What does an air conditioning condenser do?

The condenser sits at the front of the radiator and is an integral part of your air conditioning (AC) system. It converts the refrigerant gas into a cold liquid to provide chilled air throughout your vehicle, to keep you and your passengers at a comfortable temperature on a hot day.

How often should a condenser need replacing?

A well-maintained and properly serviced condenser should last as long as your car will. However, as with all vehicle components, they’re prone to wear and tear, and leakage and blockage can create irreparable damage.

The law, vehicle regulations and your MOT

A faulty air conditioner won’t affect your car’s MOT but it can affect the comfort of you and your passengers. It’s worth keeping your air conditioning running at its optimum performance as the impact it can have on your vehicle’s fuel efficiency could significantly affect the day-to-day cost of your motoring.

What happens when we replace your condenser?

• Our efficient and fully qualified mechanics will check for possible fault codes relating to your air conditioning that could lead them directly to a condenser fault.

• Wherever required your condenser will be replaced and you’ll be advised of any other connected or associated problems arising from its malfunction.

• You will also be advised of any other parts that may need to be replaced for the best operation and health of your vehicle.

• Once the faulty condenser has been replaced, our mechanics will test it thoroughly to ensure the correct running of the new part and make any adjustments required for its premium operation.

What causes an AC condenser to stop working correctly?

There are a variety of reasons your **AC condenser **could need replacing. It could be that the fan has stopped functioning correctly, or that the condenser has developed a leak or blockage somewhere. It may be because it has become clogged by refrigerant contaminated with unwanted elements, infiltrating it from other parts of the system. It’s also possible that objects being thrown up from the road—including gravel, litter and other debris—could cause damage to interfere with your condenser’s correct operation.

Symptoms of a malfunctioning AC condenser

Your air con isn’t as cold as normal or not working at all

Your condenser could have stopped working correctly if you notice that the air conditioning in your car isn’t providing the usual levels of cold air as normal, or if it isn’t working at all.

You can hear a ticking sound or see liquid

A ticking sound from your engine or areas of liquid leaking around the air conditioning unit are signs that your condenser could be malfunctioning.

Your fuel consumption isn’t as high as normal

A malfunctioning condenser could also affect your fuel consumption, so if you notice that you’re not achieving your usual mpg, it could be time to have your condenser checked out.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen (often shortened to VW) is a German automobile manufacturer founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front, a Nazi labour union.

Volkswagen is the flagship marque of the Volkswagen Group, who in turn is majority owned by Porsche. They own and operate a vast number of cars under other brand names—at the time of writing, they have 342 subsidiary companies.

How popular is Volkswagen in the United Kingdom?

Possibly its most well-known model of the current generation, the VW Golf, was the 2nd best selling car of 2018, behind the Ford Fiesta, which consistently takes the top spot year after year.

The Golf’s 64k registrations in 2018 added to the vast tally of 3.4million Volkswagen cars on the road today.

High quality, highly rated, appropriately priced cars

VW cars achieve consistently strong reviews and are highly respected by critics and drivers alike. They are renowned for investing more money into research and development than almost any other marque and distributing their wealth of motoring knowledge across the many partner brands under the VW Group umbrella.

The Volkswagen Beetle: The ‘people’s car’

A classic of its time, originally named the Volkswagen Type 1, it soon became nicknamed the Beetle due to its unique shape, and subsequently the bug. The unique looking car was designed by Ferdinand Porsche for Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap and simple mass-produced car to travel around his country’s new road network.

The new model Beetle, originally launched to celebrate the original classic in 1997, and with an updated successor in 2011, was designed around the VW Jetta platform sharing much of its build with the Jetta and Golf. VW announced in 2018 that the Beetle would finally be removed from production in July 2019.

VW’s reliability and reputation

Volkswagen ranked 17th place out of 30 car brands in the What Car? Reliability Survey in 2018. Sister companies Skoda and Seat appeared higher up the ranks at 7th and 10th respectively, while executive brand Audi a few places further down the list at joint 20th.

Recent Volkswagen recalls and reliability issues

Various recalls have been made on VW models throughout their motoring history. The following are a list of the most recent in the UK and Europe.

19/04/2019 – VW Tiguan (2017–2018)

The material used for the rear coil springs may be inadequate

13/04/2019 – VW Touareg (2018)

The suspension damper forks are defective and could break

13/04/2019 – VW Caddy (2018)

The predetermined break point in the cushion for the side airbags in on the wrong side

24/03/2019 – VW Polo (2016–2018)

On vehicles with a rear drum brake, the operational wear of the brake lining and use-related settlement of the drum brake may result in a loss of pre-tension on parking brake cables

02/02/2019 – VW Touareg (2018)

A seat belt latch may not have been sufficiently secured to the rear, right-hand seat

23/12/2018 – VW Golf, VW T-Roc, VW Arteon and VW Passat (2018)

The fitting for the headrest may have been incorrectly welded to the backrest

23/12/2018 – VW T-Roc (2018)

An incorrect adhesive bond between the upper and lower parts of the rear spoiler may have been used

20/10/2018 – VW Touran and VW Tiguan (2015–2018)

Moisture can reach the LED module of the sunroof’s ambient lighting which may cause a short-circuit

All recall information sourced from gov.co.uk data.