Hi Folks,
I've a VW POLO V HATCHBACK (6R1, 6C1) 1.0 PETROL which has just had it's compressor and condensor replaced at some expense. After the garage re-gassed it, we noticed a hissing sound coming from the left hand side air vent and of course the air isn't cooled. The garage tells us this is a leak and in order to fix this, they would need to take the whole dashboard out - quoted about £1000 to do this. Is there another way around this - i.e. should I try some air con sealant or would you suspect that the leak is too large for this to fix - or are there any other ideas please?
(I'm new to the forum so apologies if I have posted in the wrong place. I did check for air con leaks relevant to the MK8/MK9 on the form before posting)
If anyone has any ideas I'd be grateful thanks.
Air Con leak
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RUM4MO
- Bling Bling Diamond Member
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Re: Air Con leak
Hi, you have the correct part of this forum!
That is very bad news, I wonder how they checked all the parts they replaced or just guessed, put it this way, you would need to be extremely unfortunate to have had an AC system that had a failed compressor, condenser AND evaporator - I would not waste my time buying lottery tickets if I were you, at least until your luck has changed!.
Anyway, my wife's 2015 Polo 1.2TSI SEL has over time lost too much of its gas, and I can't find any "engine bay area" leaks using my sniffer, so I'm a bit worried about also having evaporator problems!
There is no point in wasting time using leak sealer, VW Group, it seems did not try too hard when sourcing a supplier of evaporators, well at least for the 6C Polo, so I'd think a lot of people owning Polo/Fabia/Ibiza/A2 will end up having this issue, and that is shocking!
That is very bad news, I wonder how they checked all the parts they replaced or just guessed, put it this way, you would need to be extremely unfortunate to have had an AC system that had a failed compressor, condenser AND evaporator - I would not waste my time buying lottery tickets if I were you, at least until your luck has changed!.
Anyway, my wife's 2015 Polo 1.2TSI SEL has over time lost too much of its gas, and I can't find any "engine bay area" leaks using my sniffer, so I'm a bit worried about also having evaporator problems!
There is no point in wasting time using leak sealer, VW Group, it seems did not try too hard when sourcing a supplier of evaporators, well at least for the 6C Polo, so I'd think a lot of people owning Polo/Fabia/Ibiza/A2 will end up having this issue, and that is shocking!
Re: Air Con leak
My wife's Polo (1.2 BMT 2017) had the aircon serviced by a VW dealer about 18 mths ago. They cleaned the chiller in August as part of a service add-on. The car driven very few miles (we're in lockdown, using one car most of the time) and only to keep it "ticking over" - maybe 40 miles? There has been a constant hissing from the air con since the service and after a longer run this week I took it to the garage. They have reported that the gas is much lower than they'd expect (that was yesterday) and this morning that there is a hole in the compressor, probably caused by a stone kicking up off the road. I have two questions for any expert out there:
1) is the compressor really that exposed that it is likely to be damaged by a stone? If so, there must be thousands of them out there as this is a seriously low miler!
2) is it likely that the compressor is exposed and could be "dinged" during service? This seems most likely to me as failures tend to follow maintenance . . . .
Thoughts would be appreciated while we wait to hear what VW will do for the dealer on this one . . .
Thank you.
1) is the compressor really that exposed that it is likely to be damaged by a stone? If so, there must be thousands of them out there as this is a seriously low miler!
2) is it likely that the compressor is exposed and could be "dinged" during service? This seems most likely to me as failures tend to follow maintenance . . . .
Thoughts would be appreciated while we wait to hear what VW will do for the dealer on this one . . .
Thank you.
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Andy Beats
- Bling Bling Diamond Member
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Re: Air Con leak
If you doubt the integrity of the dealer, and who wouldn't in your scenario as it seems like a big coincidence, an independent aircon specialist won't charge a huge sum to reverse pressurise the system with a dye that exposes leaks.McQ2 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 3:20 pm My wife's Polo (1.2 BMT 2017) had the aircon serviced by a VW dealer about 18 mths ago. They cleaned the chiller in August as part of a service add-on. The car driven very few miles (we're in lockdown, using one car most of the time) and only to keep it "ticking over" - maybe 40 miles? There has been a constant hissing from the air con since the service and after a longer run this week I took it to the garage. They have reported that the gas is much lower than they'd expect (that was yesterday) and this morning that there is a hole in the compressor, probably caused by a stone kicking up off the road. I have two questions for any expert out there:
1) is the compressor really that exposed that it is likely to be damaged by a stone? If so, there must be thousands of them out there as this is a seriously low miler!
