Fellow Golf enthusiasts, a note of caution.....
My GTD recently lost the ability to cool the cabin temp and I took it to the local VW dealers for diagnosis. They noted that the refrigerant volume was lower than expected and topped it up. A couple of weeks later same thing happens and obviously this time a leak was suspected. Local dealer diagnoses inspects system and finds a stone chip in the condenser that apparently sits behind the plastic grill in prime position to catch any debris being flung up. Stone has caused a pin hole in the condenser and refrigerant has escaped thru the hole.
cost to replace condenser ...... £800 Apparently the front bumper has to be removed to get to the condenser and most of the cost is labour.
Now i was surfing to see if this was a common problem and came across this post relating to a Mk6 suffering the same issue:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gAssing/...Golf+MK6+Air+Con+Condenser+damaged+by+stone!+
There appears to be a mesh grill that can be fitted to prevent such damage - why the heck don't VW fit this as standard or move the unit so that it is out of the way of flying debris? I'm going to ask if they can fit this to my car to prevent expensive recurrence as the state of our roads can pretty much guarantee it wil happen again... (63 plate GTD with 11k miles....)
any other instances of this out there or was I just unlucky?
My GTD recently lost the ability to cool the cabin temp and I took it to the local VW dealers for diagnosis. They noted that the refrigerant volume was lower than expected and topped it up. A couple of weeks later same thing happens and obviously this time a leak was suspected. Local dealer diagnoses inspects system and finds a stone chip in the condenser that apparently sits behind the plastic grill in prime position to catch any debris being flung up. Stone has caused a pin hole in the condenser and refrigerant has escaped thru the hole.
cost to replace condenser ...... £800 Apparently the front bumper has to be removed to get to the condenser and most of the cost is labour.
Now i was surfing to see if this was a common problem and came across this post relating to a Mk6 suffering the same issue:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gAssing/...Golf+MK6+Air+Con+Condenser+damaged+by+stone!+
There appears to be a mesh grill that can be fitted to prevent such damage - why the heck don't VW fit this as standard or move the unit so that it is out of the way of flying debris? I'm going to ask if they can fit this to my car to prevent expensive recurrence as the state of our roads can pretty much guarantee it wil happen again... (63 plate GTD with 11k miles....)
any other instances of this out there or was I just unlucky?