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Air Con - Servicing?

bertj

Ready to race!
Location
Wirral (UK)
I've recently been plagued with phone calls from the local VW dealer (part of huge dealership group) insisting that the Air Conditioning on my 2 year old (10k miles) Mk.7 requires servicing. AFAIK there's no requirement for the Air Con to be serviced and, as it's working perfectly OK, I think this yet another attempt to boost the profits of a dealership group.
I'd be grateful for comments.
 

golfdave

Autocross Champion
Location
Scotland (U.K.)
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf GT Estate
Arnold shark I bet?...
 

golfdave

Autocross Champion
Location
Scotland (U.K.)
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf GT Estate
No - I******* - Clue = Good Hope - work that one out! ;)

I'll *******...

anyway air con servicing is a money maker for the dealers....mind you mine is independent & don't try this bS...well not on me anyway..:cool:
 

SRGTD

Autocross Newbie
Location
UK
It’s standard practice of most VW dealers to tell you the air con needs servicing when the car gets to two years old. It is a bit of a money maker for the dealer, but I suppose there are two schools of thought;

  • if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Your air con shouldn’t really need re-gassing at two years - it should still be working fine, especially if you run it 24/7. I’ve owned VW’s up to five years old and not had the air con serviced, and it’s worked fine without any issues.
  • get it done, and it’s recorded on VW’s system that it’s been serviced. If your air con compressor or condenser then fail when the car’s out of warranty, you’re more likely to get a goodwill contribution from VW towards the cost of repairs . If you’ve not had it serviced, then I’d say there’s little to no chance of any goodwill from VW. There’s no guarantee of goodwill either if you have had it serviced.
 

Cestrian

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
UK
Just had my a/c serviced. They reckon the gas depletes after two years. They valeted the car as well.
 

SRGTD

Autocross Newbie
Location
UK
Just had my a/c serviced. They reckon the gas depletes after two years. They valeted the car as well.

Apologies for going off topic, but if the dealer was going to valet my car as part of an a/c service, that would be a good enough reason for me not to get the air con serviced!

The standard of VW dealers courtesy car washes is pretty poor IMO; usually a very poor washing technique - a single bucket of water that’s been used on the previous service washes (so the water can be quite dirty), and a gritty sponge, and dried with a dirty chamois. The perfect recipe for inflicting swirl marks on your paintwork.

When my car goes into the dealer for servicing or warranty work, I put my ‘please do not wash this vehicle’ hanger on the rear view mirror;



I also tie a ‘do not wash’ tag on my keys and get the same instruction added by the service advisor to the worksheet.

Overkill? I don’t think so. My car goes into the dealers with clean, swirl-free paintwork, I don’t want complimentary swirls added by the dealers sponge monkey! ?
 

Finglonga

Drag Racing Champion
Just had my a/c serviced. They reckon the gas depletes after two years. They valeted the car as well.


The wifes car is 9 years old and only now starting to lose the freezing cold aircon. They just tell you anything to get you to spend money.
 

adam1991

Banned
Location
USA
Just had my a/c serviced. They reckon the gas depletes after two years. They valeted the car as well.

It's a closed system. If the gas "depletes" then the system is flat-out broken.

There's nothing to service. Do they also offer to service your back seat middle armrest?
 

marvin1

Ready to race!
Location
South London UK
It doesn't 'deplete' as such but probably loses efficacy, as some gas seeps out of the system via seals over time and so I expect that there is a percentage loss say over a five year period thereby making the system less effective than when new.
A regass would certainly make a difference but if the aircon is old and already compromised through ageing then the regass would not last long.
 

kinch

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
fife
My compressor failed on my gtd when the car was 2 years and 10 months old. The air con hadn't had a service and it was not an issue. So I basically got it serviced for free!
 

ColinStone

Ready to race!
Location
United Kingdom
Car(s)
MKVII 2016 Match BM
especially if you run it 24/7.

Mk7 AC compressor doesn't have a clutch so is always turning. Instead of a clutch it is a variable swash plate design. So even with AC switched off in car, the compressor is still pumping tiny volume of gas/oil round the system.

https://macsworldwide.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/variable-displacement-ac-compressor/
"Displacement can be reduced to about 1 percent when cooling is not needed, keeping seals lubricated, minimizing oil pooling and preventing other kinds of damage that result from long periods of inactivity. "
 

SRGTD

Autocross Newbie
Location
UK
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