Summer will be here before you know it, and you rely on your car’s air conditioner to keep you cool when you’re driving in the hot Tyler, Texas sun. Don’t worry. We here at Premier Auto Repair can check your automobile’s air conditioner and make sure it’s ready to go before the hot weather hits. Here are six common air conditioner problems that we fix all the time.
1. Refrigerant Trouble
Two things can go wrong with your air conditioner’s refrigerant. The first thing is it could leak. If you drive an older car that has a lot of miles on it, it’s possible that the air conditioning hoses have dried up and cracked or lost their connections. Refrigerant will naturally leak out of them. Another problem with air conditioning refrigerant is that it gets low over time because some of it evaporates.
2. Blocked Condenser
Refrigerant gets hot as it circulates through the air conditioning system. Enter the condenser which cools the hot refrigerant. The condenser can easily be blocked by road debris or contaminants inside old refrigerant and this will prevent it from being able to cool off the refrigerant. The consequence is you’ll end up with hot air blowing through your vents even though the air conditioner is on.
3. Malfunctioning Condenser
The condenser can also malfunction. This, again, happens more frequently in older cars that have a lot of miles underneath their tires. The condenser can be punctured by road debris or it can fail itself. Again, a sign that you have an air conditioning condenser problem is hot air blowing into the car even though you have the AC on. You may also be able to see damage to the condenser through your grille.
4. Electrical Malfunctions
As in your home, the air conditioner relies on your vehicle’s electrical system to power it when you turn it on. Many things can go wrong with the system, including wire damage, which is the most common electrical issue with air conditioning units in automobiles. Without electricity, the AC will not run.
5. Fan Failure
Without a cooling fan, the air will not be blown in through the vents. There are also cooling fans that blow over the condenser to keep it cool, and if they fail, the condenser will not be able to cool the refrigerant so you have nice refreshing air in your vehicle’s cabin. An annual AC check allows us to test all of the cooling system fans to make sure they’re working properly.
6. Bad Compressor
Finally, the air conditioner compressor is the heart of your vehicle’s air conditioning system. It circulates the refrigerant through the system so that the condenser can cool it and you can have cold air blowing through the vents. Compressors can actually die if they aren’t used regularly. This is why it’s important to have an AC inspection in the spring.
Premier Auto Repair is the best auto service shop in Tyler, TX. We work hard and treat our customers and their automobiles like family. Call us today to schedule an air conditioning service. We’ll make sure your car’s AC is ready to go before summer hits.
