UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

My instincts have been telling me that the air conditioning is not running very cold and the recent hot weather confirmed that. Running on full and feeling like you wish you were a bit colder. The Mrs tells me it’s fine but her Citygo in the same weather was more enjoyable and yesterday I was out in my old 911 (admittedly I changed the air con rads and had it regassed a year or two ago) and had to turn it up temp wise and of my feet to stop them freezing!

Anyone else experienced this please?

One of my fellow country man has similar issues, VW denying it's their fault:
https://youtu.be/BJT3iXvkChk?t=452

OomStu_ZA wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:17 pm One of my fellow country man has similar issues, VW denying it's their fault:
https://youtu.be/BJT3iXvkChk?t=452

Surely this is a warranty issue.

Interesting that the last post says, "surely this is a warranty issue" I checked the car for obvious holes in the two radiators behind the front spoiler and they look fine, so booked it in for a check-up with VW.

VW want the car for a day and I told them I was not happy with that as I didn't want to get there and them have them tell me it needs to be booked in for any remedial work. The service team said, "no need, we will price the work up required and phone you up to agree to the charges so we can do the work before you collect it". I politely told them it was less than a year old, with 3000 miles on the clock and there would be no charges" They then said, fair enough, it shouldn't need re-gassing yet and I can't help thinking they probably would have tried charging for a re-gas!

KayakerPaul wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:22 pm

OomStu_ZA wrote: ↑Sun Jul 31, 2022 10:17 pm One of my fellow country man has similar issues, VW denying it's their fault:
https://youtu.be/BJT3iXvkChk?t=452

Surely this is a warranty issue.

One would think but they tried every tactic to make it the owners problem. That said, when he sold the car it became VW's problem to resolve at their expense.

We have a digital cooking thermometer and I have been out in the polo and the 911 with air conditioning on full and the thermometer in the central vent. Polo 7-9 degrees on a cloudy day. Old 911 5.1-5.2 in hot sun!

Update and a good one.
A totally charming young lady on service front desk, wearing her summer dress, took the key on arrival at the dealer this morning and came back 20 minutes later to tell me the aircon was freezing when she sat in the car. It was 17 degrees outside at 8 and she then told me a service agent had also checked it and it was within tolerance on the temp gauge they use to test.
After me telling them it wasn’t fine when it was hot, said service agent appeared and fortunately I knew him. It was one of the guys from a local TVR specialist who had looked after my TVRs for over 10 years.
He was great and after a quick catch up and my insistence that all was not well, he offered to check the coolant quantity and it was about 10% down. I also reported that the recirculate button was intermittent and after an hour the car re appeared, fully valeted and with freezing cold air con. Also, the recirculate button working all of the time apart from on the screen only setting, which I believe is correct?

Driving home, it was a bit warmer outside and much improved inside the car. Acid test, was my good lady wife mid afternoon when it was mid 30s and she had to turn the air con down to lowest settings!

Hopefully, it stays like this…

I've always thought the Air Con temp in my 19 plate GTI wasn't as cold as it should be. Living in the UK it's not always needed, this time of year with the heatwave is making me want to get it checked out. However, the warranty is up on my car and I have no idea if VW would cover it now. Maybe it needs a re-gas.

Would have gone for the extended warranty but VW said the car can't have ANY mods (mine only has external mods) so that was a no go.

S_94 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 10, 2022 11:10 pm I've always thought the Air Con temp in my 19 plate GTI wasn't as cold as it should be. Living in the UK it's not always needed, this time of year with the heatwave is making me want to get it checked out. However, the warranty is up on my car and I have no idea if VW would cover it now. Maybe it needs a re-gas.

Would have gone for the extended warranty but VW said the car can't have ANY mods (mine only has external mods) so that was a no go.

The air con in my current (and previous) Polo GTI isn’t as effective as it was in my mk6 Golf GTD - in that car it used to get icy cold and I’ve never experienced icy cold in either Polo.

It’s possible that with your car being three years old, it may have lost some of the refrigerant gas over time. So if the air con’s still working but isn’t as cold as it should be then it could benefit from a re-gas, which is unlikely to have been covered under warranty.

I’ll be using my car later today - amber heat warning where I live with temperatures expected to reach upper 20’s / low 30’s - so I’ll see how the air con performs in those temperatures and report back to the forum.

Will definitely consider a re-gas soon, this heatwave (again) is driving me crazy.

S_94 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 11, 2022 12:27 pm Will definitely consider a re-gas soon, this heatwave (again) is driving me crazy.

Just done a 30 mile journey in around 28 / 29 degrees of heat and full sunshine. The air con coped OK but I had it turned to quite a low temperature (manual air con with the dial turned to roughly what would be the 8 on a clock face). It kept me cool enough but I’d say it was ‘adequate’ rather than very good.

Popped out today and it was nice and warm outside. The last time like this, I had the air conditioning on full, recycle wasn’t working properly and I was not comfortable. Today, like a different car. Fan on 1, no recycle and the car was a lovely temperature. Sat in traffic in the sun and fan up to 2 or recycle on until moving.

My feeling is that it was not fully pressurised from new, which is a win win for VW and it’s agents. Save 10% on fluids and the dealer can charge for an air con service on 1st service.

SRGTD wrote: ↑Thu Aug 11, 2022 4:59 pm

S_94 wrote: ↑Thu Aug 11, 2022 12:27 pm Will definitely consider a re-gas soon, this heatwave (again) is driving me crazy.

Just done a 30 mile journey in around 28 / 29 degrees of heat and full sunshine. The air con coped OK but I had it turned to quite a low temperature (manual air con with the dial turned to roughly what would be the 8 on a clock face). It kept me cool enough but I’d say it was ‘adequate’ rather than very good.

You've taken the words out of my mouth there SRGTD. Adequate sums up the air-con pretty accurately for me too.

We went away in the car this weekend and the air con was freezing! Night and day difference which shouldn’t really happen with a new car! Amazing mpg on the motorway as well!