I've Wrenched Over 25 Years and I've NEVER seen this AC Problem Before 

"This cant be Fixed!" Car Wizard: And I took that personally

Can you imagine the phone call to the owner of that Jetta? "Yeah, this is Omega, the reason why the AC is not working is because of coffee" LOL! I have to be honest, that was really good investigative work & also very refreshing to see that Omega is perhaps about the ONLY shop that is willing to help lower costs of repairs vs gouging the customer. I only wished I lived in Kansas :(

Honesty goes a long way we need more honest auto technicians 💪🏼💯

Those pics of Wizard hair are wild!

I was. C-130 crew chief in the Air Force. The airplane I worked was built in 1965 and had 2 High Frequency (HF) radios with the long wire antennas going from the forward fuselage to the tail. I was having an issue when HF2 was keyed to transmit it would flash the radar scope. After much troubleshooting, we found corrosion between the HF2 antenna mast and the fuselage. Replaced a few parts, cleaned and treated the corrosion, and the flashing went away. Gremlins.

I worked at a Volvo heavy truck dealer. I have seen the "coffee" deal in the A/C controller, the radio, the power window switch, And power control switches on the dash.

Glad I saw this. I had a golf vr6 that had good a/c. But the backup lights didn’t work. I discovered the bulbs had been removed. I put new bulbs in, backup lights worked. A/C compressor no longer came on. In order to have a/c, I had to leave the backup bulbs out. So, I wasn’t crazy. It’s a vw thing. 🤪

Me, former owner of 2 Jettas, 1 Fox, screaming “It’s electrical!!!!” My 3 VWs always had weird sh1t going on with electrical. Those VWs did teach me a lot about electrical wiring and electronics. So there’s that.

I took a 80s vw rabbit to a vw shop around the year 2000, they basically told me to leave, lol.

Simple case of coffee in hand while engaging the shifter. Other vehicles have cup holders next to window switches. Leave your drink in the door, shut it and it's splish splash, switches taking a bath.

Awesome troubleshooting! As a diesel mechanic, that's what I'm most proud of is troubleshooting accurately. Nice job, Danielson and Wizard.

My Truck's AC compressor is making a mild screeching noise. Shop wants $1500 for a new compressor. My friend, who is a mechanic, showed me that it was the AC Clutch Bearing. New AC Clutch, $75, $50 to my friend to install it. Took all of thirty minutes......... Yes, there are dishonest shops out there..................................

German car manufacturers all freaked out when Americans started demanding cup holders. They couldn't believe anyone would have drinks in a car while driving. You don't drive 200 kilometers an hour down the autobahn with a cup of coffee in the car. Now i see people with drinks in one hand and their phone in the other driving and texting.

I personally would clean the circuit board, get out a magnifying glass, and resolder any corroded, joints. Then I'd put it back together and test it. Chances are it would work. Cleaning it would eliminate the shorts, and checking over the previously stained spots would show you the majority of any damage. Obviously if that didn't fix it, then it blew one of those surface mount resistors, capacitors, or a transformer. BUT the fact that it works when you turn on the lights tells me that nothing is likely blown. Just have a quicker path to ground for the electricity to go than the intended path. Wouldn't take even an hour to save the customer the part cost. Leaving just the labor, denatured alcohol, and solder (if you'd even bother with the dime or so for the "reagents") Go for the bigger win on this one wizard. Cleaning, inspecting, and touching up a couple solder points is super easy, and if I'm right you'll be the owner's hero.

And people called me crazy for my no food and drinks in the car rule.

Typically VW. The Rabbit I had was designed with the radio antenna lead routed through the front wheel well. Then in through a flimsy gasket, then roted right over the main fusebox. So every time you drove through a puddle, water woudl slide down the antenna wire and drip directly into the main fusebox. Which was not waterproof in any way. The saga continues.

Over-caffeinated car controls...that's a good one Davey!😅🤣😂

Congratulations on 25 years of marriage and my best wishes for many more years

good call. mrs. wizard has not changed in twenty years .

