I've got a 2003 A4, 1.8T Quattro with about 70,000 miles. Over the past 18 months I've noticed that my air conditioning only works for about 45 minutes, and then it stops blowing cold air. It blows "cool" air, but not cold, and its pretty useless on a hot day. I know there's dual systems in the car but if I turn both to LOW and the fan on high, its pointless. What's more, if I stop for gas for about 5-10 minutes and then start the car, I imediately get cold air again, but this only last for about another 5 minutes. True story.

The nearest AUDI dealership is 80 miles away but I've had the car in for service on the conditioning serveral times, thankfully, still under warranty. As far as they're concerned, they've replaced "everything", including fans/motors, external temperature sensors, etc.. on both sides. They believe me there's a problem but can't see it for themselves unless they go for a 45 minute drive (which they haven't done). The next time I go for service they promised they'd take my car for a drive immediately, so they can experience what I am. However, they're still at a loss for what the probem would be, even though they've got their best guy on it. We're all hoping this post might help.

To add to the confusion, and I can't imagine how its related, but my heater doens't work well on a long drive of more than 45 minutes, either. I live in eastern Canada so I do see real cold days in the winter and the last time I went on an extened winter drive (10 months ago), I nearly froze by the end. However, after I stopped for gas I noticed the hot air again, but this only lasted for 5 more minutes. Sound familiar?

Thoughts??! Many thanks in advance.

-Jason

 

i guess ur car doesn't like to give u the comfort it was made to give u haha. well the problems seem to be related. im thinking comfort and convineince computer could be screwing with u. well the best auditechs are on here. pm auditech79 or techbod. they should be promoted to like general service managers for all of US. no my nose is not brown either

 

Sounds like you have key recognition problem to me. You know if car dont recognize the key it turns A/C off or something like that. Maybe its related somehow. I know in my car if i just idle for like 30 minutes it turns my AC off, and shows car/key blinking light. Also check if you have on ECONOMY if you click that you LO will not be AS COLD. Another thing check where it blows from, if you have on AUTO it might not blow on vents hard and make it feel warmer. About HOT i have no clue. hopefully it helped, GL

 

yeah i would check the auto settings and things like that. and BOPOH your cars not turbo is it cause letting it idle for that long prolly isnt the best idea.

 

it is turbo, i dont have turbo timer, and sometimes i let it idle to let it cool off while listening to music or watching tv and next thingI know AC if off and car/key blinking

 

Sounds to me that there is a problem with the flap valve that directs air over either the heater core or over the AC cooler. Another problem could either be the interior temperature sensor. Someone with a VAGcom can pull the codes in the HVAC system and see what is up.

 

Thanks for the feedback. A few notes; my car is not reporting any problems, I've never used the Economy option and I've never seen a blinking car/key light that would indicate a key recognition issue. I just ran the free VAG-COM software against my car this eve and checked the Air Conditioning (08 - Auto HVAC) - no faults.

A faulty sensor makes sense to me - could there be an issue with the temperature sensor, without a fault? I thought if I just went to LOW, the car would just pump as much cold air as possible, regardless? At low, its not trying to maintain a specific temperature so does it rely on the sensor? Are there sensors on both sides? I think, whatever it is, its linked to both systems because on a hot day neither side of the car blows cold air after 45 minutes.

Thanks!

 

Maybe your AC is low on pressure? did you try to refill it or anything?

 

I don't think they refilled the AC, if that's something they can do. I'm scheduled at the dealer this Friday so I'm looking for suggestions before I go. So far I've got; 1) interior temp. sensor, 2) AC pressure.
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