A/C not cold with ambient temps above 80 degrees F.

Just left the dealer with a gas jetta loaner for the weekend because they can't seem to find anything wrong and need to drive the golf a bit.... :-|

Symptoms are very cold air when ambient temps are below about 80 degrees. Even to the point of condensation fog coming out of the vents. When temps are in the 90's and above the a/c isn't cold at all, even when driving highway speeds which would seem to rule out a bad aux fan.

Dealer checked the pressures and they said they are within spec and also that I might not see 40 degrees out of the vents when ambient is 100, but I told them I should not be sweating, which I am. So they want to keep it and troubleshoot for a few days.....


I know there is something definitely wrong because the loaner jetta we have now is blowing so cold that I have had to put the fan speed on low, and it's 98 degrees out right now.

Anyone else had this issue?

The search funtion on tapatalk hasn't yielded me anything, but I'll look deeper when I get home to my computer.

Thanks guys

From the too cold when mild temps and on cool hot, it could still be the infamous RCV or low on freon.
If low on freon then the temps on the evaporator coil will be very low, but little ability to remove much heat and overloaded easily.

They haven't done a full evac and refill of the system...just tested pressures and said they look good.

I'll do more searching on the RCV....is that a pretty extensive repair typically?

Also, I was running the system with the fan and a/c on high as well as the recirculate button on just to achieve max airflow since the air wasn't cold. After running it that way for 1.5 hours while on the highway (no cold air) we stopped to eat. 40 mins later I came back out to the car and started it and put the air back on high and it blew a few ice chips out of the vents...still no cold air though.

Search the thread "Delayed A/C".
Also try evacuating and recharge with the proper amount of refrigerant.
The RCV is fairly easy to replace when the system is evacuated and I might suggest trying that along eith the recharge

Thanks man, I've been reading that thread. I'll call them monday afternoon if they haven't contacted me by then. I mentioned the RCV when I dropped it off.

The dealer will not replace the RCV because VW won't sell it by itself, rather they will just replace the entire compressor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

geez....luckily I'm at 18,500 miles and well within warranty. It's a bit troubling though as the compressor/rcv really haven't been in service very long. I bought the car in Sept. of 2013, and since then,this is the first time we have had temps that require a healthy a/c system.

DerekG said:

geez....luckily I'm at 18,500 miles and well within warranty. It's a bit troubling though as the compressor/rcv really haven't been in service very long. I bought the car in Sept. of 2013, and since then,this is the first time we have had temps that require a healthy a/c system.

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Apparently it has been in service long enough for the valve to get plugged up with debris, which restricts flow from the low pressure side to the high pressure side. My A/C never worked all that well from day 1, but works perfectly now after replacing the valve.

Well, that sounds about right then. I remember driving the car off the lot in Baltimore back home to Oklahoma and thinking that the a/c didn't seem as cold as it should, but I just wrote that off at the time to not having the windows tinted.

I hope they fix it before labor day, the family is renting a cabin in a nearby mountainous lake community and I was going to take my mountain bike........no hitch on this jetta loaner for my yakima bike rack. Anyone ever stuffed a 29er in a jetta? lol

Put a thermometer in the vent and take a picture to show the service adviser.

I had the same problem and it was deemed compressor issue and was replaced under warranty at 78500km.
I believe the the issue is sourced when the car was put together at the mexican factory.
I never had a good ac from day one but I thought that it was just too weak for the car's interior space, the wagon, when finally it gave up on me completely I took it to my dealer after about half an hour they found that one of the seals were leaking, they fixed it and ran a die to check for any leak, well the compressor was gone.
the reason that i'm saying it is assembly issue is since the compressor has been replaced the engine seams to run much smoother and the rpm has dropped by couple of hundred rev's, which means that the compressor must have been broken from day one and put an extra load on the engine.
ask the dealer to measure the cooling agent, I suspect you have a very small leak like I had.

Just had a seal replaced and a recharge. Held its own at 101° yesterday. Ahhh....
But did you do a search for this. It's real common and, dammit you should have known and moreover you should know exactly what words to use to do a search! You're lucky the Search Police didn't arrest you! Lol

Here's my service sheet if it HELPS you.

My wife just told me today that our 2011 JSW TDI hasn't been cooling. I drove it this evening and the air was blowing warm and would kick on for about 30 seconds cold then back to warm. It was set to low on max fan speed. I guess I need to get it fixed now...

DRbillZ said:

Just had a seal replaced and a recharge. Held its own at 101° yesterday. Ahhh....
But did you do a search for this. It's real common and, dammit you should have known and moreover you should know exactly what words to use to do a search! You're lucky the Search Police didn't arrest you! Lol

Here's my service sheet if it HELPS you.

Click to expand...

Lol thanks man, hopefully they'll have it figured out when I call to check on it tomorrow....I was searching from the tapatalk app on my phone and it's not as intuitive as it is on my computer.

Symptoms were just like the 'other AC problem'... delayed onset of AC. Took a few minutes to kick in. Once it did, it cooled but not as well.

Crap. I drove to Dayton, OH this past weekend from Chicago for a wedding, and lo and behold we finally had some muggy midwestern summer weather. I thought it just might have been me going crazy thinking the AC should have been blowing colder, but perhaps I've found my first problem with my wagen. I'll have to see how she does when I drive up to the Northwoods of WI this coming weekend.

Ok, got the car back today and the prognosis seemed to only be low freon, more specifically 100g too low. They did an evac and recharge and told me the air coming out of the vents was measured at 38 degrees F when ambient was 100 degrees. During my 70 mile drive home the a/c was ice cold the whole time which is a good sign.

I don't know if it was low from the factory and the fact that I bought it in the fall made me not notice it wasn't as cold as it should be or there is a slow leak. The service advisor was a different guy and he didn't say anything about finding a leak when I picked up the car. We'll see, hopefully it's good to go.

Not sure why they didn't do an evac/recharge while I waited on Saturday, but the Jetta loaner wasn't too bad. Not having the windows tinted kinda sucked in the Oklahoma sunshine, but the 1.8T 4cyl in that thing seemed pretty peppy and revved smoothly. Since it was an auto (not DSG) I found myself leaving it in "S" mode while driving around town so it would rev out a little more. Not a bad car overall, but noticeably "plastic-er" than my golf. While driving home the Golf felt more solid for sure, and had less road noise.

Where are you guys getting the RCV?

heykw said:

Where are you guys getting the RCV?

Click to expand...

I still can't find one

https://www.polarbearinc.com is the only place that sells them from what I know.

I bought mine from a chinese company on ebay. Shipped direct worked fine.
They are made in Chine anyway.
Polarbear has them, buy one from them or the Alibaba site.
Years ago the Chinese ones were all you could get.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VW-AC-Compr...swagen-jetta-Sanden-PXE16-PXE14-/261552938260

http://au.alibaba.com/product/1910447484-Sanden-PXE-13-PXE16-compressor-electronic.html

http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=sanden+pxe+16+valve

I haven't ordered for a long while it may be a lot easier to order from Polarbear!

*4/2/17

I wanted to do a follow up on this thread in case anyone else has this issue.


It's been ~2.5yrs since they evacuated and recharged the system with no other changes and the A/C is still ice cold and has been perfect ever since. Everything is original. Apparently it must have been only partially filled at the factory....just an FYI for anyone that has had these symptoms.

Awesome! Thank you for sharing. Wish i knew about this a long time ago. Just had my RCV replaced last Monday and its super cold! Never that cold ever before. Ugh VW!