AC Failure

[GadgetGav]

As of Friday, my AC has stopped working. The lights in the AC or Max AC buttons still light up and the fan still runs in auto as if it was trying to cool the car but only ambient air is coming out of the vents.
Could it be a fuse for the heat pump that's the problem? If so, does anyone know which fuse that would be? I looked in the manual and it tells you how to open the two fuse locations and how to tell a blown fuse, but as far as I can see, there is no plan of which circuit is controlled by which fuse. Have manufacturers stopped doing this because there are typically a lot of options on cars these days? I pulled and checked most of the fuses in the compartment under the hood, but I didn't try any in the knee bolster area by the steering wheel. Partly because I was thinking logically it would be up front and partly because the access there is tight and it's really hot today (did I mention I've got no AC? :roll: )

If anyone can point me to the fuse to check or a map of all the fuses, that would be great. Otherwise it's going to have to be a trip to the dealer for what might be a 2 min fix.

 

[GadgetGav]

As an aside, I noticed that turning Max AC off instantly added 10 miles to the estimated range

 

[miimura]

There is at least one service bulletin for the heat pump and A/C system. If you have not had the car looked at for this reason since March, it may be a firmware related fix, not hardware.

 

[GadgetGav]

Thanks... I guess it's a trip to the dealership for me.
Does anyone know if I'm obliged to go back to the dealer I leased the car from, or can I take it anywhere?

 

[miimura]

Thanks... I guess it's a trip to the dealership for me.
Does anyone know if I'm obliged to go back to the dealer I leased the car from, or can I take it anywhere?

I would feel comfortable taking it anywhere that sells new e-Golfs.

 

[Unbeliever]

TSB 2040184

http://www.myvwegolf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=342

 

[GadgetGav]

Thanks Unbeliever, I'll call the local dealer today and see if I can get it checked at the weekend.
Why do they send out letters over stupid things like information stickers being missing or wrong, but don't send out letters for things like this which could affect people any and every day..? Stupid bureaucracy!

 

[oregongolfer]

In case they forget to check the simple things first....

Low pressure on refrigerant or a faulty low pressure sensor for the same will prevent the ac compressor froom engaging. The last time I had ac issues on a vehicle it was the latter.

Jeff

 

[GadgetGav]

I'm taking it in on Friday and they can sort it all out. I'll get them to apply the latest sticker update too :roll:

 

[gusguida]

I'm having A/C issues for a while and I'm bringing my eGolf for the 3rd time to have its A/C fixed. The first time the dealership said they added more freon. The second time was the mentioned software upgrade. Anyway, for both cases the A/C worked for about a month until stopped to cool at all. I'll post here after I get my car back this time.

Hope my car is not a lemon.

 

[GadgetGav]

I just picked up the car after it spent two days in the shop. The dealer doesn't have a lot of experience with the e-Golf yet, so they were on the phone with VW Tech support to try to figure it out.
The dealer told me that it wasn't only the AC that wasn't working, but the heating as well. I hadn't noticed because it's been in the 90s around here, so there was no way to know if the heating was working or not. The temperature display, the AC indicators and fan / auto controls all appeared to be working too, so there wasn't really any way I could tell the extent of the problem.
The explanation of the fix was that it had gone into some kind of energy saving mode which had shut down AC and heat. Although this sounded a lot like the restrictions in Eco+ mode, they told me that the only way to reset it was to bring it in to the dealer. They asked if I had ever run the battery pack right down, which I haven't, but beyond that they couldn't really guess as to why it had happened.

I'm not sure I buy their description of the energy saving mode. Why would there be a non-resettable energy saving setting that only affected the heat & AC? The traction motor must put way more strain on the battery pack than the heat pump does so how does (semi) permanently disabling the climate control protect the battery?

One other issue; as I pulled out of the dealership and pressed the throttle, there was no response from the car, it seemed to 'bog down' like it was an ICE car in the wrong gear. It corrected itself after an instant and didn't happen again on the way home, but I wonder what they did to reset the heating...

 

[Frank3]

As I've been following this post, my A/C also went out (with temperatures hitting triple digits!). Brought it into the dealer and they applied the TSB as well as putting on a new sticker. Car seems to be working fine now. While they were checking the car, they found that the 12v battery control module was faulty (whatever that is). They've ordered a new one and I'll be bringing car back next week for that work. Oh well, these seem to be the kinds of things that happen with new model cars.

 

[GadgetGav]

That's interesting Frank3, maybe I'll follow up with them and see if they checked the 12V battery control module. Something must have told the climate control to shut down and since I didn't drain the main pack, it could happen again.