MK5 Golf GTI

All Things Mk5 => How to Guides / Troubleshooting => Topic started by: simonp on May 23, 2012, 11:27:42 am

Title: Air-con leak
Post by: simonp on May 23, 2012, 11:27:42 am

All me refrigerant has disappeared. Took the car into a local place that does refills and after 2 hours they handed the car back saying there was a leak and they couldn't find it. Any ideas/suggestions other than taking it to a dealer and getting fleeced?

Title: Re: Air-con leak
Post by: omeydz on May 23, 2012, 11:46:10 am

Best bet is to get the ac system topped up with UV tracer.

When it leaks out, the source of the leak will be visible under UV light.

Even the smallest pinhole is enough to cause loss of refrigerant.

Had this problem under warrenty and the dealers did the above and found a pinhole defect in my condenser radiator.

They replaced it as my car was v low miles and had no outside damage.

They did tell me they have lots of busted condenser radiators getting leaks cos the bumper grills are very wide and let stones etc in which cause the prob. They charge £650-700 for this work. Bit bad considering its a design flaw letting in stones!

Dealers fitted an additional stone guard to the radiator and no problems since.

Good luck getting it fixed. But condenser radiator is my best guess as the culprit.

Let us know how it goes :)

Title: Re: Air-con leak
Post by: simonp on May 23, 2012, 02:54:08 pm

Cheers, I'll ask the guys at the place I took it to if they can do that...

Title: Re: Air-con leak
Post by: j8ekt on May 23, 2012, 07:35:06 pm

Mine was leaking from the pressure switch which is also a known fault was about £50 from the dealers

Title: Re: Air-con leak
Post by: kevinm on May 24, 2012, 10:08:27 am

Quote from: j8ekt on May 23, 2012, 07:35:06 pm

Mine was leaking from the pressure switch which is also a known fault was about £50 from the dealers

I had the same problem after 18k miles. There is an upgraded sensor now.

Title: Re: Air-con leak
Post by: simonp on May 24, 2012, 07:22:10 pm

Kerrrchinggg! 3 hours at VW today. 65 quid to have a look and put some dye in the system. They reckon the high pressure switch is borked, but a VCDS scan shows nowt except low refrigerant pressure. Can this switch fail without showing up?

Title: Re: Air-con leak
Post by: j8ekt on May 26, 2012, 11:46:19 am

Yeah switch still works as it shows low pressure the switch itself is leaking the gas mine was doing the same when I regassed it you could hear it escaping at the switch

Title: Re: Air-con leak
Post by: simonp on May 29, 2012, 01:14:19 pm

Today is the day they let me know how much I'm gonna get fleeced. Got an up! as a courtesy car. :sad1:

Title: Re: Air-con leak
Post by: simonp on May 29, 2012, 04:59:55 pm

Answer: 170 English quids.