Baked the wife today in the 130

[POD]

The air conditioning in my 2008 Puma 130 is totally ineffective; wife was very unimpressed today as it was her first longish drive in the vehicle, a tad above 40 degrees outside, the front footwells were about the right temp for a nice leg of lamb and the aircon was blowing about 60 degree air in our faces. We abandoned it in favour of the 40 degree air with both front windows down and continued to roast our lower halves. I plan to wrap the exhaust and add some insulation to the underbody as others have posted, but the aircon should surely be better than it is? It is definitely switching on, compressor clutch cutting in etc. I have been unable to find a sight-glass on the system to check the amount of gas- do airconditioners not have sight glasses these days? When we got home I checked the heater tap for adjustment- a ridiculous arrangement whereby the heater tap is PUSHED shut by a FLEXIBLE cable!! It was of course not fully closed- how could it be? However, pushing it all the way shut by hand made no difference to the hot air coming from the aircon vents.
What sort of performance are others experiencing from the Puma aircon system? I am really hoping that this is not as good as it gets.

[Chops]

Ours seems to work quite well, although when on my own I rarely use it.
It does seem to be working pretty much all the time when its on, Im not sure if its supposed to slow down/speed up when its on (like our D1,D2 did) but I'm guessing whilst there's cool air blowing, SWMBO is happy enough.
Of course this gets totally stuffed up when I have a smoke and wind the window down,, :angel:

[seano87]

By most accounts its pretty decent.

Parents 110 puma certainly works perfectly well. Managed to keep cool in 40 degrees towing a camper trailer for 650km.

[Marty110]

My 2010 Puma air-con is fine. Any outside temp and plenty of cold air. SWMBO's main complaint is the location of the vents so she ends up with a cold shoulder on one side and hot on the other. Also, you need to have it on face and foot level or the heat from the trans tunnel cooks your shins, or at least the one closest to the heat - so some heat shielding wouldn't go astray. But no complaints over the temp of the air - you seem to have a problem but it should be able to be rectified - is it under warranty?

[POD]

Thanks for the replies, not under warranty unfortunately as it ticked over 120,000km today. I'll be putting it into the dealer for service (first service since buying it) to make sure all recalls are completed etc, so will get them to fix the aircon as well. Glad to hear they work when they're working, didn't seem right. Got to get rid of the heat from underneath though, will be looking for that heat shield stuff next week.

[dmdigital]

The heat from the exhaust and transmission can be excessive but the A/C works almost too well in our 2008 Defender. Done almost 80,000 and in 2009 it was up to 47C outside on part our trip across the top of WA and we were nice and cool.

Just wish those two rectangular vents were adjustable like the round ones.

[jimr1]

;) Hi, as a devote 40 years + ,i've been making excuses for land rover. There build quality, there reliabilaty, The defender there Icon. I think land rover don't know were to take it .It would give me great plesure, to say there better than the japs but in truth there not .I will keep fighting ,so we get better vehcles,but some times its as thogh theres no one in the corner behind us. I hope somone from land rover reads these forams .. regards jimr1... ;)

[jplambs]

I find with mine (2012 130) the aircon is brilliant, on a 30 deg day I have it on "1" with the dial a couple of clicks towards the heat or it gets too cold. I went to a fire with it on the Sunday before Christmas (41 deg.) and it was beautifully cold on the way down there. I have found on occasion that if it's not on recycle on the hot days it can come through a bit warm at first but it still cools off after awhile.

[Samblers]

What might be the problem with the original poster's aircon?

I've read dozens of puma aircon threads, both before and after buying our 110, and i think that rather a yes/no answer to the 'is it working correctly' question there are shades of grey. General consensus seems to be vaguely disappointing, but correct/comfortable temp is a subjective question.

I dont need blisteringly cold air like some, and on up to 30deg days find that the temp inside is fine, but on 40deg days and after a longer drive i find it pretty incredible that the air coming out from the vents is not colder than it is? I mean, put your hand up against the vent, before the air has had a chance to be warmed by the heat from the tunnel... its just not that cold.

Mine still has a year of warranty left... and like the OP, what should i be asking LR to check for? Or should I just accept that the system is a bit crap and LR will tell me that nothing is wrong?

