Air Conditioning Season

It's that time of year again - Air Conditioning [A/C] Season! You may ask, "James, what does that mean to me?"

I’d like to explain a little about how A/C Systems work.

A/C systems are what mechanics call a closed system, so theoretically, in a perfect world, once the system is charged with Freon, you should never need to worry about it. In a perfect world. Unfortunately, our world is far from perfect.

I see a lot of shops advertising A/C Service for a fixed rate. If your A/C is working, don’t worry about it. If your A/C doesn’t work, or seems to work intermittently, that a different story.

If your A/C is weak, it’s more than likely low on Freon. And it’s not a matter of “just topping it off”.

Back in the late 80’s, when the government decided that R12 Freon was bad for the ozone (a whole other argument unto itself), they mandated that automotive shops could not vent Freon into the atmosphere, so, if your A/C is weak, we have to check the system for leaks. If there is a leak, we’re not supposed to top off the system. A leak in an A/C system is basically the same as venting Freon into the atmosphere, and a repair will have to be made. Now, that’s not to say that if your A/C is weak that you have a problem that will require repair. Over the winter time and a couple of years, you could very slowly lose a bit of Freon, in this case, “topping it off” or servicing your system is all that’s needed. This is true for the majority of cars on the road.

If you own a BMW or a Mini, there could be one other little thing that gets overlooked quite a bit. Underneath the front bumper are some panels called closure panels. Generally in the right side closure panel is the exterior temp sensor. We see a large number of vehicle with the closure panels and temp sensor broken off and missing, and mostly from pulling to far forward at parking blocks. Cars go over the parking block OK, but they don’t back over them very well. BMWs and Minis use this ambient temp sensor when regulating the temperature on the inside of the vehicle. If the ambient temp sensor is missing, the computer default is negative 40*F. So lets say it’s 95*F outside and you turn you’re A/C on the first thing the car does is check to see the temperature outside so it knows how cold to make it inside. If the temp sensor is missing, the car see -40*F and it thinks that your crazy wanting A/C with it so cold outside, so to you, you’re A/C doesn’t seem to be blowing very cold...and that's because it’s not.

Now, a word of warning to anybody needing A/C repairs. I don’t care want kind of car you drive...BMW, Toyota, Ford, doesn’t matter, A/C repairs are expensive, and it’s not all your repair facility's or manufacturers’ fault. A lot of the expense has come about from Government regulations. Yeah, the parts are expensive, but I’ll bet most of that cost can be traced back to regulations on Freon.

That being said, know that we at European Autospecialist strive to offer you the best pricing combined with the best service, so you know that you're getting the best "bang" for your buck when you have your import serviced with us. It's been a pleasure as always, and remember - Stay cool!