Air Con gone in 2011 B7

Hi all,

Complete car noob here. I've been searching the forums for an answer and while I think I've narrowed it down I'm still without a definitive answer. Luckily the brother in law has VCDS and we should be able to narrow it down a little more but he won't be here until next week.

I bought a 2011 B7 Estate last week. Love it since I can fit every including the kitchen sink in the bag which is great what feel like moving house when packing for the baby.

The air con is blowing warm air (it was 30 degrees today in Ireland ) but there is refrigerant in the system. The air con does light up and I can hear a change when I go to the cold setting. I checked all the side fuses for continuity and the fuse board on the engine (except the 370 relay but I think that's for the ECU so if it was gone the car wouldn't start. I know there are air con relays somewhere under the dash but I don't know where to look or how to access. I've also noticed that when I turn on the air con the two cooling fans at the radiator don't turn at all so I'm going to guess this has something to do with it. I'm not going to leave it in to get checked out until I get it plugged into VCDS. I haven't taken it on long journeys yet so don't know if they come on when the engine reaches a certain temperature.

Any suggestions? Baked in the car. Cheers for any help folks.

https://ibb.co/hofBzy
https://ibb.co/mZw6XJ
https://ibb.co/fBD9md
https://ibb.co/iKdWzy

Its pretty common for the dealer to diagnose it as a bad compressor, but it should be just refrigerant control valve RCV. You should be able to log the AC system for pressures, demand vs measured.

So some searching here, quote a few DIY and self diagnoses listed. Pretty common for the compressors VW uses in the states. You'll pay for some labor but only $70-100USD for the part, as they gotta drain the system change the valve, recharge the system, but it'll be way cheaper than a compressor.

Cheers 740GLE. Would that have anything to do with the radiator fans not coming on too?

Not 100% sure, maybe a bad relay? or bad fans? I thought every time the AC is on the fans would be on, but maybe it's determined by the refigerant pressures, and right now if the system isn't working correctly it won't spin the fans.

Here's some quick reading, hahaha.


http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=284611

http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/500/ac_slow_start_charts_remedy_and_discussion.pdf

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=461218&highlight=RCV

Cheers for the link. Where is the relay located for the fans? I've a few under the dash where the drop down drawer is.

https://ibb.co/iKdWzy

Are there more?