@CarWizard I strongly suggest trying to clean the original PCB for the A/C control panel with white vinegar and/or 91% (or better) isoprphyl alcohol (IPA), aka, "rubbing alcohol," and scrub with an old toothbrush. I do this all the time with my vintage computer motherboards and it usually brings them back to life (with some trace repair from battery corrosion in those cases). If you use vinegar, rinse the PCB off with the IPA. At the very least, please try the CRC Electronic cleaner that I've seen you use in a previous video.

Being in electronics for many years. You could try to wash the board with some acetone to clean off the coffee and should be able to clean off any corrosion around the LEDs as well. Hope this helps. Great diagnosis!

Long time ago I bought a non-working Wii for cheap. The problem was that there was a hair pin stuck in the disc mechanism. Goes to show how simple accidents can have simple fixes, if someone knows how to troubleshoot and not just throw away.

I could LITERALLY diagnosed that in 5 minutes...you've never worked on a W210 MB? If it's intermittent, it's ALWAYS the controls. I've been a mechanic since 1984. 12v to the clutch if you want to make sure about the LONGSHOT. Intermittent=electrical.

My friend had a '99 Passat B5 V6 and his aircon stopped working. He was able to figure out the blower motor went and replaced it. A lot of work went into that repair. It was working better than ever after that. Good job on these resolutions. I like the extraordinary thinking outside the box. Not many mechanics go that extra mile like you guys do.

Thanks Wizard! At the beginning of this vid, I thought, "typical VW electrical problems". At the conclusion I thought, "WRONG!" Boneheaded owner failure." I don't buy European vehicles and kinda hate that because (to me) VW has some really attractive designs and some/several models that approach affordability.

Had a jetta that the ac quit working on. Replaced the compressor switch. No dice. Then I noticed the clutch was not spinning. The bolt in the middle and had sheared the clutch in the middle. Took it to VW for another issue shortly after seeing it. They said metal was in the ac system after I told them what the problem was. They wanted 2200 dollars to fix it. I bought the clutch and fixed it for $35.

I had a 2007 Volkswagen Jetta gli 2.0t fsi 6-speed for about 5 years and the air conditioning never worked. I recharged the refrigerant, changed the air compressor, and the control switches. Still no air conditioning. I had it up for sale and nobody wanted it due to the non functioning ac, a few months before I sold the car, I bought a 2 pack of cabin air filters, one for my gli and one for my 2007 Passat vr6 4motion. The cabin filter in my gli was so blocked up that when I installed the new cabin filter, my air conditioner started working and I managed to sell the car.

The Car Wizard channel is a great RU-vid channel!

Hvac control head 3:33 low refrigerant would allow the compressor to turn on just long enough for the system to low pressure on the high pressure side. The coil windings on the clutch would fail more and more until it just stop working

I'm so glad I have a decent, honest, old school mechanic like you working on my cars.

Faulty grounds are the usual suspects for electric weirdness; now we can add coffee to it!

I realize that was 3 weeks ago (I just found you when i watched your recent Fiat 500e videos). You probably don't need to replace the control head unit. While it's disconnected, you can rinse the circuit board areas you showed with distilled water and or brush the problem spots on the circuit board with isopropyl alcohol. Scrub the problem spots with a the alcohol and a flux brush. Distilled water and Alcohol won't harm a circuit board. ALL modern (Post 1990) circuit boards are washed with a water based detergent and rinsed with de-ionized water. Trouble spots and touch-ups on the circuit board are cleaned with isopropyl applied by a flux brush. Notes: 1- Try to restrict the fluids to the circuit board and connector surfaces. don't let the rinsing fluids get into the switches (Those are usually applied as the last items during circuit board assembly after the base circuit board has been soldered and washed. 2- Allow the entire circuit assembly to dry before applying power. You can accelerate it with a hair dryer but be wary of the plastic switches.All of the other components withstood over 300ºF when they were soldered en-masse. If you removed the crud (conductive salts) from the circuit board paths, it should be just fine. I say that because, if it worked when you turned on the headlights (which effectively shunted those diodes), no 'electronic components' (semiconductors) on the board were harmed by the coffee induced shorts. [But the switches might be sticky if they got coffee in them?] Distilled or de-ionized water rinsing is actually a part of a circuit board's manufacturing. If you don't let it get in the switches and dry the assembly, it won't hurt anything. Even if you do get water in the switches, they may get sticky but should still work. But we usually solder them on last to prevent them getting wet.

