UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi, I am new on this forum and need some expert advice please. I have a VW Polo 1.2 Match and so pleased with this car, it's my first VW and can't believe the power that a small engine has compared to other makes. I have a problem with the air conditioning not working. I first took the car to Halfords to be regassed, they said the compressor wasn't working and I would need a new one. They quoted £850 therefore I took my car to my local garage who fitted a new one for a quarter of the price. Unfortunately the air conditioning still didn't work so my garage fitted another compressor which again did not work. I took my car to a VW dealership and paid over the odds for 3 hours labour just to be told the compressor isn't working. I took it back to my garage and they fitted another compressor which again did not work. All the wiring has been checked and all ok too. Does anyone please have any advice. I am now feeling very frustrated and paid out so much for this so need a quick cheap solution. Does anyone know who would be able to fix this that have VW knowledge on AC. Thanks

If I was in your position, having paid the VW dealership to resolve the problem then I would insist they get it back to VW standard performance. It may well be they need o call in a mobile a/c specialist but you have entrusted the car to them and it's up to them how they sort it. How old is your car?

i think a proper diagnosis is first required. is the compressor really the problem? maybe a wiring issue? maybe a leak? maybe the control unit is defective?

iichel wrote: Fri Sep 08, 2017 10:05 am i think a proper diagnosis is first required. is the compressor really the problem? maybe a wiring issue? maybe a leak? maybe the control unit is defective?

This is a very very sad story, and it should not have happened, unfortunately your first garage probably just got it wrong and gave you a wrong diagnosis which you then carried forward to the next garage to work to your instruction as opposed to asking them to start from the beginning - and on and on it went!

As iichel said above, start again and this time get a proper and competent workshop to sort this out, or, forget about having AC and put it down to being a very bad/nasty experience of how not to approach these problems.

Don't get me wrong, I have handed a car in to get repaired and I knew what was wrong with it and I requested that the garage worked to my instructions and not waste time charging me for diagnosing - but in these occasions I really did know what was wrong but did not have the skills/tools to complete these tasks.

Edit:- for what it is worth, I am not completely immune to making costly mistakes, I thought that the AC compressor on my daughter's late 2009 Ibiza was leaking at the body gasket and as ECP were running a sale on some parts (maybe they always run sales but this was a big discount one), I jumped in and bought a new Denso compressor for £257, a few days later when I next managed to check that car over, I discovered that my diagnosis was wrong and I had caused the contamination that made it look like the compressor was leaking at the body gasket - but in that case, I returned the compressor for a full refund leaving me only having to absorb the bill for buying a new drier, new compressor oil and a set of seals - that was about £85 when buying cheaply! So a proper compressor change can be big money.

Another Edit:- note, every competent refrigeration engineer will replace the drier every time that system has been opened up, not to do that will bring you problems later on, a drier, on these cars, probably costs £65+ and add to that time to remove the radiator etc to get access to the drier.