Thread: Jinxed?

My compressor was getting very slow to start cooling and cooling, when it got going, was slightly down. The indie didn't want to replace it but I insisted and now it works perfectly. $2500 and two solid days work to replace through a tiny gap at the bottom left that you can just get your hand through and it is now perfect. They reckon they will take the body off for the next one! It was replaced a couple of months ago at about 210,000km.


After my recent 14,000km trip in five weeks my left turbo is now whistling loudly and will need the body off to replace. I should have waited till then to change the compressor! At least the air con was working well in the heat of northern Australia in May so it was worth doing the A/C.

I feel your pain. After reading one of the threads a few weeks ago about an alternator going on a D4, i had a premonition that this would be the next issue with mine.
Fast forward 2 weeks and the wife says the car is making a whining noise.
1 new alternator later, back on the road. Next service is now due and have brake pad warning light just coming on too.
Repairs just aren't that cheap with these things. I think thats something that has to be acknowledged if you're going to buy one.

Any idea how much use the aircon system has had????
The climate control is so good on mine Ive never turned it off.
Wondering if this is a good thing to be doing now.
Andrew

11 yrs & 230,000k Andy, seldom off!

So,at those kms,using it all the time shouldnt have caused it to fail.Perhaps breakdown of the lubrication oil,may be worth doing a flush/re-gas/oil change at 100 or 150K as preventative maintence???
Andrew

Yes, I posted in another topic about a small whine I had that only when it was on.
Yes looking at hindsight I probably should of had it serviced earlier, maybe even every 5yrs would of been the go.
A new receiver dryer should be fitted at the same time.

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

So,at those kms,using it all the time shouldnt have caused it to fail.Perhaps breakdown of the lubrication oil,may be worth doing a flush/re-gas/oil change at 100 or 150K as preventative maintence???
Andrew

Why do you say that Andie? Mine is on all the time and it failed at 200,000km. The same type of always on compressor failed on my VW Multivan at about 110,000km. If you look it up on the web they fail at these sorts of km when they have some wear in the valve that operates the variable displacement and they are slow to start cooling. If they go too long they fail properly and wreck the system like Rich's air con may have done.


The forums are full of stuff about the variable displacement air con compressors and how to fix them or what goes wrong with them. They just wear out I reckon. Changing the oil may help but I'm no expert so I don't really know. I think they stay on even when you switch the air con off so that is not much of a solution. The displacement just gets reduced to zero so they don't pump.

Perhaps they do just wear out Bob.
Im suggesting that a flush and change before the time they are flogged out to keep them servicable for longer.
Andrew