Volvo Air con issue ANYONE?
 

Hi
I've got a newborn now and I've been putting up with my T5's intermittent air con for many years but this summer now means it's critical to me keeping the car!
If the car is sat for an extended period, when I get in the air con works off the bat. If I stop or start the car without it being off for a long period, it doesn't work...
Any ideas?
I'm presuming its electrical as I know the systems in the car take a while to shut down and maybe theres an issue there?

Anyone experience this?

(may be connected)...
The stereo kinda does the same. If I disconnect the battery sometimes when I reconnect it the stereo works perfectly, steering wheel controls and screen all fine. switch the car of and on and eventually the screen no longer shows (still works tho) and the steering wheel controls stop working. This can be fixed by disconnecting the battery and reconnecting it (for a while at least)...

I really want to keep the T5 but these gremlins are putting too much pressure on me to sell because of the new little one (that and the fact I can't really afford to buy another car).

Any advise or experience more than welcome! Thanks in advance!
Dave

+1 to Cheshired5.

I used cable ties, some years ago and it still works a charm.

PS: out of recent ones: still trying to find some time to plug Vida in and run the tests..

Wow thank you guys! this could do it...
Did you have to measure the cable ties? He's quite specific about depth of the shims. just regular thin cable ties?
dave

It's specific for that particular reduction in gap so you'll need to measure your own and adjust accordingly.
If your gap is comfortably within tolerance, your fault may be elsewhere.
If you don't reduce the gap enough or if you do it too much, you've wasted your time and with the accuracy being tenths of a mm there's no one size fits all fix.

The principle is the same though.

Another shim commonly used are flat plastic closures found on bread.
Just make sure you get 3 which are the same.

Out of memory and pending verification:

Credit/debit card.

If you can slide it in the clutch gap and wobble about- too big gap
If you can't push it into the gap- too small.

Snug fit- just right.

That's if you haven't feeler gauges. Worked for me, later I re-measured with gauges and was correct.

Re- measuring the tiewraps: no, I didn't.
I just gotten few different sizes, they're relatively easy to install and remove, so plan was to fit the smallest ones, check the gap, if too big- remove small ones and fit bigger.

For me first shot was the right one.

Agree with credit card. My gap was originally the width of the raised lettering, after shimming with welding wire, it was reduced to the none printed part of the card. I did measure the card with verniers and it was spot on for the recommended gap.

Mine’s still working well a year later.

That is a truly brilliant fix - unfortunately the bread closure clips which create the perfect gap are no longer used in the UK. A few years ago most food manufacturers moved to using secure closures, basically one time tape strips to stop nefarious people introducing foreign bodies into foodstuff and then blackmailing the supplier!

I got the same effect as achieved with bread clips by using the "E" type external flat circlips which have worked well and a lot easier than pulling out the compressor with the tubes still attached to re-shim the clutch.

Treehugger: how did it go, in the end?

Does it work now?