A\C cool...but not cold

April 2017 I bought one of the released 2015 TDI's Sportwagens. As summer approached I thought the A/C was a little wimpy but it always technically worked just didn't get super cold. I live in Houston, so fully expect a good 10 minute period of time to properly get to temp but it never has been able to cool down the cabin enough.

Basically it cools enough to not really notice during fall and spring but once it gets above 85-90 degrees it will cool the car down enough to keep you from sweating but you can guarantee your backside will be warm enough to keep it a little swampy. You can hold your hand right up to vent at full blast and it never feels icy.

So this year it finally seems a little worse or maybe I'm just in worse shape and I wanna do something about it. Of course I'm at 50,000 miles now too, so like any idiot would, I wanted to wait until it was out of warranty.

It could just be low on refrigerant and this Saturday I'm going to the dealer to get my spring recall done and will have them check. But considering I've never noticed a drastic decrease in the 2 years I've been driving it, I don't think it has a leak and like I said, it's always been wimpy. But no weird sounds or intermittent hot air or anything to make you think something wasn't working properly....just inadequately cool air.

So that leaves me with thoughts on the expansion valve or the compressor solenoid? Anyone else with some ideas? I can go buy a cheap set of gauges if someone genuinely knows the system and tells me what they need. During my research, I recently just learned about the OBDeleven code for 'hot country' today and enabled that along with the higher blower setting...hopefully that will make a little difference but I don't think that is ultimately the root.

Read through this thread, specifically what 740GLE posted: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=496363

JM Popaleetus said:

Read through this thread, specifically what 740GLE posted: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=496363

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Thanks boss...perfect thread for me to chase everything down. I changed to hot country earlier today and will see if it makes much of a difference tomorrow.

I'd buy one of the cheap recharge units ($10-20)with a gauge and a can of 134a. I'm about to add some to my car today. Adding a can works for me 80% of the time. Lots of diy youtube videos on how to add the refrigerant.

My temp door motor was making noise when I bought my golf tdi s with manual hvac. I bought an updated oem one and had it installed. They never performed the basic setting on it. When I checked requested max cold value was 17, and it was at 27. After the basic setting, it was down to 22 and got a couple degrees cooler. Its something easy to check since you have vcds.


I did the hot country tweak as well. At 90 and humid, I get 45 out of the vents. I guess thats not terrible. My silverado blows colder and way faster.

Same situation with mine, functional but not great from “new” in 2017.
I switched to “hot country” early with little improvement.

Finally last week got it in for some other warranty work and it was just low on refrigerant.
Glad to have it fixed but frustrated it took 2 years and 38k miles. Numerous drops of the ball at dealer...

Yeah, I just added a $6 can of 134a to the '10 Golf I bought in Jan. and went from no AC to great AC in two minutes. So nice.

rpm-inc said:

When I checked requested max cold value was 17, and it was at 27. After the basic setting, it was down to 22 and got a couple degrees cooler. Its something easy to check since you have vcds.

.

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what's this? You just click basic settings under climate control?

fase2000TDI said:

what's this? You just click basic settings under climate control?

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With my manual hvac, click basic settings and there is a box on the right where you can check boxes to see values. You can then turn the temp dial, and it will show you actual vs requested at any temp setting.

I’ve posted this previously, but when I was shopping for mine, I noticed a number of 2015 Golfs had recharged ACs listed on their Carfax.

Being of the impression that a recharge = leak, I called a couple VW specialists to arrange PPI’s and they assured me it was normal with MK7’s due to use of new environmentally friendly refrigerant and the system only holding ~1lb of it. Especially since a lot of these 2015’s were sitting dormant for a year or more, which like any car, is the worst thing you can do to it.

Now I will say, my 2015 was originally sold in Florida and was set to “Hot Country” from the factory. After sitting all day in 91° sunny weather today, it only took ~8 mins or so for my AC to be cold and actively cooling the cabin rapidly. And I had cool air after ~4 mins or so.

And on a tangent, nothing compares to my Volvo which would give you frostbite after 10 mins. I miss that car’s AC.

