The Air Conditioning System in Your Vehicle - Does it Need Car Repair?

Depending on where you live you may need to use your air conditioner in your vehicle and it rarely breaks down at convenient times. You don’t have to cook in your car during hot summer months. Your auto repair may be as simple as an air conditioner recharge or it may require something a little more complicated, but a visit to your mechanic can help you determine the causes of the dysfunctional air conditioner.

If something just does not seem right and the inside of your car is not cooling as it should, there are several possible problems that it could be. To determine if auto repair is needed, look under the hood of your vehicle to get the layout of your air conditioning system. You will see that it is just a weirdly laid out cooler that has been manufactured to transfer heat from place to place.

The air conditioning system in your vehicle consists of several parts. There is the compressor, which is in charge of circulating the refrigerant throughout the rest of the system, the refrigerant, which is the gas that cools the vehicle, and the condenser, which changes the dynamic of the refrigerant from gas to liquid and eventually gets the heat out of the vehicle. Then there is the expansion valve, which acts as a nozzle to control the flow of the refrigerant, the evaporator that sends the heat to the refrigerant so that the air can blow over the top, which cools the car. Finally, there is the receiver, which cleans the refrigerant of things that may contaminate the air and hinder the cooling of your vehicle. If any of these things appear to not be working, auto repair may be needed.

How does the air conditioning process work? When you turn the switch on your air conditioner button, the compressor begins its work by putting some pressure on the coils, which hold the refrigerant. In most vehicles these are located in front of the radiator. When a gas is put under pressure, it becomes hot and the heated refrigerant in the condenser coils is sent out to mix with the air that flows in from the outside of the car. As it is cooled it returns to its liquid form, which then is passed through the nozzle-like expansion valve. From here it is sent to the evaporator. By the time it arrives in the evaporator, it has lost much of its pressure and cools some of the remaining liquid and is part liquid and part gas. The liquid refrigerant then sucks up the heat in the air and then evaporates. The blower sends the warm air across the colder evaporator, thus creating the cool air that circulates inside the vehicle. If part of the process is broken, the air conditioner won’t work and auto repair may be needed to repair the broken part.

If at any time you experience any problems with your air conditioning system and do not feel comfortable fixing it yourself, take your car to your auto repair specialist and they will make sure it is running properly.