C Class Air conditioning

[razorman]

Hi,
My first visit to this forum and my question regards my compny car, which is 2002 C270 CDI.
My question is are all C class air conditioning units crap? I reported a fault on my last service and they said nothing was wrong. Today the sun came out it was showing 66 degrees outside and my car was boiling with the airconditioning on it's lowest setting and the fan going full blast for an hour. It was actually colder outside when I got home.
If this is not common, anyone any idea what is probably wrong so That I can have a good moan at the service people.

 

[Rory]

Might be something useful in this thread (or in one of the links):
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2356

As it's a company car, is it on a maint contract? If so, just take it back to the dealer - the a/c should freeze your nuts off if it's working properly.

 

[Dieselman]

Might be something useful in this thread (or in one of the links):
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2356

As it's a company car, is it on a maint contract? If so, just take it back to the dealer - the a/c should freeze your nuts off if it's working properly.

No it won't. MB air con just isn't that cold. I think this is to stop that feeling of being in a fridge that soem air con can give.

 

[Rory]

No it won't. MB air con just isn't that cold. I think this is to stop that feeling of being in a fridge that soem air con can give.

My new C-Class certainly is - I got into yesterday when it had been standing in the sun and it blew uncomfortably cold air out of the vents.

 

[fuzzer]

my 270 cdi air con is like ice

 

[Dave Kerr]

My old '03 C220 was like a fridge on its coldest setting but my new one is hopeless, its going back to have all the faults sorted out on the 18th April, a month after I bought it.
On its coldest setting it was recirculating warm air and in a black car with black leather its very uncomfortable, we had to drive with the Windows open.
I am expecting when I take it back they will tell me they could find nothing wrong with it.

Dave

 

[miro]

My old '03 C220 was like a fridge on its coldest setting but my new one is hopeless, its going back to have all the faults sorted out on the 18th April, a month after I bought it.
On its coldest setting it was recirculating warm air and in a black car with black leather its very uncomfortable, we had to drive with the Windows open.
I am expecting when I take it back they will tell me they could find nothing wrong with it.

Dave

Test drive a new car and see if it is any different.

 

[Dave Kerr]

Test drive a new car and see if it is any different.

Miro, it is a brand new car!!

Dave

 

[BenzComander]

Might be something useful in this thread (or in one of the links):
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=2356

As it's a company car, is it on a maint contract? If so, just take it back to the dealer - the a/c should freeze your nuts off if it's working properly.

Agree, had an E300TD that blew ice cold air practically from start up. Used to sit in it during my lunch hour as it was colder than the office!!

Get it checked by an aircon specialist, probably leaked its gas Mate had a brand new Alfa that had leaked all it's gas due to a faulty seal. Took them ages to find it, had to use a dye in the gas in the end

 

[miro]

Miro, it is a brand new car!!

Dave

Hence my proposition to make it a sample size of 2 or greater. Nothing breeds confidence like practical data.

 

[mark.t]

e/c button

Hi,
My first visit to this forum and my question regards my compny car, which is 2002 C270 CDI.
My question is are all C class air conditioning units crap? I reported a fault on my last service and they said nothing was wrong. Today the sun came out it was showing 66 degrees outside and my car was boiling with the airconditioning on it's lowest setting and the fan going full blast for an hour. It was actually colder outside when I got home.
If this is not common, anyone any idea what is probably wrong so That I can have a good moan at the service people.

have you turned it off by mistake ...is the E/C button lit by any chance if it is lit its off if its out its on

 

[Dave Kerr]

The set up is the same as the old, you push the button AC and it comes on, turn the dial to the blue dot @18 degrees and it should after a very short while be like a fridge in the car.
My new one isn't anything like that not even cold.
I have noticed also that when you push the AC off, the AC on light stays on, this used to go out on my old car. So you have the AC light on and the AC off light on at the same time.
Its going in on Wednesday, I am having an E-Class for the day :bannana: so i can try that out.
Dave

 

[Rory]

I have noticed also that when you push the AC off, the AC on light stays on, this used to go out on my old car. So you have the AC light on and the AC off light on at the same time.
Dave

I think you're calling the Auto & A/C buttons the same thing?
The Auto button is illuminated when it's in auto mode, the A/C button is illuminated when the A/C is switched off.
So you can (and I generally do) have both lights on at the same time, meaning it's in auto, but with the A/C forced off.
On that warm day we had recently when it became necessary to use the A/C (so it's light goes off), I had to turn up the temp dial pretty smartly to stop myself from freezing.
I think that the way the lights work is counter-intuitive and it took me a bit of trial & error to figure out what was going on.