Went from manual to climatronic today. It's so nice not having to deal with the stupid knobs. It was the only thing that I wanted an SEL for but I did not want a sunroof.

After coding and adaptations, car cools off pretty fast. Next week I am getting tint and heated seats for it.... That's going to be an adventure.

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I would have gladly traded you. Auto Climate, and multiple climate zones are utterly useless. The only thing I really appreciate about Climatronic is the ability to exactly pick which (or all) vents to blow air from.

Do you have a SEL? I will buy the climatronic off you and you can have my old manual setup.

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rpm-inc said:

With my manual hvac, click basic settings and there is a box on the right where you can check boxes to see values. You can then turn the temp dial, and it will show you actual vs requested at any temp setting.

Click to expand...

Interesting. I'm going to try and look more into this. I've never noticed any strange sounds but what values should I exactly be looking for to adjust. I actually have OBDeleven but can usually get the same stuff coded in someone with VCDS can.

JM Popaleetus said:

I’ve posted this previously, but when I was shopping for mine, I noticed a number of 2015 Golfs had recharged ACs listed on their Carfax.

Being of the impression that a recharge = leak, I called a couple VW specialists to arrange PPI’s and they assured me it was normal with MK7’s due to use of new environmentally friendly refrigerant and the system only holding ~1lb of it. Especially since a lot of these 2015’s were sitting dormant for a year or more, which like any car, is the worst thing you can do to it.

Now I will say, my 2015 was originally sold in Florida and was set to “Hot Country” from the factory. After sitting all day in 91° sunny weather today, it only took ~8 mins or so for my AC to be cold and actively cooling the cabin rapidly. And I had cool air after ~4 mins or so.

And on a tangent, nothing compares to my Volvo which would give you frostbite after 10 mins. I miss that car’s AC.

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Yeah in Houston they should definitely come with the 'hot country' setting enabled at the dealer too. What's weird is I actually feel like the A/C gets cool fairly fast...it's just it never gets cold. But what me and you consider 'quick' in high humidity environment is probably drastically different than most of the country's definition.

I'll go ahead and look into recharging it. I actually had seen your post the other day and was considering it. I've always heard 'low' equals leak in coolant and a/c systems but it's more or less maintained the exact same half-assed cooling capability since I've owned it so if it does show low I would be inclined to believe it really is just a leftover symptom from the long sit during the recall. I'm completely unfamiliar with a/c systems though so I'm a little leery to screw with it cause I always hear about people overcharging and the like. Maybe I can find some good VW specific vids. I can follow instructions like a champ but I don't like to guess at things I don't know.

DasTeknoViking said:

Went from manual to climatronic today. It's so nice not having to deal with the stupid knobs. It was the only thing that I wanted an SEL for but I did not want a sunroof.

After coding and adaptations, car cools off pretty fast. Next week I am getting tint and heated seats for it.... That's going to be an adventure.

Click to expand...

I didn't even know this was a thing. That we could just plug and play the Climatronic controls?

I have never been one to dick around a lot with my a/c controls. I'd love to just pop on auto and set a temp and just forget about it.

jaxwithanx said:

I can follow instructions like a champ but I don't like to guess at things I don't know.

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You can certainly try recharging it yourself with a $30 can-and-gauge from Walmart. Just make sure you get the right type of refrigerant that has NO anti-leak gunk in it.

Personally, I’d imagine Houston would be the type of city that has an AC shop every mile. Find one that’s recommended via Yelp or Googling “AC Shop Houston” and looking at forum replies. With how little refrigerant our systems use, and all bigger shops having Robinair machines that practically do it all for them to spec.. I’d imagine it’d be not that much more to have it charged professionally.

jaxwithanx said:

I didn't even know this was a thing. That we could just plug and play the Climatronic controls?



I have never been one to dick around a lot with my a/c controls. I'd love to just pop on auto and set a temp and just forget about it.

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It's not plug n play. Requires a bit of work.

