Air Con

[DickyC]

The air con doesn't work. When I bought the car last year it didn't work and the vendor said he would have it re-gassed. He did and it worked fine.

Now, having not used the air con over the Winter it doesn't work again.

I rang Audi for the Worst Case and it was better than I feared. I mean, they could have said, "Woe, woe! Give us a blank cheque."

They recommend using the air con all the time, Winter and Summer, to keep the system pressurised. If the system is allowed to rest for too long - they claim- the seals relax and it starts to leak.

Audi propose to re-charge it with a dyed gas (£100-ish) so that if it does leak they will be able to see where from but if I use it constantly and it doesn't leak, so much the better.

Any thoughts?

DickyC

[scillyisles]

This is fairly normal - you must use the system all the time in order to keept the seals lubricated otherwise they dry out and the gas leaks out. It is standard practice to put fluorescent dye in the gas/oil refrigerant mixture that fills the air con system. They then look underbonnet with a special UV light in order to spot leaks. In my experience, the area that seems to leak most is the pipe on the drivers side which is very near to the turbocharger and then goes down into the bulkhead underneath the brake fluid reservoir. This pipe tends to crack due to heat stress and the seals on the joints tend to go particularly on the large union joint near to the brake fluid reservoir.
My car was in for it's annual service last week and a seal had to be replaced on this pipe and the system regassed. The seal was £0.36, labour charge to replace it £52.50, labour charge to regas system £52.50 - it does'nt look as if they charged me for the gas to recharge the system.

Once the aircon system is working properly in an RS2 it is pretty efficient - I can now get condensation on the outside of the front windscreen where the windscreen vents blow cold air onto the windscreen.

[DickyC]

Fantastic! Thanks for that. I knew I'd come to the right place.

[afhgus]

Hi Dicky

Don't panic in case you don't get the air con coming on during the winter cold weather. I believe there is a minimum temperture it works, around 4-6 degrees with mine.

A

[DickyC]

Thanks, Angus. It's in Audi Newbury today to be fixed, so I'll report back.

I had to laugh; when I first took it there (to maintain the service history) the desk said they'd never heard of the RS2 but the lads in the workshop were all over it.

When it was in Elite in Reading for wheel refurb and tyres I had the bloke ring me to say, "I thought you said these were rare! I've got two here now, yours and a blue one."

Like an @rse I forgot to ask more about it and by the time I got there to pick mine up it had gone.

[alastairg]

Dicky. Before you go round in circles with the AC & Audi dealers testing/regassing on multiple occasions. Get the pipe from the condensor into the engine bay changed. It has a flexible section that leaks slowly. That means leak tests etc sometimes fail to show it. Its so common that there is a dedicated thread over at the S2 forum. I would post the link buts its down for 24 hours.

[DickyC]

Thanks, Alastair. Good advice.

How's the tyre experiment going? Did you get the four SP8000s you were looking for?

[alastairg]

Thanks, Alastair. Good advice.

How's the tyre experiment going? Did you get the four SP8000s you were looking for?

Nope I could not get 4 tyres.

[DickyC]

Air con now working fine, thanks all. Audi said they didn't put dye in when they re-charged the system as they couldn't find anywhere to put it in! which sounded a bit odd to me. But anyway, it's working, and I have Alastair's advice on the likely culprit - "the pipe from the condensor into the engine bay" - if it is leaking a bit.

[alastairg]

Er strange as the dye goes in with the AC gas !!!! At least Harrogate Audi could manage that. Without dye you will struggle to spot a slow leak. The pipe I refer to has a heat shield under it (top left engine bay) which collects dried dye slowly giving the leak away. See this thread http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44 and replace the condensor at the same time.

[scillyisles]

Er strange as the dye goes in with the AC gas !!!! At least Harrogate Audi could manage that. Without dye you will struggle to spot a slow leak. The pipe I refer to has a heat shield under it (top left engine bay) which collects dried dye slowly giving the leak away. See this thread http://www.s2forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=44 and replace the condensor at the same time.

This is exactly the same pipe I mentioned in my first response and yes the condensor has been replaced on mine too.

[DickyC]

Yes, it sounded like so much BS to me when they said it! Still, it's done and working well and I know what to look for in future, thanks.