 

[mark.t]

The set up is the same as the old, you push the button AC and it comes on, turn the dial to the blue dot @18 degrees and it should after a very short while be like a fridge in the car.
My new one isn't anything like that not even cold.
I have noticed also that when you push the AC off, the AC on light stays on, this used to go out on my old car. So you have the AC light on and the AC off light on at the same time.
Its going in on Wednesday, I am having an E-Class for the day :bannana: so i can try that out.
Dave

on my old!!! E Class you just leave the dials with the white section showing .on cold mornings it blows warm too hot and on warm mornings blows cool too cold, I think its called climatic brill ehh..and keeps the car at a constant comfortable temperature while your driving...their should also be a sender on the bonnet which looks like a ball which adjusts temperature for sunlight as this will raise the cabin temperature ..the air con should adjust to combat this...if you try to force the temp up or down suddenly with the dials it should automatically shut the recirculation vents to try to reach the desired temp as quickly as possible. ...also if thier is a fault on the air con the light should stay on no matter what you do to indicate a fault

 

[Rory]

In the warmer and sometimes humid weather we're having I'm less happy with my cars climate control than I was at first.
I previously drove a Peugeot 406 Exec Estate and I now realise just how good that was (in the H&V dept). One on the probs with the Merc setup is that you can't control the air distribution when it's in auto. On the 406, you could set the air to come out of the windscreen (not dash) vents only and that would be good enough on all but the hotest of days. I know you can do this on the Merc in manual, althoigh it's still not very effective, and then you also have to change the fan speed manually.
Also, the Merc seems unable to keep to a cool, say 20C, temperature. It'll freeze the car, or keep it warm, but seems unable to keep to a happy medium. It seems unable to cope with the sun going in and out, instantly making the car much too cold in the sun disappears.

 

[Paul Grainger]

I recently had my air con system re-charged after five years of use. The guy - who does air con maintenance for a living - enlightened me from his wealth of experience:

1) The recognised (?) system test is to select maximum cooling, then stick a temp probe into the fascia vent. The temperature should fall to a maximum half ambient, ie if the ambient is 20C, the air stream should be 10C at the most.

2) Some cars will achieve much better results than this. MB's however generally do not fall into the 'better result' category. The ambient was 16C when my system was tested after re-charge, I got 6C. This felt very cold to me.

3) At five years, it is almost unheard of for a system that has not been re-charged to still achieve 'half ambient' performance. People tend not to notice a gradual fall in performance, and happily think that their system is working well. I fell into this category - and didn't realise how bad my system was until I sat in another car that was working properly. My system design capacity is 800 grammes of refridgerant, the machine sucked out a grand total of 55 grammes - the rest had been lost - presumably through the compressor front shaft seal. The service engineer said that this is typical loss from a five year old car.

My father-in-law has a five year old Volvo V70, he has had the car from new and the air con has never been re-charged. He thinks that its great - winds the windows up, air con on full power on cold days etc. I stuck a temperature probe into his fascia vent, ambient 15C, air steam temp 14C. He says that there's nothing wrong! .....typical Volvo driver, really....


Paul G

 

[Dave Kerr]

MB looked at my car and found it to be a faulty valve!! and although working better now its no where near as good as my last C class.
On a warm day in my old car by the time I reached the bottom of the drive at work the interior was starting to get cold now even though the vents are blowing cold (only when I turn the temp right down to 18) the car is not as cool.
Maybe because my latest car is diamond black as opposed to silver and I have black leather seats as opposed to black cloth seats.
May take it back again and see if there is anymore to be done.

Dave

 

[nickmann]

I was going to get mine checked in preparation for the summer, but based on that test I don't think I'll bother. I got an airflow temp of 7.3 degrees just now with an ambient of 15.5, so I'm well pleased

 

[grasmere]

razorman - any success or other update?