It’s A/C weather! If you’ve noticed the performance of your air conditioner declining, here’s air conditioning systems 101:
1.The first thing we do to diagnose a weak air conditioner complaint is to perform an A/C Service. This accomplishes two things: 1. It recharges your system, which is normal every few years.
2. It allows us to inject a special dye into the system to inspect for leaks in your A/C components.
Sometimes it’s “one and done” and all your system needed was a little refresh. Sometimes we find dye leaking out of one or more components in your air-conditioning system. We could find a leak in your A/C compressor, expansion valve, condenser, and/or evaporator core. At that point, whichever part is failing would need to be replaced and the system recharged to correct your issue. Often, if the compressor is at fault, parts vendors will not allow us to warranty it unless we replace the condenser AND evaporator core with it as older parts can put unnecessary wear on the compressor causing an early failure – so be prepared for that feedback.
Occasionally, there is a pinhole leak in the system and we see no dye at the initial service, but your performance weakens slowly over the next week or so. If that is the case, you’ll need to reschedule to see us again so we can inspect for leaks now that the system has had time to build pressure after regular driving. Then we can establish which parts are failing and proceed from there.
DO NOT go to Autozone and buy the A/C recharge kit under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Here’s why:
There is absolutely no way to know how much freon is in your car unless you evacuate the system with a professional A/C machine, which measures what it takes out. Therefore, you have no way of knowing if you are under- or over-filling your system with freon with one of these kits. On many, many occasions we have done multi-thousand dollar A/C compressor repairs on customer’s cars who have opted to use one of these kits, overfilled their system, and destroyed expensive components.
Give us a call today to schedule an appointment! 910-763-4223
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