Keeping Your Cool in the Heat of the Moment

By Dave Trux

Now that the scalding hot days of summer have returned, what would you do if the air conditioning system in your car is blowing more hot air than a career politician? If this happens to you, I would strongly advise you to refrain from jumping ahead to thoughts of despair, including plans to break open your nest egg prematurely in anticipation of a lengthy and expensive repair.

The good news is the solution is often fairly simple, easy and inexpensive. In my many years in the auto repair industry, I’ve discovered that oftentimes, the problem is something as simple as recharging the system and refilling it with Freon.

If a system recharge fails to bring you the soothing cool relief you need to make it to autumn, the next logical step is to check for a leak. Because the A.C. system is a sealed system, we often find that Freon has leaked out somewhere. I’ve found that just over half the cars we work on with an A.C. issue were caused by a leak. We check for leaks in our shop by charging the system with an ultraviolet dye and then asking our customer to drive their car for a week or two. When they return, we’ll put their car up on the rack and recheck it again by putting a black light on it, which will reveal exactly where the leak is.

Once your A.C. system is back in working order, you may want to enhance its performance by replacing your cabin air filter. Over a period of time, as you continue to draw in air from the outdoors and into the cabin, especially during extreme summer and winter months when the windows are rolled up tight, it’s common to find a lot of debris in the air box where the cabin air filter sits. It’s crucial for the health of your family and your vehicle to have the cabin air filter inspected during each service and replaced annually. With the windows rolled up for extended periods of time, you’re limited to breathing in confined air, so that stagnant air needs to be as clean as possible.

Of course there are other more complex and expensive problems that can go wrong with the A.C. system, including malfunctioning components like the compressor, the receiver/dryer and the evaporator core, but fortunately they are far less common. So, before you lose your cool figuratively and literally over what might be the worst case scenario, take your car to a trusted repair facility where you and your car can chill out together.