Air Conditioning - Experts Are Required

Let us start with a most important fact - Many of the cars we see with air conditioning problems have already been "repaired" before elsewhere - the problem is that lots of garages have bought automatic machines to change the refrigerants, that is about all that most garages can do - even then it is often not done properly!

An increasing number of cars air conditioning systems are computer controlled, that is that they are controlled by the body ECU or even have their own ecu, this means that unlike older cars that had quite basic systems, Over the last 8 or 9 years and even earlier on some models, the Air Conditioning or Climate Control systems have increasingly made use of the many engine sensors for valuable information.

With many of these systems using Can Bus or Lin Bus systems to communicate between the ecu's there are an increasing number of areas that can cause problems with the functioning of the air conditioning system.

A thorough understanding of the exact system, including sensors, ecu's wiring and the schematics for the car need to be available and understood for diagnosis of any problems.

Many of our new customers call to arrange a service, with the idea that the system just needs "topping up" fortunately we always ask a few questions before we go ahead, this frequently uncovers that the air conditioning is not working and the symptoms that may have been noticed without them realising. Often it is a simple repair that is needed rather than or as well as a service.

Air conditioning is one of the few systems on a car that actually pays for itself - every time - Due to the way the air conditioning compressor is driven from the engine by belt and pulley the system always leaks refrigerant, after about 1 year enough refrigerant has been lost to affect the efficiency of the system causing it to run more that it was designed to and also increasing fuel consumption.

In a properly working air conditioning or climate control system the compressor should only run for a couple of minutes at a time with a pause of a few minutes between each activation, you should be able to hear the compressor clicking in and out if you listen carefully, the engine should not change speed on modern systems as the ecu controlled engine management should compensate for the load.