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JM Popaleetus said:

You can certainly try recharging it yourself with a $30 can-and-gauge from Walmart. Just make sure you get the right type of refrigerant that has NO anti-leak gunk in it.

Personally, I’d imagine Houston would be the type of city that has an AC shop every mile. Find one that’s recommended via Yelp or Googling “AC Shop Houston” and looking at forum replies. With how little refrigerant our systems use, and all bigger shops having Robinair machines that practically do it all for them to spec.. I’d imagine it’d be not that much more to have it charged professionally.

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You are right about plenty of A/C shops. I'll poke around. I don't want to throw off the ratio of oil/refrigerant anymore than I have to so if I can find something less than $100 I'll probably just do that. I have half a mind to just do the cheap can, see it fixes my issues and then have it evacuated and refilled to proper spec. But I guess if I commit to a shop they can hook me up and tell me if I'm low to begin with (of course, I'm sure they will say I am regardless). I like to buy the tools and do things myself when possible but A/C stuff is so expensive it isn't really economically feasible to buy the stuff just for a lifetime of personal repairs.

DasTeknoViking said:

It's not plug n play. Requires a bit of work.

Sent from my SM-G950U1 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Software coding in VCDS/OBDeleven? Or electrical/hardware modifications? Is there a good thread you can point me to?

Performed the Hot Country mod with limited success. I don't think my temps have ever been low enough for something like that to have a chance of making a difference.

Went ahead and replaced the RCV with one of the RKX Tech units a lot of people seemed to have had success with. Was positive after a lot of reading that was going to be the issue. Refilled a/c to proper value and......air coming out at 67 degrees and mostly feels around the same (regrettably, had never bothered taking temps from center vents before repair). This is in 90+, high humidity environment (Houston).

It's bizarre....A/C obviously is working and so is recirculation but it just refuses to get below mid-60s out of the vent and now with new solenoid valve, same thing. There is always a chance I didn't quite get the refill right but I was using a scale and it should be damn near close. At 95 ambient I had 50psi on low side and 220 on the high. I pulled charts and that high side seems to be a little on the low side for 95 degrees but I've read those are just general guidelines and all vehicles different. Can't find a MK7 specific chart. Guess my only real option at this point is to get professional evacuate and refill. Any other ideas?

EDIT: I have gauges and OBDEleven so more than happy to check some additional specs if needed. Also, to be clear, this has never been an intermittent issue....my A/C has always kicked on and ran and recirculated when asked. It's just never put out air more than 30 degrees cooler than ambient. So in the winter/fall no big deal but dead of summer and parked, it's an issue. Not hot enough to sweat just sitting there by yourself with the air on full speed but you wouldn't want to move around much.

Following to see what happens...maybe time to take it in somewhere. When I picked up my 15 in the winter I was concerned that the AC would not be cold enough on this tiny car for the Tucson heat, but it has been flawless, and cannot even run it maxed out for very long as it gets too cold. I don't know how the coolant is controlled but I wonder if it's possible that you have hot coolant running thru the heater core or perhaps a flap in the ducting is not moving all the way and directing some air thru the heater core instead of all thru the evaporator. If that were the case you might notice the AC is cold at startup, till the coolant heats up, but on these cars the coolant really heats up fast so your window would be short.

bigb said:

Following to see what happens...maybe time to take it in somewhere. When I picked up my 15 in the winter I was concerned that the AC would not be cold enough on this tiny car for the Tucson heat, but it has been flawless, and cannot even run it maxed out for very long as it gets too cold. I don't know how the coolant is controlled but I wonder if it's possible that you have hot coolant running thru the heater core or perhaps a flap in the ducting is not moving all the way and directing some air thru the heater core instead of all thru the evaporator. If that were the case you might notice the AC is cold at startup, till the coolant heats up, but on these cars the coolant really heats up fast so your window would be short.

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That's the type of issue I want to try and catch before just taking it up to a repair place. A/C repair almost always goes the same the guys wanna just replace everything or at the very least the compressor and send you on the way. It's unfortunate but there aren't many diagnosticians in the trade anymore..."Oh no codes...well ummm....let's just replace everything."