You don't necessarily have to replace that control head! It depends if the invasive fluid is just conductive, or also corrosive. If it's only conductive (it hasn't damaged any electrical traces), then you can try just cleaning the surface of the printed circuit board with alcohol and a toothbrush, then rinse it off with distilled/deionized/RO water, allow it to dry (a hair dryer, not too hot, works fine), and it could be good as new. Neither the alcohol nor the pure water will harm the electronics, but the unit should be fully dry before powering it back up. The coffee probably isn't corrosive, so a good cleaning should work fine. If you have an ultrasonic cleaner, use a fresh bath in the cleaner and clean it that way, rinsing it off well with purified water, dry, and you're back in business. I've seen electronic failures like this many times, this could be a very, very easy fix.

Love your honest work ethic, too often it is a rear thing these days. I had a very similar problem once when I worked for Hyundai in New Zealand where the a/c control panel wouldn't turn off, causing the battery to go flat. Cheers

I have to repair liquid damage on consumer electronics most days. The most common itemts that i see are remote controls and laptops. The damage that coffee and worst still soda drinks can do has to be seen to be believed. If it has happened recently you can repair them, but not when the fine pcb tracks have been corroded away. One tip is whatever you do don't use WD40 or contact cleaner, i use a little IPA on a cotton bud or if the damage is just sticky, clean water will remove it, then allow it to dry.

After I bought my 2006 Tundra (used) I started digging around looking for a smell. Turned out it was a combo of sodas and coffee. Sticky stuff was behind and under almost every panel. Had to gut it all to clean it up. Fortunately there were no electrical issues. Looked like it was in an unreported accident with a full crew of folks fresh from Mickey D’s. The truck was wiped down but nobody really cleaned up the mess.

Before you even listed the possible causes, I wondered if it was the control panel! Glad to see you guys found the problem.

I am a big VW guy, I’ve had several, I work on them, mod them ect. My daily is a MK8 GTi. VW’s can be SUPER temperamental and buggy if you screw with the electronics and not know what you are doing and/or don’t maintain them properly.

Was great to see you and Mrs Wizard from the early days and some of your family pics. Nice to see behind the curtain. Beautiful family brother!!

Look up "Fate is the Hunter" (1964 film). Same thing happened.

I had one of those "how is that related?" faults in my Alfa Romeo 164. When I bought it 2 things didn't work: the power mirrors and the power antenna. Set the mirrors by hand, then dug around and found a blown fuse... replace it, antenna works, great! Then one day I bumped the mirror control (it's on the door panel next to your knee, because Alfa) and suddenly the antenna stopped working... and the fuse was blown again... waitaminute... I discovered they shared a circuit, and the power mirror switch had an internal short that would pop the fuse if you moved it a certain direction.

Couldn't you flush the board with a contact cleaner and see if that fixes it instead of replacing the head?

We had this problem years back on a 2014 Range Rover Vogue. The dealership had a very hard time diagnosing the problem and they’ve decided to replace the Transmission module, the fuses, Replaced the entire transmission and it turns out that a drink went in to the rotary shifter and shorted out the selector putting the car in Neutral at random times and giving transmission error codes. That was a nightmare because it would choose PRND but mostly neutral. No more drinks near the console after that. Good thing that HVAC control didn’t shorted out and killed the harness.

The wizard is carrying the used car repair RU-vid on his back. The peoples mechanic.

I love your positive attitude and your integrity! The world needs more of that. Thanks for the interesting and informative video and keep up the great work!

Have been involved with VW's since 1963. I am presently sitting in a 2009 Jetta. You have to love German electronics.

