This info comes off the back of a few incidents that have occurred in the summer of 2014. You may be getting this is the middle of winter and the information will seem completely useless to you, however come next summer this will be useful.
So what’s going down in the world of icy cold air? We have had a few incidents recently where clients have asked for an air conditioning re-gas to be done and either the gas was fine to begin with or after returning the car back to the client they says its not cold enough.
In all cases to date the issue has been a lack of understanding how the air conditioning controls work.
1. The A/C or snowflake button needs to be on, most cars have a small green, orange, yellow or red light to inform you
that the A/C button is on. You need to make sure this is actiavated simply turning the temperature dial around to cold is
not enough.
2. Having the A/C button on and the tempreture dail on hot is a little counter productive, these counter act each other and you would be better off having the window down.
3. For maximum A/C awesomeness put the air system on recirculate. This button is normally the picture of the car with an
arrow doing a U-turn inside of it, the other button (with the picture of a car with the arrow coming into the vehicle
from outside the car) takes air from outside the car and combines it with your cold air, so on a thirty degree day,
combining that external hot air with your cold air will only give you luke warm air.
4. Finally the understanding of most surrounding the A/C gas is a little incorrect; The A/C gas should never run out, it’s not a consumable item. If your vehicle is not getting cold air any more it is most likely becuase the gas has
escaped the system as a result of a leak in the system. There are verious rubber seals in the air conditioning system and when they get old and brittle they allow the gas to escape. These leaks can be very hard to locate, and to locate
these leaks a UV dye is added to the system and a few weeks after a regas the car needs to be checked with a UV light which will show up a leak like a 1970s disco. So the point I’m trying to make here is if you require a simple air con regas it is 100% likely that there is something mechanicaly wrong and your vehicle will require more then just a regas!
You will need to get the system regased and have the UV dye added then return to your mechanic in a week or so to have
the leak located and rectified.
We hope this helps you in your mid winter freezing state, or if you land this article mid summer and your A/C is on the
blink you are now a little more informed.
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