Supid Annoying Skoda Climate Control Fault

JP08

This one is bugging me, as I don't really know where to start the fault finding process (and quite frankly don't want to end up in the dealer grubby mitts as they try changing "likely" causes one after the other - I suspect as there is nothing actually ceasing to operate as far as the car is concerned there will be no fault codes).

2006 Skoda Octavia with climate control.

Seems to be working fine most of the time but "ceases to be effective" when on long runs. Doesn't cut out, just fades away when been in continuous use for a couple of hours or so. The fan will still be running, just the air no longer hot or cold, and the the fan doesn't boost when the temperature drops. For both heating and air con, so it's not something simple like a heater matrix blockage, or air lock etc, and it's not the thermostats failed as it works on a day to day basis (and anyhow, it's dual climate control so would expect that on one side only) - just not after a couple of hours run. Switching off/on or leaving the car for a few hours does not "reset" the fault, but an overnight stop does. It is not an intermittent fault, this happens on every long run.

Any ideas? Plenty of threads on various forums (fora ? fori ?) for heater faults, just not one quite like this ...

rich13348

Sell it buy a decent car.

DUTR

JP08 wrote: »

This one is bugging me, as I don't really know where to start the fault finding process (and quite frankly don't want to end up in the dealer grubby mitts as they try changing "likely" causes one after the other - I suspect as there is nothing actually ceasing to operate as far as the car is concerned there will be no fault codes).

2006 Skoda Octavia with climate control.

Seems to be working fine most of the time but "ceases to be effective" when on long runs. Doesn't cut out, just fades away when been in continuous use for a couple of hours or so. The fan will still be running, just the air no longer hot or cold, and the the fan doesn't boost when the temperature drops. For both heating and air con, so it's not something simple like a heater matrix blockage, or air lock etc, and it's not the thermostats failed as it works on a day to day basis (and anyhow, it's dual climate control so would expect that on one side only) - just not after a couple of hours run. Switching off/on or leaving the car for a few hours does not "reset" the fault, but an overnight stop does. It is not an intermittent fault, this happens on every long run.

Any ideas? Plenty of threads on various forums (fora ? fori ?) for heater faults, just not one quite like this ...

Once the cabin is to the desired temperature then it remains quite constant. There was a menu mode in the MK5 Golf around the same year, can't remember the sequence off hand, but it displayed all sorts of info, like the sensors were active inside /outside temp so you may be able to evaluate the fault (if one does exist) .

JP08

Thanks Rich. The thought, and some action on that thought, had occurred to me ... but as every review seems to think the Octavia IS a decent car, finding an equivalent replacement around, say 4-5 years old, for it for a sensible price (cheap !) is proving "challenging" ...

DUTR - sorry, guess I wasn't too clear in the original post. The cabin temperature gets up / down to temperature as desired and works well, holding temperature, ... for two hours or so. Then the cabin gets hot / cold (depending on the outside ambient conditions) and the climate control fails to respond. Will do a search for details of a possible menu (have tried the combo for a system reset - no dice).

wba31

I have the same issue with a 2008 Civic, and research online suggests its a faulty relay (replaced for £30) or a faulty Air Con unit.

Have you looked on Skoda specific forums?

And for the record, I think Skoda's are great cars, planning on my next car to be a Superb Estate...

m0bov

You need to get is "scanned", so either a local Skoda enthuiast on briskoda.net or local garage/dealer. It might be a problem with the fan, low gas, anything really.