I once had an A/C that wouldn't work because of *too much* refrigerant. It'd run for a little bit and then shut off, and wouldn't cool again for a good hour or more. It had been low on refrigerant, and someone put too much in accidentally. Apparently there's a safety switch in there somewhere that shuts everything down when the pressure gets too high, and once that switch was triggered, everything shut down until the pressure would bleed off on its own, which took about an hour or so. Two different shops quoted me an entire new A/C system, but I knew it definitely did not need that -- how could it *EVER* cool if the entire system was shot like they claimed it was? A dead compressor will *NEVER* compress refrigerant, so how could it be cooling *some* of the time? I finally found a shop that actually ran a TEST on the system -- hooked up the gauges, and measured the pressures in there. They sucked a bit of refrigerant out of there with their A/C machine, charged me a small fee for their time, and sent me on my way with a perfectly functional A/C system.

Dr Pepper killed my keypad

Good job Omega. You all are an asset to your community

Rinse the module in distilled water until the water runs clear There is a good chance it will work fine once it dries out I have done this myself with electronics that have been soaked by coffee or soda and it has never failed!

HI Wizard. Noticing little things like the lit controls when its turned off, makes all the difference from "I can't fix it", too, "this is the cause of your problem".

Well the problem is that it’s a dang Volkswagen.

Car wizard your the best I admire how you and ms wizard got out of hard times , I as a auto technician life is hard for me

Unpopular opinion but I prefer working on these cars. VW’s are easy to work on

Can't agree more. I love my LTD cause you can practically stand in the engine bay with the v8. And since the removal of so much from under the hood, there's even more space! Literally 15 minutes and I have all 8 plugs and wires changed. To make some jealous, I can reach every bolt on my headers with space to go.

Not surprised its a Volkswagen 😂

Any “mechanic” in my area once they plugged in and saw no codes would have taken that customer down a $6000 A/C parts cannon waste of time. Thanks for using your brain.

I miss the old wizard, that actually did repairs. Now it's almost a show of cars other people work on in your shop.

Had that problem two times in Astons Martins... Customers decided it was a good idea to shower the center console with the coffee... It went crazy

Had one of these as a rental a few years ago. I hated the thing.

My favorite is the sun roof/ windows and rain casuing the doorlocks to lock and unlock rapidly

Hahahaha our Passat has the same stupid problem, it’s a WV thing 😂😂🤦🏼‍♂️

"Cool!" Literally! Loved the "Dave & Jenny" photos, too.

this is one of your best videos in my opinion, great job

Wizard, we may disagree on many things when it comes to brand and model opinions, but I can certainly appreciate you honesty and your desire NOT to do immoral things and rob customers blinds. Kudos to you!

Reminds me of my childhood. My dad wouldn't leave the keys in his 1968 Plymouth Station wagon so I could listen to the radio. I got bored and through trial and error, I learned I could get the radio to work without using a key if I stepped on the brake pedal while using the turn signal and activating the Hazard lights. That was the day I learned about electric feedback.

3:43 Look at them youngins'!😊 Looking good,Mr. Amd Mrs. WIZARD...er, uh, "David and Jenny"🙂👍 thankyou forsharing those pictures with us

Audi used to put fold out cupholders above the radio and ac controls. Saw spilled drinks cause tons of non warrantyable failures.

Great couple. Thank you for sharing the family photos. Congratulations!

I love watching Wizard videos. Keep it up.

I worked for a computer company in southern California and originally the solder flux was cleaned off with a freon compound. California banned it so we switch to water. The boards didn't have parts that would be an issue with water so we would clean them and let them dry completely before we used them. There is one exception. A customer returned a unit that had been under 6 feet of water for days. We fixed what needed to be fixed and the unit worked however after a while, the boards started failing. It seemed the long exposure gave the water time to get in the part eventually causing it to fail. We scrapped all the boards and didn't make that mistake again. You should be able to salvage the board if the water doesn't get in the switches, you can completely clean and dry it. Otherwise, it would be better to replace it.