[Iain_B]

There must be something wrong with the a/c - mine worked fine out in temps where the Scangauge was reading intake temps over over 50 degree when travelling at 80kph - over 60 deg when stopped. We had it on "1" in the windscreen defrost mode most of the time - my main complaint is the "cold shoulder" you get when in normal mode.

White paint, tinted windows and the "tropical roof" from the roof rack also help a lot.

[n plus one]

There must be something wrong with the a/c - mine worked fine out in temps where the Scangauge was reading intake temps over over 50 degree when travelling at 80kph - over 60 deg when stopped. We had it on "1" in the windscreen defrost mode most of the time - my main complaint is the "cold shoulder" you get when in normal mode.

White paint, tinted windows and the "tropical roof" from the roof rack also help a lot.

Yep, same here - my Puma's AC couldn't car less about external temp.

[BilboBoggles]

Does your heater control knob operate fully across from hot to cold? The cable that goes to the heater control valve was knocked off by the dealer and put back incorrectly, so I had hot air coming out, very simple to adjust it just pushed in, but make sure you position the cable right. It sounds like hot water is getting into your heater core, so I think it sounds like your heater control valve is not closing properly.

[POD]

Does your heater control knob operate fully across from hot to cold? The cable that goes to the heater control valve was knocked off by the dealer and put back incorrectly, so I had hot air coming out, very simple to adjust it just pushed in, but make sure you position the cable right. It sounds like hot water is getting into your heater core, so I think it sounds like your heater control valve is not closing properly.

I had a look at that the other day, as mentioned the cable pushes the heater tap shut rather than pulling it shut as is the case on every other heater tap I've known. Being a flexible cable, i.e. multi-strand core, it does not 'push' very effectively. Perhaps there should be a spring arrangement to assist the tap to shut fully? The standard way of adjusting heater taps in my experience is to make sure they are fully closed when the control is on 'cold', as it doesn't matter if they don't quite open all the way when hot is selected. The adjustment seems okay, but the flexible cable just bends instead of pushing the tap all the way shut.
I've pushed the heater tap shut by hand and there seems to be an improvement in the a/c performance but still not great, cold shoulder is definitely not an issue (not in this context, anyway!). When fiddling with this with the motor hot the other night I also discovered the source of a coolant loss- the heater tap is leaking, guess I'm up for a new one. Another item for the service agent next week, along with an aircon recharge.

[Tombie]

Just to make you feel a bit better.

I drive a 150 Prado for work.

Yesterday the temps outside were 47°c and the a/c on high couldn't keep up.

Sweated my butt off for 6 hours driving.

[n plus one]

Just to make you feel a bit better.

I drive a 150 Prado for work.

Yesterday the temps outside were 47°c and the a/c on high couldn't keep up.

Sweated my butt off for 6 hours driving.

Obviously the result of poor LR build quality....

[Tombie]

Well the D4 drops car temp in minutes and then stays nice and cool..

The Prados on the fleet ALL suffer the same problem.

[Rick Fischer]

BLACK BLACK SVX...... and glass sunroof. A/C absolutely excellent at 36-38 OAT. :)

Would also like those centre vents to be adjustable.

Only complaint is that with "fresh" air it gets heated in the mudguard and the engine bay ducting. Need to insulate the tract till it gets to the firewall. :(

RF

[rick130]

Drove around all day today in 35* heat with the drivers window down and the windscreen vents wide open and was comfortable.

Oh that's right, I have a Tdi :D

[Guzziman]

Have cooked the wifes legs several times in the TD5.
Love the response when I tell her "to harden up princess!"
Personally, most of the time I prefer the vents & window option.
At 60kph+ those front vents work bloody well..........

[justinc]

vents with these...:D

CryO2 Intercooler Water Sprayer Kit 080140 | Purchase DEI, CryO2, Ny-Trex, Boom Mat & SPA Turbo Products | Design Engineering, Inc. - Thermal Performance Products (http://www.designengineering.com/category/catalog/cryo2-system-components/cryo2-intercooler-water-sprayer-kit)


jc

[gng1]

Drove around all day today in 35* heat with the drivers window down and the windscreen vents wide open and was comfortable.

Oh that's right, I have a Tdi :D

Used to have a Tdi. I truly do miss the windscreen vents!