deek72

I was wondering if I had the right end of the stick. I believed the solar sunroof was to run the A/C whilst you were away from the car in sunny weather. Well, a few days ago I went out in the morning to find the batteries flat. I got it started with jump leads, and went on a quick motorway run to give it a charge. As there were no warning lights on I put it down to people leaving the heated seats on all the time and only doing mainly short journeys. It's been ok since.
So fast forward a few days to today. I went to a local shop and was parked in the sun for about 15 mins. On returning to the car I notice the blower fans running gently before I put the key in. Aha! That's why the battery was flat I thought. But then I remembered the solar sun roof. I called capitol Skoda in Gwent for confirmation that the fans did indeed run, supplied by the sun roof. The guy there sounded like he thought I was a d*ck and assured me that the solar sunroof only limited the amount of sun rays into the car and virtually laughed at my suggestion that it could actually run the A/C auxilliarily(is that a word???).
So am I right?

ap0gee

The solar sunroof runs the fans to help draw (cooler) outside air into the car and get rid of the (hotter) internal air, but it can't generate enough power to run the air con compressor (which is driven by the engine directly, anyway!) So you're both half-right!

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deek72

NO!! I'm not having that! He said it didn't run anything, it just sort of diffused the power of the sun rays. So although I may only be half right, I don't think he has got any of it right! lol!

Supurbia

Lovely when you prove those that should know wrong isn't it deek

deek72

It does a bit ,yeah. But at the same time it just makes you wonder how many wrong/unneccessary jobs have been paid for by unsuspecting customers who assume that these people must always know best.

ericsuperbee

I would confirm that the solar cells do indeed power a cooling fan. This runs independently of the battery / any other circuit. Try it on a sunny day with everything else switched off - then cover the sun roof and the fan will stop - if it doesn't - there's a short somewhere.........

deek72

And is fully automatic and cannot be over-ridden? Not that would be neccessary if the solar cells alone run the fans. But I just wanted to be sure that the system had no bearing on my recent (one-off) flat battery problem.