Tip for anyone encountering a Skoda Superb in the USA (though they're probably rare over there, while in Europe there are thousands of them on the road). Volkswagen bought Skoda some time back, and poured money into using Skoda as a sort of budget version of VW. As a consequence, there's a fair amount of parts commonality between modern Skodas and VWs. The Skoda Superb is basically a cut price Passat. Has much of the same equipment, but Skoda charges ⅔ of the money when new. Here in the UK a brand new Skoda Superb will leave you with around a £20-22K bill, while a new Passat, if you can find one (VW announced they were discontinuing the Passat in the UK market in the near future) will take you to £30-35K. BUT ... the parts are pretty much the same in the European markets. Might be different Stateside, but worth checking out just in case. If you have a Passat, it's possible that cheaper OEM Skoda parts will slot in sometimes, because the parts for the two are shared to a fair degree in the European spec cars. Just don't spill coffee in either. :)

I’ve come across some odd ones in the past but one of my favorites was having to explain to a customer that his new aftermarket tow mirrors were the reason for his check engine light. The new tow mirrors did not have the integrated ambient air temperature sensor that is used by the ECM as a cross reference temperature for mass airflow data lol

I just watched your video. They will be back!. Pressure switch at the bottom of the compressor is a very well known Passat issue with intermittent AC compressor engagement!

Funny how most people didn't even watch the video, someone spilled coffee on the hvac controller, car has no issues from its own, just the owner making a mistake.

This is one of those cases where I always ask the question, what exactly is not working correctly? It could be a short or bad ground, but looking at the indicator lights on the a/c controls, that pretty much points you to the problem because it isn't working correctly. What about a 2010 Buick Lacrosse that won't crank. No crank no-start, but if you hold the key in the crank position for 3-5 seconds, the car starts and runs!

That is just a great diagnosis by Danielson! Glad to see Danielson is still with Omega.

I have a 2010 Ford Fusion that would go hot to cold. No one could figure it out. A youtuber described his workaround by turning the lights on. To my amazement. Ac came right on, nice and cold. Still use it t activate my ac, but no one beleves me when i described it. Thanks to the Wuzard for the explaination.

Thank you David and Jen!

I cannot begin to list the number of times coffee and soft drinks have caused problems like this. I remember the days when AMC and Renault were in bed together and the ECM was under the cup holder in the console. Amazing how much a circuit board can erode and still function. I spent many hours rebuilding those things when no one else would touch them. My favorite way of narrowing down if there might be a drink issue is to use a dryer sheet and a feeler gauge and "wipe" around cracks and crevices, amazing what you'll see and how suddenly a customer remembers an incident that happened way in the past.

I too have a fun AC issue on my 2012 A3. Vent temps are mediocre but it will cool eventually and the electronics work perfectly. High side pressure was too low and low side was too high. Turns out the AC compressor it uses has no clutch and uses a refrigerant control valve to direct the refrigerant within the compressor. It has been slowly failing for a long time so it doesn't send enough refrigerant to the expansion valve and instead lets it circulate within the compressor. It takes all of 15 minutes to change once you have the system pulled down. Gotta love weird issues.

Reminds me of how my 2002 GTI would lose the brake lights when you turned the defroster on. Turns out a bunch of wires in the hatch loom snapped over the course of 20 years. Spent 8 hours replacing wire to fix it. Can't wait to deal with the same issue or some other shenanigans on my 2023 Arteon in 10 years lol.

Liked your pics. What a cute family. Great video too, I really enjoyed how you trouble shot that issue. Amazing some of the things you discover when diagnosing common issues.

50/50 ghosts always warrant an electrical search, great work, and beautiful family ❤️ love the photos and knowing more about how the wizard came to be

Just before you throw the baby out with the bath water, try and remove the damaged board from the plactic trim. Use a good contact cleaner ( CRC brand ) and a old tooth brush and scub the board in the affected order. blow off with compressed air if needed ! This has worked on many circuit boards to clean the residue from the board in the past. The reason why a good contact cleaner is used as the cleaner will dry and leave no trace behind ( i come from a electronics back ground and have had this type of problem many times before ).

