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[Hoffi]

Hi all,
sadly my a/c has ceased work, unfortunately at the wrong time of the year so would like to fix it!  8-)

Aircon has been checked and got a top up last year. Was working perfect after that. Meggie stood most of the winter. New year longer journey including congestion revealed no aircon :-/ and got the temperature up to 100 degree once! So heating on, windows down, temp went down to moderate 80 degree. This hasn't happened again so far BUT to me it seems that the temperature regularly gets too high when warm outside or when queuing on the motorway (90 degree+). The vans usually are kicking in even when the engine is switched off.

With this being "occasionally" I am suspicious that I have a wiring/contact problem. Me not being that confident with electric things:
- Am I right that my thermostat is linked to the aircon?
- Any common places where the wiring/contacts like to fail?

Would be grateful for some tips prior to sticking my head under the bonnet! 
Thanks in advance!
Good weekend to everybody!

The Hoffi

[mdziyaad]

Same issue here, would appreciate help from the masses

[Andy H]

There is no connection between the thermostat in the engine and the air conditioning.

The reason why the engine gets hotter when the air conditioning isn't working is down to the way the fans in front of the radiator are controlled.

When the A/C is working (and the engine is at normal temperature) the front fans run at half speed to cool the A/C condenser. These two fans are usually enough on their own to keep the engine temperature below 90 C.

There is a two stage thermostat in the end of the radiator that turns on the fan behind the radiator and also switches the front fans to full speed. (I am not sure which order). These two stages seem to be set to cut in at around 100 C (but hopefully someone knows what temperature they should operate at).

If you get your A/C working you should get 'normal' cooling restored.