It seems every year when the temps outside rise many people find out that the Air Conditioner in their car has quit working properly. When the A/C gets turned on warm air blows out of the vents that cool comfort we were looking for is not there. The beloved car has let us down. If you ever find yourself in this position have no fear the repair is not always an expensive one. It can be as simple as an O-ring that is not sealing or as complicated as an evaporator core. To accurately diagnose a professional should be consulted.
Think of your Air Conditioning system in your vehicle to like that of your refrigerator at home. It is a sealed system that does “use up” the refrigerant. For your vehicle to lose refrigerant there is a leak somewhere in the system. A leak causes the system to lose pressure and lose its ability to work properly. When the pressure gets to low or too high a switch will prevent the A/C compressor from turning on so it does not get damaged.
To low of pressure in the A/C system is most often caused by a leak in the system. A leak can be extremely hard to see. A dye can be put in the A/C system when charged that will expose to the leak when a UV light hits the dye. It will glow bright green. Some leaks are slow and even with dye in the system they do not show themselves right away.
A/c Pressure that climbs so high it shuts off the compressor can be caused by two things. A faulty part in the system or the A/C system got overcharged. More is not always better in the A/c system. You want to have the proper amount of oil and r134a in the system for it to function properly. To check verify the proper amount of refringent is in the system you will need some specialty tools.
There can be many contributing factors to the A/C system failing. This system also requires proper tools to diagnose properly, repair, and refill the A/C system with oil and refrigerant. Just adding refringent will not fix the system it may be a temporary fix but will leak back out into the atmosphere. Refringent with stop leaks can damage parts of the A/c system as well. A proper repair is really the best way to go about it.
If your A/C is having this problem, contact your trusted local shop and see if they offer an diagnostic A/C service so they can inform you of the what repairs are needed to get your A/C up and running.
