Air Conditioning woes

[Vermilion]

Here in Mississippi its starting to get HOT. Today the high is 80. While the white of my paint helps some and so does the ceramic tint, it is still quite warm inside. I've tried everything I know to get my AC to blow COLD within a minute or two. AC on AUTO ON/OFF, recirc on/off, actual AC ON and OFF, different style vent options. Holding the Auto button for a second or two, highway speeds, getting on the throttle pretty hard. Nothing seems to really help.

Earlier I got in the car and it had been baking all morning and part of early afternoon, climb in, start it up and get a face full of HOT air. Roll the windows down to try to get some of the air out, turn all AC off then back on, fiddle with the fan speeds, auto, recirc on and off. For about 15-20 minutes it was blowing warm air. After that bit of time it started to cool down a little. With everything on and on LO you would figure it would be ice cold but it was just "cool". Really sucks to be driving in the heat with your AC blowing warm air and sweat dripping down your face and into your eyes etc.

I plan to take it to my dealer who is 120 miles away (closest one) to get this checked out soon and also do my first service.

[949]

the compressor on the ac works the steotngest when you have load. plus recirculation also increases the cold effect.

[slvrb7]

Lol you probably have no freeon, my buddy bought a brand new b8 and had the same issue turned out they forgot to charge the system

[Vermilion]

It has blown cold a handful of times. Usually when at highway speeds.

[slvrb7]

Hmmm make audi tow it then

[awdspider]

I had the same issue last summer. It would blow cold every now and then. Took it to the dealer (car was a month old) and it was there for a month. Got the car back, with no gas left in the car I might add and it still wasn't blowing as cold as the loaner a3 that I was driving. I was told the ac is working normally and should only cool the inside of the car down 20° cooler than ambient temp. By this time the summer was over and didnt feel lkke messing with the dealer again .

Well it regularly gets over a 100° here in texas, so I'm expecting another trip to the dealer when The summer starts up again.

[gamegenie]

man that bit about your A3's AC.

& Wow 80 degrees already and it's barely April.

[Vermilion]

It was worthless yesterday. For about an hour it blew warm air. Ambient temp was around 67ish but sitting in the sun all morning and with black leather it was an oven when I got in. Went and hung out with some friends for a bit and when I got in the car the AC had defaulted to 70 and it was blowing cold cold cold. Was weird. Maybe 70 is the magic number lol. Still gonna take it to the dealer soon though.

[S3pang]

I'm taking mine in Tuesday for no AC issue as well. Kinda lame for a new car with this type of an issue

[Cabby09]

Unfortunately the A3/S3 has never had great aircon. Even the 8P was never that efficient in cooling the car.

[Thumper3]

Unfortunately the A3/S3 has never had great aircon. Even the 8P was never that efficient in cooling the car.

Well, mine about froze my fingers off yesterday. Wife likes it COLD and I didn't notice she had kicked the AC on (I usually drive without it and set to 67 or so for cool air). Had to quickly bump my temp to 73 before my fingers turned blue LMAO Don't even have tints yet, car was cooled after our 45 minute hike with ease after driving away.

It was in the low 80s yesterday, but air is thinner up here so it doesn't feel as hot. Humidity really hangs on to the heat, I can imagine it being different in Miss with the 80% humidity LOL

But yeah, best to have the dealer check it out if the air coming out of the vents isn't cold. If you set the temp to like 60, on recirc it should be coming out cold and noticeable.

If it cools at all I doubt they forgot to charge it at all from the factory, but if they didn't get it full it wouldn't be able cool fully. it could happen, machine reading faulty pressure when charging, or a worker not paying attention and disconnecting early, you might only have half a charge.

[JonnyThrice]

Same here! We've had our A3 Prestige since January, haven't had to use the AC much, even here in LA. But the past few times I've used it, it just doesnt work at all. Around town, highway speeds, even after 20-30 minutes of driving, it just blows regular air.

It has worked, and when it works, it works well, blows nice and cold. But it has been completely intermittent. It's as if there's a disconnect between the "AC" button and the compressor, it just doesn't turn on!

I'll be bringing it to the dealer this week. Hopefully its not going to be one of those things that just suddenly works when its in the shop!

[JonnyThrice]

Same here! We've had our A3 Prestige since January, haven't had to use the AC much, even here in LA. But the past few times I've used it, it just doesnt work at all. Around town, highway speeds, even after 20-30 minutes of driving, it just blows regular air.

It has worked, and when it works, it works well, blows nice and cold. But it has been completely intermittent. It's as if there's a disconnect between the "AC" button and the compressor, it just doesn't turn on!

I'll be bringing it to the dealer this week. Hopefully its not going to be one of those things that just suddenly works when its in the shop!

UPDATE:

So I brought the car into service to check the A/C. They said they have seen the problem before, and in the end, they ended up replacing the entire A/C compressor.

So if you have intermittent AC, go to the dealer and get it fixed!

[awdspider]

Well thats what they did to mine last summer. (Compressor was replaced)

today it was only 70° and I had the ac on max airspeed and coolest temp setting and it wasn't that cold. With those low Temps it should take a matter of minutes to cool the car

[nimonery]

Sorry to bump an old thread here, but can't post a new thread due to being too new of a member. I have a 2020 A3 and have been having trouble with the AC not blowing cold. Brought it into the dealership, and its taken them a week to diagnose the issue. The just got back to me today and told me the evaporator needs to be replaced... They then went on to say the part has to come from Germany and it could take anywhere from 2-4 weeks for the part to arrive, then another 3-4 days to install since the entire dash and windshield needs to come out to do the job... Has anyone experienced anything like this?? I do have a loaner but man this just sucks to be out of my car for so long...

[MikTip]

https://www.syunro.net/2014/10/autom...tioning-works/

Ya need these to fix:



Plus knowledge of auto a/c...tools...and how to safely use freon..AKA 134...

If not...take it to a shop.