Air conditioning

they should go down to 16 at least that's what every climate control system I've seen goes down to, in all the cars I've seen maybe 16.5 but you know :) get under the bonnet locate the AC system/pump/reciverdryer/sight glass get an assistant to start the car get them to turn on the AC look to see if the clutch kicks in on the compressor and if it doesn't then it's broke if it does then look at the sight glass to see if it's become milky, representing the contamination of water in the system this will mean you need to change it soon and a top up will be necessary at the same time

here goes.

control AC.

not in 'auto'

and then the

all!

therefore no need for

No. In manual mode it should turn the compresser on and compensate with a slight increase in revs. It has to be very cold indeed for the compresser not to operate at all.

The info given is not enough to diagnose what is specifically wrong. Might need regassing, but OTOH there are several other possibilities, from electrics, (fuses, switches, connections etc) to broken a/c belt. Best get it checked by an a/c engineer. Mike.

Sound advice - got it booked in on Friday. Many thanks.