Air Conditioning Compressor Fail

[Tom Watson]

There has been a lot of cases of stuck control valves on MK5 Golf/Jetta compressors.
I would assume the Octavia is similar or the same. Symptoms are poor performance on startup, or intermittent cooling.
You need the part, a gas service and 10min swapping out the part.
VW Jetta and Golf sanden ac compressor control valve replacement | VW TDI forum, Audi, Porsche, and Chevy Cruze diesel forum



If you need a compressor: For comparison on my Mk4 Golf.
Was quoted $720 new or $570 reco + $480 labour + Gas costs, from a local mobile AC guy.
I sourced parts from JM Auto Air 02 97182209 $350 for a MK4 Golf.
Did it myself $350 + $200 extract and reload gas.
The Octavia could not be too much dearer than that, even double would be cheaper than some of those prices above.


As with anything, it will be cheaper to diagnose it properly before throwing parts at it.

Thanks

Had a good read of the linked forum, am now 99% convinced its the control valve. Now to try and get one here in Aus..

[nickd]

I've just had the AC on my 2007 Golf fail and am curious about investigating the possibility of it being a control valve problem rather than a failed compressor.

I spoke to a VW specialist here in Adelaide and he said he'd been unable to source them locally but that if I found a source overseas he would be happy to fit it.

Does anyone know where to find out which model control valve is needed for each specific vehicle? There are a lot of different ones on the page linked to by the thread above.

Nick

[Tom Watson]

I've just had the AC on my 2007 Golf fail and am curious about investigating the possibility of it being a control valve problem rather than a failed compressor.

I spoke to a VW specialist here in Adelaide and he said he'd been unable to source them locally but that if I found a source overseas he would be happy to fit it.

Does anyone know where to find out which model control valve is needed for each specific vehicle? There are a lot of different ones on the page linked to by the thread above.

Nick

Ended up ordering one from the states from: https://www.coolairparts.com/index.p...te=common/home (was $44 for the part, $16 for postage, then next day copped a bill for $13 for 'international postage handling fee'....)

This page shows some options: Polar Bear, Inc. Webstore: Sanden Compressor Control Valves

info in links at: AC not working-- in fla! | VW TDI forum, Audi, Porsche, and Chevy Cruze diesel forum were good

Once I followed the leads in previous posts to what I needed, it was relatively easy to find parts by matching part numbers, just hope it is the right bit...

[nickd]

Thanks... Bit of reading to do there!

[Tom Watson]

$326 later (220 for gas service and part replacement, 106 for the control valve) and now have 4 degree air coming out of the vents within a minute. Will wait and see how long this part lasts for, but it beats the cost of a new compressor....

[harlie]

I replaced the refrigerant control valve (RCV) in my '10 octi about 18 months ago - $40ish for the valve, easy job from underneath, just need a friendly AC guy to extract and recharge the refrigerant.

Symptom is a delay in cold air. For those with VCDS, if you go into the live values in the HVAC ECU, you can see that the ECU requests the compressor to run at high output (I did post the exact values to look for in a thread in the golf6 section), at the same time you can see the pressure not changing, couple minutes later it comes to life - pressure goes up, evap temp goes down.

The valve sticks.