Question about the A/C

Hi everyone, I have a question about the A/C on our car.

Recently I had to drive the Lancer 2010 of a friend while I was fixing my car.

I noticed on the Lancer that the A/C blow a lot of cold air and I have to say I enjoyed the A/C on this car

So now my car is fixed since a few days and I started using the A/C (I didn't use it that much before), the first thing I noticed is that the golf doesn't blow cold air as the Lancer does. I asked a tech and he told me that a golf will never blow colder air than a Lancer, because the lancer use a clutch system while on our car it's some kind of sequential system, so it does use less fuel and it mix cold and hot air so the air inside the car should be comfortable and it reduces the risk of catching cold. But even after 20-30 minutes of driving, the air wasn't really cold like it could be on the lancer, so I opened the windows and the wind was colder than the air coming from the A/C... (Well it was more refreshing than the A/C) I was about 100km/h and it was 27 celcius outside

Is my A/C normal ? I don't think I have a leak and the tech told me that I can't ask for a refill, since a car shouldn't need a refill except if there is a leak and if there is a leak, it needs to be fixed before refilling, also the air coming from the A/C was a bit colder than the exterior air, I also hear sounds when I start the A/C so I think the compressor works

It it normal for our car to not be able to blow super cold air like others cars ? I set the A/C to 18 and I can say that the air inside of the car or the air coming from the A/C wasn't 18 but more

Edit: I find out what the tech was talking about, it's call Climatic and it's a semi-automatic climate control, when you set it to 18, it will blow hot or cold air depending of the temp in the cabin, on a side it's a good feature because it regulate automaticly, but I would prefer a fully manual A/C like on the Lancer where I can decide when I want to blow cold air or hot air, because even if it's 18 on the car, that doesn't mean it has cold my body... I will have to get a tool that measure the ambient temperature on the cabin so I will be able to see if it's really at 18

My car blows cold, before i replaced the condenser after it started leaking when it got hit by a rock and after.

If your '10 is like mine and you set the temp to 18C to 25C the system will regulate the temp but below 18C it should blow cold at the setting. You should get the system checked as mine blows cold after a minute of driving. The Sanden compressor in the MK6 does have a faulty pressure valve, if it is intermittent it can cause the AC to not blow cold.

EDIt: Yes I replaced the condenser myself, since thee was no gas left in the system after the leak I did the R&R of the condenser, vacuumed the system and refilled it my self.

No issues since

MLue1 said:

My car blows cold, before i replaced the condenser after it started leaking when it got hit by a rock and after.

If your '10 is like mine and you set the temp to 18C to 25C the system will regulate the temp but below 18C it should blow cold at the setting. You should get the system checked as mine blows cold after a minute of driving. The Sanden compressor in the MK6 does have a faulty pressure valve, if it is intermittent it can cause the AC to not blow cold.

EDIt: Yes I replaced the condenser myself, since thee was no gas left in the system after the leak I did the R&R of the condenser, vacuumed the system and refilled it my self.

No issues since

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How do you set it below 18C ?

my AC has ALWAYS sucked since new. My moms 95 jeep blows genuinely twice as cold as my gti does

damagi123 said:

my AC has ALWAYS sucked since new. My moms 95 jeep blows genuinely twice as cold as my gti does

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Ya for sure I think VW has the worst AC compared to others but outside air in the summer ("27 celcius outside") shouldn't be cooler or more refreshing than the AC.

My buddy with his '11 GTI had a problem with poor cooling AC after his compressor was replaced under warranty by the dealer, they insisted that it was running properly. After I did my R&R, we had a shop removed the gas, adjust the amount of oil in the compressor, recharged it with 30-32oz of R134 (by weight) from Autozone and it has been really good since. I learnt when I did my AC that you're supposed to measure the oil in the old compressor and adjust the amount of compressor oil in the new one to be about the same as the old. Too much oil or R134 causes poor cooling.

FlowMK6 said:

How do you set it below 18C ?

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The Lo setting just below 18C is not temperature regulated (Climatic / Semi-Automatic Climate Control).
Set it to Lo and put a thermometer at the two main dash vents and see the temp, after I did mine last year it was cooling in the mid 50s (fish tank thermometer was F not in C).

MLue1 said:

Ya for sure I think VW has the worst AC compared to others but outside air in the summer ("27 celcius outside") shouldn't be cooler or more refreshing than the AC.

My buddy with his '11 GTI had a problem with poor cooling AC after his compressor was replaced under warranty by the dealer, they insisted that it was running properly. After I did my R&R, we had a shop removed the gas, adjust the amount of oil in the compressor, recharged it with 30-32oz of R134 (by weight) from Autozone and it has been really good since. I learnt when I did my AC that you're supposed to measure the oil in the old compressor and adjust the amount of compressor oil in the new one to be about the same as the old. Too much oil or R134 causes poor cooling.


The Lo setting just below 18C is not temperature regulated (Climatic / Semi-Automatic Climate Control).
Set it to Lo and put a thermometer at the two main dash vents and see the temp, after I did mine last year it was cooling in the mid 50s (fish tank thermometer was F not in C).

Click to expand...

Ho well didn't know 18 and LO were different settings, I thought 18 was the LOwest setting ^^

Is this set to LO or I have to do something else ?



It does throw cold air, the car has been idle for 10 minutes and it seems to be cold, but compared to the Lancer it's nothing... I'm waiting after the A/C to get cooler but I don't feel it's going to be cooler in any way... Maybe the A/C is fine and as damagi said, our A/C sucks and I have to deal with it ^^

Sorry for the picture resolution, I'm on my phone and when I said the outside air was more refreshing, I meant the wind was more refreshing, now I understand I have to wait after the A/C to get cold and my A/C takes more time than the Lancer, I just have to be more patient