Automobile Air Conditioning
How your automobile's air conditioning works:
An expansion valve causes the refrigerant in your auto's air conditioning system to expand and contract, making it very cold. The compressor pushes this cold refrigerant into the evaporator core in the dash of your vehicle where a small fan blows the air into your face. The AC condenser helps pull hot air out of the cabin.
When to service:
- Annually before the weather warms
- When you notice performance beginning to deteriorate, which can be caused by low refrigerant levels or failing fans in the automobile air conditioning system, or even by overheating elsewhere in your vehicle
The benefits:
- Comfort
- Reduces future maintenance costs for compressor and other AC components
The service includes:
- An in-depth inspection, including leak detection
- Refrigerant cleansing: Because some refrigerants are harmful to the environment, we take special care to ensure that none of the material escapes during servicing
- A performance check with pressure reading and temperature check
Special issues:
The Environmental Protection Agency determined that the refrigerant Freon (also known as R-12 or CFC-12) was damaging the ozone layer and stopped production of the material. Now Freon is hard to find - and expensive. Although most cars built before 1995 use Freon in their AC systems, your car can be retrofitted to use R134a, a more environmentally friendly refrigerant, which can pay for itself in cost savings.
The retrofit service includes:
- A case-by-case evaluation
- Freon and refrigerant oils removal
- System flush
- Compatible parts replacement: May include O-rings, hoses, etc.
- Mandatory retrofit labelling
Retrofitting for cost and environmental savings can be done even if your older air conditioning is functioning. However, a retrofit will not fix a broken air conditioning system.