I'm new to this forum so forgive me in advance if i'm in the wrong area. I bought this car last year and found that the A/C will not start blowing cool air until 10 minutes or so after starting car. Today I found that it was overcharged and corrected that issue but it still does the same thing as before, blowing hot air first for 10 minutes or so. Before discharging and recharging, I was wondering if the A/C system in this car is designed to only start cooling after the engine has rached normal operating temperature?

Thanks

 

I have a 2007 A3 and it blows cold air within just a couple of minutes or less.
I initially had a similar problem because of the AC high low pressure switch being faulty. You could check into that it helped me a lot and is an "easy" fix (I had an intermittent code for that). The switch screws into the AC pipe and because of a pressure valve you won't have to be afraid of gas leaking out when you change it.

 

Thanks for the help. I found out this morning that it was making a hissing noise as if air was blowing thru a tin can or so but slightly cooling. Then it quit cooling altogether. Still making a hissing noise in the dash area and the A/C coolant level reads 37, well between the norm. At least when it was overcharged it worked and didn't make this noise. Does that sound like it could still be the switch?

 

2 options I can think of -
1. You are lucky and it is the switch (only like 100$)
2. You are not so lucky and it's the compressor itself (there have been several early 8p models that had faulty compressors).

 

I've checked the system and the compressor is pulling down when turned on. I changed the cabin filter as well. Put more coolant in and it only felt cold on the passenger side near window. all others were only slightly cool. But at that point it was in the warning zone. Brought back down to fully charged area and it quit cooling again totally. Unplugged the wire to what I believe you would call the Hi/Lo switch or Thruster switch and it dropped into ECON mode. Then hooked back up. I'm still going to change it if this is the correct switch near radiator fan. I want to clean the coil also. Could you tell me if this is located under the plastic windsheild cowl on the passenger side? Working 6 and 7 days a week leaves me no time to leave with mechanics I don't trust so much. I appreciate the help.

 

The Hi/Lo switch I replaced on mine was in the front / passenger side. Looking from the front bumper down into the engine bay it is located behind the radiator between it and the fog light grille.

 

Sorry about that. I meant the location of the cooling core/coil. I would still like to clean it. I think it is underneath of the windsheid cowl on the passenger side but didn't want to dismantle that area if I had figured wrong. Would that be correct location. I just replaced the wiper motor and believe i saw it there. I've found the switch, just trying to find one available. Thanks again for the help.