...and I am that mug!
Is there someone in technical who can give mea reasonably idiot-proof guide to how climate control systems like VW's Climatronic work, what happens on the econ. setting, and how to treat it well, make it last and generally look after it?
Cheers in advance.
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Use it at least once a week for 20 mins to keep the oil and gas evenly distributed and the oil seals and o rings fresh
Have the system serviced once a year (Don't pay more than £50 for a regas...)
The 'Econ' setting turns the air conditioner off for fuel saving.....
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Thanks for that David.
Any chance of someone giving me a simple guide as to how the system works and what the basic componentry is?
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It\'s just a fridge. An engine driven belt drives a compressor which makes the refrigerant fluid hot (like the end of your bike pump).It is cooled in a heat exchanger and that heat is allowed to escape to atmosphere. So now you have refrigerant which isn\'t much hotter then when you started.BUT it is still compressed. SO you now allow the compressed refrigerant to escape into another heat exchanger (Radiator). In doing so it evaporates and cools considerably like when you pour meths or similar onto your skin. You then blow outside air over the heat exchanger,it cools and is passed into the car through the normal vents. Obviously the hot side is kept seperate from the cold side so the heat disipates like from your normal radiator and all the cold air blows on your tootsies.the air is also dehumidified so thats why you use the air con in the winter to keep the fog off your windows. The previous chap gave good advice run it all year round. (My car is 8 yrs old and has not needed a top up yet. I run it every few days but dont leave it on willy nilly to save wear.) Climatronic only varies from the above by having electronic controls to maintain the temp that you set rather than cooling \'til you cant stand it any more as in manual air con. Hope thats of some use.
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What a good explanation J.B.!
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JB - that's great! Simple terms and no mumbo-jumbo...I like it.
I'm sure howstuffworks.com has something there if you are after something more detailed.
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Its a more controllable form of air con as it maintains the temperature as set by the driver. Most a/c has to be turned on when you start the car, the VAG climate control is always on and can be turned off using the ECON button. Sensors in the dash and footwells monitor the temperature and when on auto mode the cool air is directed to the warmest parts of the car i.e screen, face or feet. If the system is the same as my A2 you can access the diagnostics for all the temperatures via the climate control by pressing a combination of buttons (can't remember which now), you can also turn the readout from deg C to deg F if you are of the older generation, the increments for the temp adjustment can also be changed from 0.5 deg c to 1 deg C if required.
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Where's Dave N? He'd have lapped this thread up!!
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Where's Dave N? He'd have lapped this thread up!!
DL: Have you been away yourself? I also notice David Woolard has popped up as MM. I wonder - Have the old guard returned to fil in the vacuum, now that Martyn has gone?
eM.Bee.{P} - the {P} after my username indicates you can view my profile.
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With climate control is it sufficient to run it set to the normal temperature or should it be run at minimum temp for 20 minutes. I'm wondering whether the compressor is actually used in the winter when the outside temperature is always lower than the desired temperature in the car. In this case would the seals etc be properly lubricated?
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Climatronic does not work at under 4-5 degs - stated in handbook
and you can hear that the relay does not click if you go from
ECON to AUTO at temperatures below this - so I left system in
AUTO when weather was cold so that as soon as temp warmed up,
the compressor would be worked...
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I did ask, in the recent thread on air-conditioning/humidity/sore-throats, if someone would explain the difference between air-con and climate-control and auto-climate-control. Alas, no-one did.
eM.Bee.{P} - the {P} after my username indicates you can view my profile.
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Air-con - simple cooler (evaporator) is put in prior to heater matrix. Cools and dehumdifies air. User fiddles with controls to get desired temperature.
Climate-control - User enters set-point temperature. CC ECU then controls air flaps and water valves to attain desired temp. Various sensors (air temp., sunlight load etc.) help it maintain accurate temp.
Auto-CC - may vary from car to car. In my QX, pushing the 'Auto' button enables the ECU to control fan speed and air distribution in addition to temp. In 'Auto-off' mode I control fan speed and distribution but ECU still tries to control temp.
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Thank you Aprilia - I had tried a search on google for this info, but without success.
# eM.Bee.{P}
- the {P} after my username indicates you can view my profile.
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J.B. said in a post above >>"...the air is also dehumidified so thats why you use the air con in the winter to keep the fog off your windows.." >>
But in the thread
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=13...2
Doc said >>"..Oscar Faber text book gives the definition of A/C as: the delivery of filtered air that can be warmed or cooled and have its humidity raised or lowered. ..>>
So who is right. Does A/C in cars allow variable humidity, or does it always dry the air?
--
eM.Be. {P} #Note: {P} = you can view my profile. Add {P} if your profile is viewable.
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According to my air-con chap at work a cars system will normally only remove moisture and not add. He says that it may well be that in a Maybach it has a humidifier but certainly not on your average car.
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Car a/c can only dehumidify, as it is a by-product of the cooling. There's no method of rehumidifying the air. But as the air is nearly always external, even when it's been dehumidified, it still contains enough moisture to not cause any great problems, other than to those people that are particularly senisitive to low humidity.
As regards the original question, there is nothing you need to do with climatronic. Just run it in normal (not Econ)mode all year round, and the compressor will run or not as the system see's fit. There's far more important things to be worrying about than if the compressor/fans are on or off, and any marginal effect on performance/fuel consumption/humidity/wear and tear etc.
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Press the recycle button and the "up" button at same time to access the secret menu.
In a TT you then use the heat knob to cycle through the different options.
Offers temperature of various parts of the engine, revs and speed in KPH amongst other things.
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In the Mk IV Golf I got rid of recently the system never seemed to vary the fan speed, and it was left to me to do that. In the Passat I now have the system does vary the fan speed. So was the Golf climatronic dodgy, or have they changed the way things work?
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