General climate control not working

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General climate control not working

steve gray

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I recently bought a 2013 Fiat Panda Easy and after driving the car I found the climate control system blows hot air all the time I have followed the instructions in the owners handbook and turned the air temperature knob to blue and Pressed the knob to activate the climate control system; the LED on the knob
switches on but after 20 Minutes there's still only hot air coming from vents do I need to regass Air-con or is the problem with the control buttons.
 
I can hear a click when i press the air con button not sure if radiator fan is on
 
If the compressor pulls in it clicks. Normally if the system pressure drops sufficiently the trinary switch (it should have one) will not allow the compressor to engage.
So my feeling is its very low on gas so a recharge is required.
 
thanks for this information I'm going to book my car in for a Free Air Con Check at Halfords Autocentre will let you know the outcome
 
Steve - not sure about the Halfords where you are, but the one near me is diabolical with air-con problems - I found tthis out when I used them for recharging my SAAB (which they did - but didn't carry out any form of leak-check first! So it leaked out again - causing me more expense!).

If you can, try and find an air-con specialist near you - they should be able do the job with their eyes shut and get it right first time and be quicker and more accurate in identifying any potential problems. Good luck!
 
This is good advice. "Free" checks at Halfords can end up costing you £££, and not very well-spent at that.
 
Is it hot air or outside temp air?

If it's blowing hot all the time it's nothing to do with the Aircon it's probably a fault with the climate control system specifically the mixer/bleeder flap that controls the temperature of the air
 
I recently bought a 2013 Fiat Panda Easy and after driving the car I found the climate control system blows hot air all the time I have followed the instructions in the owners handbook and turned the air temperature knob to blue and Pressed the knob to activate the climate control system; the LED on the knob
switches on but after 20 Minutes there's still only hot air coming from vents do I need to regass Air-con or is the problem with the control buttons.

Is it definitely not switching from Hot to Cold..

Aircon would only temper the heat emitted from the heater matrix


Around here air temps are @15'c

So :
before the cars coolant temp gauge starts to climb..

Depress the aircon button.. and see if the air goes from Cool to Icy.

Your issue sounds like the control flaps are not working.. :eek:

but check the cheap things first ;)
 
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With the basic heater controls its easy enough to differentiate between an air con fault or a heater flap issue. Turning the temperature control between hot and cold you can normally hear a light clunk on extremes of the control, there also should be slight stiffness in the movement of the control. Also with a fully warmed up engine with the air con off the air blown into the cabin will be at outside ambient when the control is at the maximum blue setting and at red it should be hot. If this is not the case and you get hot air when the control is at blue the issue is NOT air con related it is a flap issue behind the dash or the operating cable is disconnected or broken.
 
Does your car have digital heating controls or rotary controls? If the latter, then you do not have Climate Control, but can still have air con - manually controlled.

If you have the digital controls, there are several reported cases of the motor that moves the heater 'flaps' breaking. If this is the case it is a real pain to fix as the whole dash has to come out... big, and very expensive task.

If you have rotary control knobs, then it is more likely a simple case of reconnecting the cable to the heater box - the cables work a bit like bike brakes and push or pull the flaps via external levers on the heater casing.

(for info: there is always hot water circulating around inside the heater. There are plastic flaps inside the heater box (behind the dash) that guide the air coming in to go through or round, the hot bit.... it is the movement of this flap, or lack of it, that will be why your car is always blowing hot air.)
 
Will I have to remove the dashboard to reconnect the cable to the heater box
 
Depends..

What type of heat controls do you have.. ?and what was the result of the aircon chilling test ??

Manual I turn the button from red to blue and press the air con button I can’t have the test done till 28 September as garage is fully booked bu this is what he said Hi Steve

A full nitrogen pressure test if no gas in system would be best advise

If there’s a leak found at that point the cost would be £40 +vat for the call out and full leak test

If the leak can’t be found with nitrogen the next step would be to re-gas the system and add u/v dye to the new gas to help trace any leaks in the future this cost would then increase to £50 +vat for the old style gas r1134a which your car should have

The gas in vehicles is naturally lost over time about 10 to 15% a year on average so it might just need re-gassing due to natural wastage with been 7 year old

I hope all this makes sense
 
Sounds like

The correct approach..
But a little pricey

( AND..it wont address your control flap issue )

As I said earlier.. there are ways of testing the refigerant side without paying £50

You can use software to read the system pressure..

But you can test the Chillers effectiveness in less than a minute..sat in your slippers : flipflops
 
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