Mechanic advice - is this right?

[DWBN]

Cheers for the reply guys. As an update, I went to pick-up the car and was advised that despite having it for a full day, nothing had been done and I would have to leave it for a second day. I was told that they were unable to change out the springs as they didn’t have the “right spring compressors” - wtf? I told the guy (Steve) that I had changed springs countless times over the years and have never heard of such a thing – to which he replied “do you have a degree in mechanics? No, then I don’t tell you how to do your job, so don’t tell me how to do mine”.

Righto….

Air con had not been touched or even looked at.

To confirm about the DSG service. When I booked, I said I wanted the DSG serviced and was provided a quote which I then booked in at ($350). After I had let him know I wasn’t happy that nothing had been done to the car, he told me that he was actually doing me a favour by doing the service that cheap as it cost more in oil than the quote. He then said the “programming” was using VCDS as part of the oil change. This was at an additional cost???? Correct me here, but when you book a service, you would expect that all parts required to perform the service, in this case for DSG VCDS, would be included in the quoted price?

Anyway, I walked away and will never go back, no recommend this joint to anyone. I ended up getting it serviced in Artarmon for a cheaper price, with everything done in half a day. New TX valve in the compressor and it’s like new again (ice cold air con), full DSG service for $330 (including oil and VCDS lol) and the struts changed. Couldn’t be happier.

[Fatherless One]

Great news, do we have a "not recommended" section?

[brad]

[QUOTE=DWBN;1095057]Cheers for the reply guys. As an update, I went to pick-up the car and was advised that despite having it for a full day, nothing had been done and I would have to leave it for a second day. I was told that they were unable to change out the springs as they didn’t have the “right spring compressors” - wtf? I told the guy (Steve) that I had changed springs countless times over the years and have never heard of such a thing – to which he replied “do you have a degree in mechanics? No, then I don’t tell you how to do your job, so don’t tell me how to do mine”.

QUOTE]

That's simply arrogance. When I was on the tools I learn't very quickly that there were a lot of untrained mechanics out there that knew a lot more than I ever would. One of the best mechanics I know is a network specialist for Optus - some people seem to have it in their genes.


My spring compressors are really crap $20 items I bought 25 years ago & while they aren't ideal for VWs, they still work.

He would have been absolutely stuffed trying to get the strut out of the hub because I bet he didn't have a hub spreader either (and didn't know it had to be spread).

[Jmac]

.


The filter he is talking about is the receiver drier in the gas system, not the cabin filter in the car.

You can check the operation of the control valve in the compressor with a scope (amp and voltage) and monitor the pressures while testing.

You don't need to reset the adaptation on the DSG oil services as the car will "learn" with normal driving.

Scope, most out there now have never seen one let alone use one. Even in dealers I worked in the past the leads were lost or broken, and the smoke machine had an inch of dust on them , bought my own and are both the most used bits of gear I ever use
Jmac

[DWBN]

Update

After the TX valve was installed all was great. Air con ice cold. Now after 48 hours (car was still at the mechanics as I was unable to pick it up), I've been told it's now not working at all? I went down this afternoon and sure enough no cold air. The mechanic is puzzled as it was fine yesterday, but now the fans are not engaging and it doesn't seem like the compressor is either.

My question is - does the compressor always spin or is it clutched? Would the TX valve cause this issue? My thought is the system has swarf in it and has blocked the new TX valve, although the fans not engaging and it happening overnight has me confused.

All fuses are good. Mechanic is sending it over to the auto electrician in the morning for a quick assessment, but he thinks it could be swarf too. It just seems strange that one minute it's great, then overnight nothing.

Thoughts guys?

If it is swarf, a condenser and compressor along with a full flush are required yeah? Ebay for compressors and condensers or is there another cheap alternative?

[Umai Naa!!]

Generally speaking, if the compressor is getting power, and the earth circuit is good, but it's not working, it's stuffed.

[jets]

I was told once that if there isn't enough gas the compressor won't run.

[Umai Naa!!]

Naturally, that's step one.

There's the possibilty that it's leaked down over the 48 hours to a point where it won't run.

Now, if it had the dye in it, and the workshop had a leak detection kit, they'd spot a leak pretty quickly.

[DWBN]

The gas was checked, was found to be good - he even withdrew the new gas to confirm the weight and replaced it again. Is it possible to flush the condensor and just replace the compressor?

[grtuned]

These Mk 5 ac systems were prone to failure but most were done during the cars wty period. Compressors were the fault.
After all this back and forth questioning my recommendation is take it to someone who knows what there doing to give you one straight answer and get it rectified. No point asking for the community for diagnosis to help this guy out!!
I highly advise you flush the entire ac system before fitting a new compressor or the new one will fail in a short time if there is swarf in the system.