Air con gone

J

Jonty

Member
Loud bang today, thought someone had hit me, then air con stopped, no air coming through at all, wondered if some air con belt had gone?

Everything else seems ok.

Wondered if anyone had any ideas, it’s 90bhp 1.4 Tdi
 
When you say 'air con stopped, no air coming through at all', is this no COLD air being provided, or no air HOT or COLD?
If it's just cold air, then it could be that the auxiliary belt has snapped or the alternator pulley has come off, but either of these would also result in a warning light on the dash due to the alternator not producing any charge
Perhaps remove the bonnet and take a look to see if the drive belt is still in place, then post up your findings?
 
So really loud bang, thought something hit the car then thought it might be best snapping and hitting inside if bonnet. Air stopped coming through vents, fan speed control had no effect abd you couldn’t see display change if you increased fan speed. Took bonnet off there seems to be a new belt in left side (alternator?) but wouldn’t know where to look fir an air con belt which is what I’m assuming it is?

No warning lights in dash.

Hope that all makes sense!
 
If there is no air at all coming through, and if you turn fan speed up the climate control bars will show fan speed going up then down by itself, it is very likely your fan has failed. This is located under the dashboard behind the airbag and above the glove box. It's very unusual that it fails with a bang though.
 
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Take the bonnet off and take several pictures of the engine bay especially in the area of the belts and alternator and post them on here. Compressor clutch perhaps gone.
 
Can’t see anything that looks awry, hope these pictures might help!
 

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You would get air still coming through with a compressor failure IMO it is likely the fan has gone.

Its unusual but if the fan bearing has gone or the fan blade or blades have gone whilst in motion then a loud bang might be the result as it hits stuff on the way out.
 
Easy enough to check the compressor is being driven. Normally when the blower motor plays up the speed control drops to zero. The bang has got me confused, I suppose possible something was between the pollen filter and hamsters cage and jammed it. Drop the pollen filter and look towards the hamsters cage, it should rotate quietly and relatively free. Drop the glove box to give more access.
 
I had a blower moto failure in the past. It was almost stuck, so the control unit puts it in "failure mode" (i.e. at rest)
I removed it and "repaired it" (WD40 to free it, then grease the axle). BTW, good fix, still working 5 years after that !
When refitting the electric motor itself to its shroud, I made a little mistake, one of the "clips" was not fully secured.
A few days after, when driving on a pothole, the motor came off the shroud and, of course, stalled. So I dismantled it again and refit it correctly that time. I don't remember if it made a big noise when it happened, but that's a possible cause of your problem.
 
Jonty said:
So really loud bang, thought something hit the car then thought it might be best snapping and hitting inside if bonnet. Air stopped coming through vents, fan speed control had no effect abd you couldn’t see display change if you increased fan speed. Took bonnet off there seems to be a new belt in left side (alternator?) but wouldn’t know where to look fir an air con belt which is what I’m assuming it is?

No warning lights in dash.

Hope that all makes sense!
Click to expand...
I had a similar problem but without the bang. The climate control bar scrolled up and then down to zero. I got a new fan fitted - needless to say the old one started working on the way up to have the new one fitted.
I've still got the old one if you want it, just the cost of sending it. Obviously no guarantee it'll continue working.
 
Here is another possibility for the "bang". inside the blower assembly there is a resistor pack that regulates the sped of the blower. Could be this resistor pack shorted out and went bang. You have checked all the fuses with a meter, haven't you?
 
Fairly sure the resistor is only used on cars with manual heater controls and no aircon

Cheers Spike
 
Resistor is used on cars with AC and auto heater controls. It just different type. I changed it last year.
 
Yep changed one on a car where the owner jet washed the engine bay and the heater air intake. Took longer to dry out the under floor area in the passenger foot well and make sure electrics were dry.

#17 in diagram below.

54202
 
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Vic said:
Resistor is used on cars with AC and auto heater controls. It just different type. I changed it last year.
Click to expand...

That's probably what threw me - read something years ago to the effect the resistor was only for cars with climate control........... but missed the bit which explained there was a different version for cars with the 'rotary knob' heating system.

Cheers Spike
 
@spike You are correct. The resistor in shrink wrap is only used on non AC cars. The AC cars have a large aluminium block that contains the circuitry. Important to get the correct one.
 
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