Climatronic Passat 3BG - Correct refrigerant charge at ATU?

Today I went to ATU for an air conditioning service because the AC has been cooling noticeably less effectively this summer compared to last year (Passat 3 BG, manufactured in 08/2003, and no other work has been done on the AC system).

ATU technicians connect the vehicle to a Waeco RHS1050.

Waeco indicates a refrigerant level of 540 g (recommended fill level: 625 mL). Me: 'But that's not much missing.' ATU customer: 'Yes, because you have to subtract the 200g that are in the tubes, so approximately half of the refrigerant is missing.' He says this and writes by hand on the order form: 'Remaining amount: 330g'.

Since the next part of the game is supposed to last for three-quarters of an hour, I'm going to the MediaMarkt across the street to pass the time. A mistake, I know.

When I return, the Waeco device indicates that it's finished, and a strip of printed material is hanging out.

A/C drain.
g. 540 refrigerant
22 ml of oil.

Vacuum.
min. 29
mB. 1

Oil filling.
ml. 32

UV filling.
ml. 10

A/C refrigerant.
g. 625 refrigerant



Another ATU employee gets into the car and turns on the air conditioning, presumably as a functional test. The left pressure indicator on the Waeco device drops from over 6 bar to just above 2 bar after the motor starts.

By the way, the air conditioner is now cooling *slightly* better. At an outside temperature of 31 degrees Celsius, the outlet temperature with fresh air is still 12 degrees Celsius (with recirculated air, it's 6.5 degrees Celsius).
The Climatronic system persistently reports an error code 4F8 in the diagnostic program, even after clearing it (I had this error code before as well, and I don't want to pay a lot of money to have the motor replaced).

Question: If the refrigerant charging hoses supposedly contain 200g of refrigerant, shouldn't 200g more have been added, resulting in 825g instead of 625g? Or did the ATU employee tell lies, and was there actually almost no refrigerant missing?

Best regards from Karlsruhe.
Jens.

OMG, ATU, that's all I have to say about that.


The total coolant capacity of the entire cooling system is 625. 'How can the ATU employee possibly know how much [something] should be in the hoses?'

625g - 540g = 85g, and that's how much was missing. That's normal and usually doesn't affect the cooling performance yet.

Regardless, in your case, the refilling was most likely completely unnecessary. The reported error suggests that the problem likely lies elsewhere, as you yourself know.

The A*U action has also already cost you money, and you could have at least partially paid for the replacement of the stepper motor (yes, I know, the dashboard has to be removed $$$). That will happen to you eventually, regardless.

Furthermore, the type of refrigerant oil varies depending on the compressor manufacturer; for Denso, it's G 052 300 A2, while for Zexel, it's G 052 200 A2 or G 052 154 A2. Ask the A*U technician about the correct or the oil being used. And please don't forget to take a picture of his facial expression and post it here .

The remaining refrigerant volume is misleading. When the system is being emptied and the surrounding pressure is reached, the refrigerant is in a gaseous state and can then be disregarded, even though its density is approximately 4 kg/m³.

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the encouraging words . Well, it's still cooling down...



'The remaining amount of refrigerant is negligible. When the system is being emptied and the surrounding pressure is reached, the refrigerant is in a gaseous state and can then be disregarded, even considering its relatively high density of approximately 4 kg/m³.'

I didn't understand - what does it mean?


Thank you.
Best regards.
Jens.