37C in England and the AC can't cope!
 

Wonder if the CC in European A3's is not as powerful as the US versions? We also have a Jeep Cherokee (Liberty) which has a much better CC and happily copes with this weather.

Thought it was just me... Could be this gas in the AC?!?!?
 

37c hit today at 1pm, London. Set the AC to "LOW" or tried "16c". Watching the MPG's consuming more and more :-( Getting headaches too! Taken some Ibuprofens for a quick fix...

I've seen slow fan AC's working a lot calmer in way hotter conditions in the far east.

I just heard it has something to do with the gas they put in the AC compressor. Could be wrong. Quickfit claim they can make your AC much more cooler from changing this gas?!?!

Your not the only one having problems... Mine is weak and gives me a head ach.

Just read this from www.kwik-fit.com RE: Air-Con
 

Their claim slogan - "Recharge or no charge at Kwik-Fit"

Gonna pop down after work...

"Like other parts of your car, your air conditioning performance deteriorates over time. Every year, a vehicle can lose an estimated 10% of the gas that is required to keep your air conditioning system working efficiently. For this reason, most car manufacturers recommend that air conditioning is recharged or serviced every 2 years. Without this regular maintenance your car engine will have to work even harder to keep you cool which means it will need to use even more fuel."

"With an air conditioning recharge at Kwik-Fit we will assess and top-up your air conditioning system so that the gas and lubricant content of the system is optimised in accordance with manufacturers' specifications. It is not a service where component parts are fixed or replaced."

"Let Kwik-Fit recharge your air-con while-you-wait for ?44.95. As part of our recharge service, we use the latest air-con diagnostic equipment to check and optimise your vehicle's air-con lubricant and refrigerant levels. In under an hour, our specially trained technicians will show you the difference in you air-con system before and after the recharge."

"And you only pay by results!"

"If your coolest air-con vent temperature doesn't improve by 10% or more - you pay nothing. Contact your nearest centre for details."

"Air-con recharge is only available in selected centres in the South East of England."

I spent 8 hours on the road Monday in South Georgia in 100+ deg heat with COLD AC. not an issue here

It's been that hot for about a week here. Takes a while for the car to cool down if left
 

in the sun. It does eventually cool down nicely.

Our Dodge Dakota blows cold immediately. Simple vehicle, room for huge ducts, massive condensor.

Oh well, my old Alfa can barely manage a tepid blow;-)

not changing the gas, adding more gas to the system to replace what escaped.

Apparently the latest refridgerants have smaller molecules than the older versions - in addition
 

to not being quite so effective at cooling (needing a larger capacity system), this means they can escape the system more easily.

Make sure to run the a/c for 10 minutes every week or so even in Winter, as the lubricant helps keep the seals intact and keep the gas in the system.

These systems also work on the principle of a pressure drop across the system. You must have sufficient pessure drop for the system to work effectively. An ex-military guy who worked on cooling systems in Iraq was explaining to me that this is often overlooked.<ul><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-conditioning#Air_Conditioning_System_Basics_and_Th eories">understanding the basics</a></li></ul>

heard this from several A3 owners
 

the AC is simply WEAK

and I agree

Over 107F (42C) here yesterday, and it takes quite a while for my A3's air
 

to get the interior to a comfortable temperature. Huper Optik is looking more and more like my best solution.

For what it's worth, the air on my '96 Infiniti G20 was worse.

Keep in mind that the A/C not only has to cool the interior air, it has to cool the whole interior..
 

especially the seats. If you can find a place for the hot air to go (crack open a couple of windows, tilt open the opensky) for a while, that'll speed up the process.

Been over 110F in Phoenix for more than 10 days. No AC issues here. Cool and comfortable in the car.

Your ceramic tint must help. How does it look on the back glass and
 

rear quarter windows where there is the dot matrix (frit?) around the perimeter?

You can see the matrix for sure. It's blacker than the tint. I'm pretty picky and I think it's ok.

yup...as cold air blows in, warm rises and wants to escape - let it go;-)

Would that be covered under warranty?

No idea if they are any different ...
 

but try using the recirc button when initially running the A/C system, it speeds the cooling process considerably in my A6.

It is entirely possible btw that the systems are different in the US. It seems people here prefer having lots of cold air blown in their faces, whereas in Europe people prefer the indirect approach (i.e. the cooling systems cools the vehicle without blowing all the cold air in your face).

Climate control sucks! Poor programming.
 

There is a serious problem with the climate control of this car. I've dealt with tricky PID loops for temperature control and it's quite obvious that this is just a poorly tuned control system. It appears to be designed for an environment that is really stable and does not vary much from the external temperatures. It should blast the A/C until it gets close to the desired temperature but the system as it is will lower the fan speed way too soon and never reach the desired temp as a result. The same is true for the heat control when it is cold out.

The best solution I've found is this:
Turn the temp way, way down
Turn Recirc on
Turn vents to middle and low
Turn fan speed all the way up

So much for "automatic" climate control. This system requires way more fiddling than normal controls and the results are far less predictable.

I would like to know if the climate control settings can be somehow be accessed to make changes.

The climate control is the only big dissapointment I have with this car.

My AC Gripe: condensation on windscreen on 'Auto' setting
 

I get two pools of condensation where the A/C blows up from the defrost ducts (dash to the windscreen). I then have to run my wipers on low intermittent which seems silly OR turn the flow middle and lower ducts.

Could it be that my windscreen is missing some coating?

110 in Tarzana California A/C is so cold, I have to turn the temp up and lower the fan speed
 

to the lowest setting