Subaru: 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

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.

--
Alex Gooding

Ph: +61 2 4759 2231
Fax: +61 2 4759 2241
Mob: 0418 164 759
Email: com.au

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