During summertime, there’s hot weather outside of your car and an air conditioner on full blast on the inside of your car. And chances are that at the time you need your car air conditioning most is when it quits on you and starts blowing cool or even warm air. So why is your car air conditioning not cold?
Here are six of the most likely causes of your air conditioning not being cold.
1) Freon Leak: Freon is the chemical refrigerant that cools the warm air before it is blown back into your car. Since today’s air conditioning systems can be very delicate and need a specific amount of freon to operate, a leak in the system can be a big issue.
The leak can be from a damaged hose, a loose gasket or just a loose connection. To fix this, we need to find the leaky parts, fix or replace them, and then recharge the system with Freon.
2) Your Air Conditioning Needs a Recharging: Even the best air conditioners can lose a little bit of refrigerant over a number of years, typically so slowly that you never even notice the difference. And you may never realize that there is more than a degree or two of difference in your car’s current A/C low temperature.
It’s easy for us to tell if your A/C has a leak. Just bring the car in and we can run some tests. If it turns out that your refrigerant level is low, we can recharge your A/C.
3) Your Blend Air Door is stuck: When you heat your car, warm air that flows over your engine goes into your car. When you switch your car air conditioning on, and try to cool your car, something called a “blend air door” swings across your ventilation system to close off the warm air coming into your car and allow the cold air from the A/C system to blow in.
Sometimes the blend air door gets stuck, and when it does, you’ll just keep getting warm air, no matter how well the rest of your car A/C system is working.
Fixing the blend air door often doesn’t require new parts, but it can be difficult to reach, as it’s deep behind your dashboard.
4) The A/C Compressor Doesn’t Engage: The heart of any air conditioning system is a compressor whose job it is to compress the freon. When the freon later expands, it gets very cold. Air blown across metal filled with cold freon causes the air to cool quickly.
If your compressor isn’t working, the air won’t get cold. And your compressor might not be working because of low freon levels, an electrical problem, or an overheated engine.
5) Blocked or Broken Condenser: The condenser’s job is to turn the freon gases back into liquid. If the condenser is blocked by debris or is damaged, the refrigerant will not flow. When this happens, you won’t get cold or even cool air blowing from our air conditioner.
DISCLAIMER AND RECOMMENDATION
These issues have to be looked at and repaired by an experienced ASE certified auto repair shop and not do the repairs yourself.
Nadia, the owner of Mobile Auto Diagnostics and Repair LLC has 18 years of hands on experience in repairing all kind of vehicles. She has 11 ASE certifications, one of which is an ASE Master Mechanic certification.
Nadia’s auto repair business is by invitation only and is not open to the public. Please contact Nadia by phone or e- mail found on this website.
Nadia accepts cash, checks and/or major credit cards
