General Do I have aircon or is it broken?

[kellyleanne89]

I have recently purchased an 08 fiat grande punto active. I have the snow flake button and air distributor button but neither work. When I spoke to the dealer he advised that the cat does not have these functions. Does anyone know if these come as standard, and how I can check if I do in fact have AC or if these are dummy buttons.
Thanks

 

[Andy Monty]

Welcome to the forum kelly :wave:


if you have the snowflake button between the heated rear screen and the air recirculate button you should have air conditioning......




what engine does your car have?

it might be that the dash has become damaged in the past and someone has fitted a air con heater control panel ....

the cars wit AC have extra bit in the engine bay... if you let us know what engine you have i'll try and find a pic of a car with and without so you can compare....
this is a 1.2 without ac

https://www.fiatforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=78279&d=1274535536

and this is a 1.2 with ac (ok its a 500 but its the same lay out

you can see the ac compressor at the top centre of the pic

https://www.fiatforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=98117&d=1326552089

 

[kellyleanne89]

I have all three buttons but only the heated rear screen button led light comes on when pressed. It's a 1.4.

 

[Jacob]

Sounds like the garage new it was broken and pretended it just didn't have the feature.

 

[portland_bill]

If you have a snowflake button, you should have aircon. Without aircon button is either not there, or a dummy, with no logo.

Look under bonnet.
In front of the cooling radiator should be another one, which is the aircon condenser.
On teh front end of the engine, the auxiliary belt will also drive the aircon pump, heavy lump similar in size to the alternator, with two pipes from it. Follow those pipes, one goes to the front rad, the other should pass into the bulkhead for the cooling rad (evaporator) inside the heater box.

If it does not work, could be out of gas, it slowly escapes and needs re-gassing every 3 years or so. Or there could be a leak. Any competent garage should be able to evacuate and leak test the system before re-gassing.

The gas also contains a small amount of oil to lubricate the seals and pump. If it has not been used for some time, the seals may have dried out, meaning new seals at every pipe joint, and/or a recon pump, so have it estimated before going ahead.

Recirculate button should still work.

 

[portland_bill]

Sounds like the garage new it was broken and pretended it just didn't have the feature.

If you've just bought the car from a dealer, they should fix it, whatever the cost.

Update your location. If garage quibble, and still insist no aircon, there may be another forum member with a similar car near you can meet and point at the aircon bits to prove they're there.

 

[kellyleanne89]

I only got it yesterday so il take it back to them tomorrow. I called him earlier and he said it didn't come with aircon which I thought was a bit unlikely. I just wanted to double check before I go down there and make myself look a numpty!

 

[kellyleanne89]

How do I upload a pic then maybe ti can see because they both look the same to me ��

 

[portland_bill]

Under the reply box is a button "Go Advanced", press it.

Scroll down below it, to see the "Manage Attachments" button, press that.
A new box appears, click the top "Browse" button and select your pic.
Then click "Upload" and wait until it has done, then close the box.
If unsure, use the "Preview Post" button.

You have to have posted a minimum number of times, but I think it is 4 or 5, so if it won't let you, add another post to this, then try again.

 

[kellyleanne89]

Thanks very much

 

[kellyleanne89]

Hopefully you can all see this ok

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Looks to me like you have the relevant plumbing under the bonnet for aircon, so it would seem it's just not working

 

[jameshobiecat]

If the button isn't illuminating when pressed it might simply be that the wiring plug has worked loose from the back of the switch. Out of gas or not, the button should still light up. You can remove the small trim panels from the leading edge of the footwells (one screw each IIRC) and peep in.

 

[deanm1]

.

 

[kellyleanne89]

Thanks for your reply, il give them a call today

 

[portland_bill]

You definitely have aircon. Therefore they should make it work. You don't need to fix anything.

On the pic you posted, under the blue curved pipe is a grey lump driven by the auxiliary belt. That is the aircon pump.
To its left is a grey pipe with a black valve on it. That is one of the aircon pipes and the valve is for access to the gas. Don't touch yourself, needs a specialist and connection to the proper equipment to extract old gas and replace with new.

 

[cmosfxx]

You have a/c. This is the compressor so...

1) A/C Button LED / Air Recirculation not working.
A/C should work when fan is set to 1 or higher. (0 = a/c off)
As for air recirculation you can hear for air flow change if you set the fan at high level and press the button.

If still not working...

2) Fuse problem. Should be checked first.
3) Cable problem. Rare but you never know.

 

[kellyleanne89]

Thank u all very much for your replies. The dealer Is going to rectify the problem on wednesday

 

[Jacob]

Hi,

did the garage honour their promise and fix your A/C?

 

[kellyleanne89]

Yes they did, it's all up and running again now