic before I get seriuos heat to come out.

b) Defogs the car much better on a/c than without.

The answer of course is not to get up at all on cold mornings but to stay home and surf.......

[s2driveruk]

was definately just about 0 deg this morning where i live and mine wouldn't fire up - will check at lunchtime and I am 99.9% certain it will stir - if not, um, er, ah sh*t might be a problem

Cheers,

David

[dan_b]

Yep - the manual aircon system is designed not to switch on and refrigirate the air when the ambient temperature is low - near 3C or something like that (not sure of exact figure as my car doesn't have external temperature indicator). I guess there's no point as the air is so cold outside anyway?

However, leave the AC button in as it'll come on eventually - say if you're in traffic, the heat soak will confuse the system, and you'll be wanting dry heat to defog/deice the car.

[Martynf]

Guys + Gals the temp is 5 C, anything below that and AC will not turn on. It's designed not to operate below 5C, that's the way Audi designed it.

M

[Michel]

Opps..

Then I'm a little perplexed as mine does light up and work..on recirc when the external temp display says +4 and there is * on the display as well..

Or is it that it won't start to work is it 5 or below?

[Stick Insect]

Friodges and Ford screens

There is a known problem with fridges and freezers not working in cold weather. The inside of the fridge is warmer than the outside ambient temperature. So the fridge is trying to stay warmer on the inside than it is on the outside. Modern fridges have 2 settings, warm room amd cold room.

The best thing about my mondeo is the heated screen, I'll miss it when the Coupe is back on the road....... not much else tho'

[Martynf]

Michel it may well light up, but the * symbol in the dash display is the indicator that the outside air temp is low and the AC will not function. The re circ lighting up only means the outside our flaps are now shut and not drawing in fresh air from outside.

Martyn