1. Home
  2. Subaru Cars Forum
  3. Weird air conditioning problem

Weird air conditioning problem

I have a 98 Subaru Liberty (Legacy) manual wagon with climate control air conditioning. The climate control has always been a bit erratic - it would always blow a gale when first turned on, took a long time to settle and was never very cold. I always thought this was a design fault (in fact I didn't realise until recently with our new Subaru that climate control can actually work).

For the past two-three years the air con has been virtually non-existent. Every time I took it in for a service (always with Subaru) I would complain, but they would tell me it was working OK, within normal limits etc and put the poor performance down to the fact that this was the first model with the non-CFC gas, etc etc.

Last service I asked Subaru to check yet again. They replaced the TX valve (cost $A560 - of course the car is now out of warranty) and regassed the system which restored air flow, but the air temp was still warm. Subaru Aust advised checking the internal temp sensor, which was found to be faulty - apparently a rare fault.

This can only be fixed properly by replacing the entire climate control ECU panel. Apparently this would cost a fortune new and the agent has advised that a used one would be too problematic. They have advised giving to their "air conditioning exper" and are propsing bypassing the ECU panel and setting the system up as a manual air con.

Needless to say I am very annoyed by this. I have spent $560 and will probably need to spend another $100 or $200 to end up with a manual air con system which will detract from the resale value. Naturally I am going to go through the service records to ascertain if we first asked them to fix the problem before the warranty ran out and take this up with Subaru Australia, but in terms of the problem itself - and before I let them turn it into a manual system - has anyone else had this happen and how did they resolve it?

Alex

Reply to
Alex
Loading thread data ...

Reply to
Shit happens in a Renault

Penrith (in Sydney)

Alex

Reply to
Alex

According to Alex :

Now, that's funny. I recently decided to ditch them for good. In my experience they never take customer complaints seriously. Here is my account of bad service:

The right rear door latch seemed to have gotten out of alignment. I could see the door sticking out in the driver side mirror. During hard left turns the cabin light would come on (as if I had opened a door). I asked them to fix it and was told "it was within specs".

After the 50k scheduled service the brakes started to shudder (under medium load) and to squeal (under light load or even when just changing lanes on the motorway. It took me three more schedules services to get that fixed.

At some stage (after 75k), the air-con clutch started to make embarrassing noises when engaging and dis-engaging. I never got that fixed. The excuses were "couldn't hear anything" or "this is normal", giving me the the impression that they think I'm "hearing things".

Heck, at their Penrith shop they didn't even have the facilities to check wheel alignment. They never seemed to do any serious test driving. Their new facility further eastwards seems bigger and better equipped, but they still wouldn't fix the air-con clutch problem.

I just (a week ago) got a new '04 Outback. I'm going to get it serviced at Tynan in Ryde (which is close to work), hoping for better service. Of course, I'm open for recommendations...

BTW, that '04 Outback is a *mean* car. What I can tell from very limited testing, it handles so much better than my previous '00 Outback. I always thought that the old car handled way above average, but the new one is classes better. My compliments to Subaru on that one!

Cheers Steffen.

Reply to
Steffen Kluge

If your problem is just the temp sensor - don't worry. (no warranty talk) If you take the resistor and measure the resistance in a controlled temperature you might get a similar resistor from a local electronics store (a wiz shop, not any TV reseller). Cost should be around $1, really.

Me

Reply to
Wheee

Thanks

The problem (according to the dealer) is that the fault is inside the ECU panel and the faulty chip can't be pulled out by itself - I'm not sure if its the sensor itself or the circuit to which it is attached, but the fault is in the ECU panel.

Reply to
Alex Gooding

I was interested in your comments on Penrith's service - I haven't been too impressed of late - especially when they messaged me on my phone that the air con would be repaired by replacing the TX valve - and then later told me that what meant was they had to fix the TX valve "first" before seeing what else was wrong on it. This was despite me telling them that I thought the problem was in the climate control.

My problem is that i live in the Blue Mountains so Penrith is my nearest dealer.

I was also interested in your comments on the handling of the 04 Outback being better than the previous model - especially as I will have to agree to differ on the handling of the 00/02 Outbacks, which I think is OK but not as good as the Libertys (either the 98 or the 02 models). The Liberty is too low to the ground for my liking, but it doesn't have as much body roll as the OB, which reminds me of my old 90 Liberty - but regrettably I don't think the ride isn't as good as the old (hydro-pneumatic?) suspension on the

90.
Reply to
Alex Gooding

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.