My late wife had an '06 HHR in which she once somehow managed to dump a fairly large amount of sweet tea into the center dash. I used 2 full cans of WD-40 trying to negate the effects but still had to replace a dead battery two days later. It never had a problem with any of dash controls.

This reminds me of those "Water and Electricity Don't Mix" signs the janitors used to paste up around my elementary school in the 1970s, and the time my Dodge Lancer lost $2,000 worth of ECM components because I sloppily flushed out the radiator with tap water, or the time the kitchen radio started squealing because I left a glass of iced tea right over the seam where the front and back met. After all that, one gets a certain cringe-response to the sight of something wet a little too close to something electronic; I recently pointed out that a friend's attempt to boil down maple syrup was leaving the control panel of his over-the-range microwave drenched in condensation; that could end up being some expensive maple syrup. I'm lucky that the previous owner of my car, who left one of those coffee-up clasps on the dash, only ruined the driver's seat, which, though it won't stay clean for more than a week, can be tinted back to its original color. We need more coffee containers that can fit in a standard cupholder and more cupholders that are located safely away from the electronic hardware.

I had that car. Loved it, was a 2015. Never had an issue with it. I put 150k+ on it, mostly highway, b4 i sold it. Replaced it with a Lexus, also doing great. Another great vid. Keep them coming. 👍👍👊👊🤘🤘

We need more mechanics like you.

I believe there was a video from Auto Auction Rebuilds a few weeks back, where Randy came across an auction vehicle with similar issue!

These spill problems were an issue since electronics were installed in cars. Back in the 70s the brand car i worked on had spilled fluids issues with window switches and turn or emergency light issues. Then shifting issues and on and on.

This video just reminded me of the XV30 generation Toyota Camry's. [For the automatics] the ECU that helps control the brake shift interlock is under the console below the cupholders; fluid can leak beneath them & then short out the ecu & in turn cause one to be unable to shift out of park unless they use a screwdriver on the mechanical override.

I did have a issue with th AC on my 04 Ford Ceown Victoria. It didn't get cold and the clutch on the AC compressor did rattle. It turn on and off. A technician did find a leakage on the botton of the accumulator or dryfilter. Has rusted hole in the bottom, caused by rhe water humidity on the bottom of the plastic bottle around the accumulator. Now it works perfect😊

The 2004-2010 audi a8 and a8l had a coffee problems. The control panel of literally everything had a shalllow cup holder right behind it. An afterthought for the north american market. It had to have cupholders but transmission is so big the cup holder ended shallow. Brake hard and coffee spills in that panel and need to be cleaned. I saved a lot of those board cleaning and resoldering.

I knew it was three once u said ac was blowing ice cold, i woulda probably tapped the control unit with my 3/8s extension and it probably would kicked on and knew immediately

To be fair, if you clean that control unit PCB with isopropyl alcohol and maybe reflow the solder joints then it will most likely be good again.

The fact it was working, sometimes on and off already let me feel it being the unit in addition to the fact that the Volkswagen, and once you mention the headlight, I already knew it was the unit and not something mechanical

A coworker bought a new bug years ago. Had intermittent problems since new. Towed back to dealer and the dealer would keep it for at least a week each time and not give a loaner. This went on until the warranty ran out. He bought another car, not a VW, and parked it in the garage until the crazy OT we were working slowed down. He got a manual and went over the car step by step until it was fixed. It turned out to be simple and cheep to fix the problem. The car has worked good for him ever since.

Had a customer with a 2001 Daewoo Nubira with the same issue, coffee ☕️ spilled into the AC control module & was shorting out thru the lights thru the tiny lights that go thru a dimmer switch & headlight switch, the board was messed up ,luckily for me & her i had 3 new units & as soon as i plugged in the new unit, everything worked fine

I've repaired a ton of miswired aftermarket stereos. Same symptoms: works only when the running lights are on. Instead connecting power input to the accessory circuit, they connect to the running lights. Not quite the same thing as liquid damage, but I'd like to think I would have caught this one. Probably not as fast as your shop did; nice catch!