[lignumaqua]

Got my Q3 last November, so only hitting the hot Texas weather for the first time.

I'm finding that, if the car has been sitting unused for a day, then the AC takes quite a while to get going. Perhaps a mile. During that time it's blowing red hot air over me! It finally kicks in and switch to cold air. Once it starts up, it's fine and blows very cold.

If I drive the car more than once a day then I don't see this problem on subsequent starts.

Is this a known behavior of Audis or could this be a failing RCV?

 

[rnlabas]

Got my Q3 last November, so only hitting the hot Texas weather for the first time.

I'm finding that, if the car has been sitting unused for a day, then the AC takes quite a while to get going. Perhaps a mile. During that time it's blowing red hot air over me! It finally kicks in and switch to cold air. Once it starts up, it's fine and blows very cold.

If I drive the car more than once a day then I don't see this problem on subsequent starts.

Is this a known behavior of Audis or could this be a failing RCV?

I'd have them check the RCV and refrigerant level - this is NOT ordinary Audi behavior. That being said, remember that with the latest refrigerants, you can only expect a delta T of perhaps 20-30 deg F. So if you start at 100 deg, the first round of "cooled" air is only going to be 70-80 deg. And of course this will be even more compromised if you're on fresh air instead of recirculated too ...

 

[lignumaqua]

Thanks, that's what I thought too. It's going in for its first, 5,000 mile, service on Thursday so I'll ask the dealer to take a look at the AC.

 

[Quatto]

Thanks, that's what I thought too. It's going in for its first, 5,000 mile, service on Thursday so I'll ask the dealer to take a look at the AC.

Aside from that how have you been liking your Q3 so far?

Any things you've discovered that you like/dislike about it?

 

[lignumaqua]

Aside from that how have you been liking your Q3 so far?

Any things you've discovered that you like/dislike about it?

I like it a lot. I purchased it after driving an Audi in the UK last summer. Hertz gave me an A3 as a free upgrade and I really enjoyed the way it drove. Particularly good on winding English roads!

I had a 2013 (new shape) Ford Escape and the Q3 was a good move from that. The Escape had its good points mechanically, but the electronics were awful. The entertainment/navigation system was full of bugs and always crashing. No problems like that with the Audi. The Audi voice recognition also works with my English accent, which the Ford never could. I had to put on my best fake Texas drawl to get the Ford to understand me! (We've lived in Texas 20 years, but my accent is still 100% UK)

The Audi also has much better handling than the Escape. Not quite as stuck to the road as the A3, but you would expect that in an SUV body. Trunk on the Q3 is a little small, but that's not a big problem. Only thing I don't like is very minor, and that's the red rear turn signals. I have no idea why Audi have gone with that when even US car manufacturers are moving away from it. Even my Ford had yellow!

I've made a few tweaks with VCDS and am very happy with the result. Overall it was a good decision.

 

[rnlabas]

As I've mentioned in my posts on ecode rear tailights, the deal on red for us is a collaboration between Audi, BMW and Mercedes AND the U.S. DOT (for LEDs) such that they all will offer here (NAR) red turn signals. Personally I think this is crap, BS or the like and have conscientiously resisted to the point of installing ecode (RoW) amber turn signal lamps in my Audis.

Check out my posts on the subject for details and results -

 

[lignumaqua]

Update. Dealer couldn’t find a problem, no error codes and refrigerant levels good. I'll keep an eye on it and see if it does it again.

There were two service campaign updates, one for the sunroof software coding already discussed on this forum. The second is just described on the paperwork as 'Updated Software' Campaign 90I7. I don't know what that was.

 

[AMILL]

I have the opposite problem with my A/C. I had to turn it up to 80 degrees before it even STOPPED pushing out cold air. I thought the temperature control worked with both the heat and A/C? The only other solution I found is to close the vents but I'd hoped the temperature control would have taken care of that.

 

[Quatto]

Always hated amber lights, now my alternative is to go with switch back LED's which improves the situation.

 

[lignumaqua]

Update on my original problem with the AC. I was still seeing the issue and narrowed it down to the Auto setting on air recirculation. The problem seems to be that when set to 'A' the system very rarely actually uses recirculation.

When it's 100F outside you want recirculation immediately you turn on the car (with rear windows open for a few seconds to blow out the very hot air) and, in fact, in these hottest months I tend to have cars in recirculation mode all the time. The AC is much more efficient that way and it really helps keep humidity down.

If I manually select recirculation as soon as I start the car then the Q3 behaves as I want and would expect (and how every other car I've owned here behaved) quick cooling and quick cold air from the vents.

Here's the problem. The recirculation setting is forgotten every time you turn off the car! Unlike every other setting it always defaults back to using outside air. Very annoying, I've never owned a car that wouldn't let you set recirculation as the default.

Does anyone know if there is a VCDS setting that would allow leaving recirculation selected? As I said the 'A' option just doesn't cut it, I don't know when it uses recirculation but it clearly doesn't do so when I want it to.

 

[RKM]

I don't know if there is a VCDS solution, but I must say I am stuck on hearing how a UK person sounds with a Texas drawl . Too bad you don't have to do that anymore with the Q3.

 

[lignumaqua]

I don't know if there is a VCDS solution, but I must say I am stuck on hearing how a UK person sounds with a Texas drawl . Too bad you don't have to do that anymore with the Q3.

I can't say "Y'all" and sound in any way convincing! Even after twenty years here my accent is still 100% British.

 

[rnlabas]

I don't recall seeing this whilst thumbing thru VCDS codes, but may look it up or ask around ...