I have a b5 passat 1.8T and have finally decided to investigate into why there is no aircon.
It turned out to be very obvious, the aircon pump pulley has no belt to drive it! anyway this must have been the case for a very long time because the pulley has seized, you can turn it a little but it grinds really badly so it's safe to assume it's knackered. I'd hazard a guess that perhaps the previous owner had an issue with it such as a leak and decided to not spend the money and remove the belt, are we talking big bucks to have this looked into? I'm guessing the pump has to be functioning to maybe find a source of any leaks?
To be honest I didn't realise that the car had aircon, there was no obvious markings/buttons/symbols on the climate control unit to indicate that the car had aircon? is this the norm?
Any advice welcome guys
Ps - If the repair is costly, can the aircon system be removed? If it doesn't function i'd rather save carrying the weight around and remove it.