2) is it likely that the compressor is exposed and could be "dinged" during service? This seems most likely to me as failures tend to follow maintenance . . . .
Thoughts would be appreciated while we wait to hear what VW will do for the dealer on this one . . .
Thank you.
Re: Air Con leak
I wouldn't expect that a 'compressor' can be holed -- you may mean the 'Condenser' (Radiator looking thingy)
On many cars this is fitted at the front, low down and therefore prone to getting holed by stones etc
Does seem bit of a coincidence though.....
Some info in this link -- https://www.pellonautocentre.com/air-con/
On many cars this is fitted at the front, low down and therefore prone to getting holed by stones etc
Does seem bit of a coincidence though.....
Some info in this link -- https://www.pellonautocentre.com/air-con/
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RUM4MO
- Bling Bling Diamond Member
- Posts: 5881
- Joined: Sat Dec 30, 2006 9:12 pm
- Drives: B8 S4 & 6R/6C1 1.2TSI 110
- Location: Mid Lothian
Re: Air Con leak
Since I posted earlier this year, I handed my wife's August 2015 Polo in to a tyre chain place and they refilled it, they would have carried this out using their automated R134A charging rig, so there will not have been too big a leak as if so they would not have refilled it.
After that, the AC worked well and my plan was to, on a hot summer's day, run that system and try to sniff all areas using using my proper pumped sniffer and so find where the leak was. Well was a good plan, but when I next got round to checking the system high side pressure using VCDS, maybe 3 months later, once again it had lost most of its charge and so could not be run.
I have a horrible idea that it is not the condenser that has suffered road stone damage, but the evaporator which is inside the car and is probably due to sever poor manufacture! So for me, that will need to wait until next summer and another good deal on recharging, last cost was £39, very soon after getting that done I will run the system for an extended period and then sniff for R134A being present in the cabin air outlets.
Edit:- I'm sure that I sniffed about under the bonnet, ie around the compressor pulley as at one point there was signs of some "oil" being thrown out onto a maybe engine coolant hose, also I sniffed around the condenser and did not find any signs of R134A leaking anywhere.
Another Edit:- I've discovered that I did actually give my wife's 2015 Polo a good going over with a pumped sniffer the day after it was recharged, and found nothing, also checking running pressure final vent outlet temperature and evaporator temperature, though I don't think that I sniffed the cabin air vents while running the chiller, a major fail on my part as I'm back to where I was when this car originally started logged low pressure faults I must try harder!!
After that, the AC worked well and my plan was to, on a hot summer's day, run that system and try to sniff all areas using using my proper pumped sniffer and so find where the leak was. Well was a good plan, but when I next got round to checking the system high side pressure using VCDS, maybe 3 months later, once again it had lost most of its charge and so could not be run.
I have a horrible idea that it is not the condenser that has suffered road stone damage, but the evaporator which is inside the car and is probably due to sever poor manufacture! So for me, that will need to wait until next summer and another good deal on recharging, last cost was £39, very soon after getting that done I will run the system for an extended period and then sniff for R134A being present in the cabin air outlets.
Edit:- I'm sure that I sniffed about under the bonnet, ie around the compressor pulley as at one point there was signs of some "oil" being thrown out onto a maybe engine coolant hose, also I sniffed around the condenser and did not find any signs of R134A leaking anywhere.
Another Edit:- I've discovered that I did actually give my wife's 2015 Polo a good going over with a pumped sniffer the day after it was recharged, and found nothing, also checking running pressure final vent outlet temperature and evaporator temperature, though I don't think that I sniffed the cabin air vents while running the chiller, a major fail on my part as I'm back to where I was when this car originally started logged low pressure faults I must try harder!!