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Vehicle Air Conditioning – Frequently Asked Questions

 

Why is my car air conditioning not working?

Why does my air conditioning need servicing every two to three years?

How long does a Regas take?

My Air Conditioning is smelly?

My Car has R12 gas, I have been told this needs Retro Fitting, what does this mean?

What is an Air Conditioning Top Up?

What is included in an Air Conditioning Regas?

 

Why is my car air conditioning not working?

There are a number of reasons why your car air conditioning may not be working. The most common cause is a lack of refrigerant gas in the air conditioning system. Small amounts of the gas can leak out naturally over time making your air conditioning system less efficient or cease to work altogether. An air conditioning regas / recharge will fix this - air con regas

Alternatively the lack of refrigerant gas may be due to a leak in one of the parts of the system (usually a split in a hose / pipe or hole in the condenser). This would require identification of the leak, repair or replacement of the part and then a full air con regas - repairs

Another cause of your air conditioning not working could be a mechanical failure of one of the air conditioning system components i.e.: compressor or expansion valve seizing or the condenser fan not working. Again identification of the fault, repair / replacement of the part and regas of the system would fix this.

A less common fault is an electric fault that could be preventing the compressor from running and thus causing the air conditioning to stop working. This would be identified by testing the electrical circuits.

Air autos are able to help with all these.  Please contact us 07834 620780 or send an email

Why does my air conditioning need servicing every two to three years?

Most vehicle manufacturers recommend that you have your vehicle air conditioning re-gassed every 2 to 3 years. This is due to the refrigerant gas which the air conditioning system runs off naturally leaking out over time thus impacting the system efficiency, which could cause the compressor to work harder than expected and reduce its longevity. An inexpensive regas could save you a future expensive compressor replacement and keep your air conditioning working like new!  Please contact us 07834 620780 or send an email

How long does a Regas take?

When done properly an air conditioning regas will take between 45 mins to an hour. A regas can be done anywhere (home or work).

Air Autos offer a fully mobile service.  Please contact us 07834 620780 or send an email

My Air Conditioning is smelly?

This is quite common. If you find that when you switch on your air conditioning that the air coming out of the vents smells stale / has a bad odour then the most likely cause of this is a "fungus" or a "bacterial" contamination of the air conditioning evaporator. This can be removed relatively inexpensively by applying a specialist anti-bacterial solution directly onto the evaporator fins and thus disinfecting and eradicating any bad odours. Please contact us for more details and a competitive price on 07834 620780 or send an email

My Car has R12 gas, I have been told this needs Retro Fitting, what does this mean?

R12 is a type of refrigerant that is present in some older cars. R12 is now illegal to use in the UK and therefore it is not possible to simply regas the system. However, the R12 system can be updated to use R134a refrigerant by "retro-fitting".

R134a gas replaced R12 as a significantly more environmentally friendly refrigerant in 1990’s. Other than the environmental factors the key difference between the two gases is the physical properties of the gas and the size of the gas molecules. The R12 molecules are much larger than those which make up the R134a. Therefore simply putting the R134a gas into an existing R12 system would result in the gas leaking out - refrigerant gases

Retrofitting introduces a specialist substance into the existing air conditioning system which coats the interior of the pipes and hoses with an impenetrable barrier and prevents the R134a escaping out.

The process is fairly simple to do – please contact us for a competitive price on 07834 620780 or send an email

What is an Air Conditioning Top Up?

Sometimes you may hear the term "Air Con Top Up". A "Top Up" could simply mean topping up the air conditioning system to make up for any gas that has been lost (i.e. naturally leaked out) and regain pressure to make the system run.

A basic Top Up is not advisable for the following reasons:

  1. All cars are designed to have a specific amount of refrigerant gas in them. Each system being different. Therefore the refrigerant gas needs to be properly weighed out before being put into the system. By just topping up, then the actual amount of gas in the system is unknown. Too much gas or too little in the system will impact on efficiency. Too much gas could also cause damage to the system and be dangerous.
  2. Contamination / moisture builds up over time. If you just top up the system you are not removing any contamination / moisture and this could be detrimental to vital components.

A proper regas / recharge should always fully recover any refrigerant gas in the system, perform a system vacuum to clean the system and then weigh out the correct vehicle manufacturer recommended refrigerant before re-gassing.

Air Autos always carry out a professional regas.  Please contact us 07834 620780 or send an email

What is included in an Air Conditioning Regas?

At Air Autos we offer an extensive service and any air con regas includes: system leak test, recovery of any old gas, system vacuum, oil and UV dye and refrigerant.  For full details see our "Air Conditioning Regas Page" - air con regas

Call: 07834 620780

Or send an email

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