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Climate Control Issue


DenisO
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Took my recent purchase (98 A4 Avant 2.4SE Auto) to the garage this moring for a cambelt change and general check over. Noticed that the frost symbol on the CC display was not on. I tend to run my CC year round to keep everything pucker. When pressed it only lit up for the time I was pressing.

Now it was very cold down here in Kent today with the display showing 0.5 C and the garage says that Audi's CC will not allow the compresor to come on below certain temperatures.

Is this correct and if so, how do I run the system during the winter.

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[ QUOTE ]

...the garage says that Audi's CC will not allow the compresor to come on below certain temperatures.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is correct. Due to the ambient air temperature, the condenser would become so cold it would freeze.

Judging by the posts, some ppl's CC don't seem to show a warning, but below a certain temp, the air con pump will deactivate.

You can proove this by popping your CC into recirculate mode in sub-zero temperatures. Before you know it, the car will mist up inside (like it did for me this morning) - because there will be no dehumidifing effect since the air-con will probably be deactivated.

Chris

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Yes indeedy. The new systems don't have the snowflake symbol on the CC panel to indicate compressor running so you wouldn't know it was off.

The older ones did (note the original question was about a '98 car).

My Audi A3's ('97 and 2000) both had the snowflake when air con on, and both shut the compressor off (thus snowflake went off) in very cold weather. If you pressed the button the flake would come on for a second and go straight off.

All perfectly normal and correct, nothing to worry about. 169144-ok.gif

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[ QUOTE ]

Is this correct and if so, how do I run the system during the winter.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just run it as normal, the car will shut off the compressor when temp drops enough. And you aren't going to want chilled air when it's that cold, trust me! grin.gif

Compressor (and snowflake) will come back on when it warms up. If it doesn't just press "Auto".

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OK, so it is clear that the compressor doesn't run under a certain temp but I have always believed that, even in winter, you should run the system for about 1/2 hour per week to keep all the seals lubricated. How do you do that if it's designed not to work below, say 2 degrees.

I guess that shouldn't be too much of a problem in the UK as we don't often get months of such cold temps but in Scandanavian countries it must be an issue; unless they are designed differently for other market.

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