A customer owns a high mileage 2008 Skoda Octavia VRS Petrol (turbo) with long-term failed Air Conditioning, he complained of hissing noises in the car when he tried to activate it.

Our new, sophisticated and largely automatic A/C Service machine was connected and unsurprisingly found no refrigerant in the circuit. The condenser at the front was heavily degraded and so a replacement was sanctioned. After much disassembling of the front end it was in. Still no joy.

The pump was removed and stripped and held plenty of debris from the failing condenser so was ruined. It was replaced and we now had a cool car again.

The moral of the story is that one fault can often cause another so don’t ignore problems or it could cost you more to resolve.