Sooner or later your car’s AC will stop working and it will need service and/or repair. The most common symptom is blowing air that’s room temperature or only mildly cold, but there can be other symptoms too.
Why is your car’s AC systems blowing warm air? The most common cause is low refrigerant, which can be Freon, R134a, or in newer Honda and Subaru vehicles, R1234yf.
Your car’s air conditioning is subjected to a whole lot more heat, motion, and vibration than the AC unit in your house. Eventually even a system without any large leaks will lose its refrigerant through the tiny leaks that are present in all automotive AC systems and need a recharge.
Sometimes all your car needs is an air conditioning service, sometimes your car will in need AC repair, and sometimes you’ll need both.
If you’re in need of auto air conditioning repair for your car, and you’re in Berkeley or nearby, you’ve come to the right place. Art’s Automotive repairs all types of car air conditioning, including hybrid and cars with the new refrigerant R1234-yf.
Car Air Conditioning Symptoms and Solutions
The air coming from the vents isn’t very cool
This is usually caused by low refrigerant, but can also be caused by issues with the compressor, condenser, climate control system, or radiator fan to name a few.
The air coming from the vents is warm or hot
This is usually a problem with the climate control, the “blend door” in particular. The blend door routes air over the evaporator (a cold thing under the dash) or the heater core (a hot thing under the dash). It’s usually controlled with an electric servo and these servos sometimes fail, especially on Honda, but occasionally on Toyota and Subaru as well.
Cold water is dripping on the passenger side floor when the AC is used
All AC systems generate condensation from the evaporator, which is a part under your dash. Normally the water drips into a drain tube routed out of the cab, but if the tube is clogged, water will drip into the cab.
There is a noise when the AC compressor comes on
This may be a problem with the AC compressor belt or the compressor itself.
The driver’s side vent blows cool but the passenger side vent doesn’t
This can be a problem with the climate control system, especially on cars with dual zone AC. However, on many models this can also happen when the refrigerant is low as strange as that may seem.
There is very low air flow from the vents
This is usually caused by a clogged cabin air filter. These filters need to be replaced at least every 30,000 miles, but may need more frequent replacement if you park in a wooded area or drive through a lot of dust.
The air conditioning cools for a while and then stops cooling. After a while it starts working again.
Many times this will be freezing/icing in the expansion valve caused by moisture in the AC system. Moisture in the AC system can cause damage and should be removed during service and after repair by drawing a vacuum on the system to cause it to boil off. You can test for a freezing expansion valve with pressure gauges.
The AC works well on the freeway but doesn’t cool in stop and go traffic
This can be caused by a failed radiator fan or condenser fan. When the car is moving there is plenty of airflow over the condenser to remove the heat, but when the car is moving slowly, the condenser fan must remove the heat.
How much does it cost to fix Car ac?
This is a question I answer several times a day. People call and they say their car is at another shop and they want to charge $200 just to figure out what’s wrong.
I say we’d start an A/C quote for AC repair at $260, and then I need to do a lot of explaining.
You see, our $260 is less than the other shop’s $200, but you need to understand what you’re paying for for it to make sense. I’m going to do my best to explain it in this article.
Is it easy to recharge air conditioning? Can I do it myself?
Please don’t try to repair AC on your own car. In the best case, the AC will not work as well as it should. In the worst case you can do serious damage and end up turning a small problem into a big problem.
“Of course the guy making money fixing cars would say that!”, I can hear some of you thinking. I’m a skeptic as well. Here’s an explanation of the problem with DIY A/C. If you’re bound and determined to do it yourself, at least you’ll be aware of the pitfalls.
Start with diagnosis or and ac service?
Most of the time, like 90% of the time, your car’s ac stopped working because it’s low on refrigerant. We could start with a diagnosis and bill an hour for our time.
“Well sir, we checked vent temperature and it was high. The blower and blend door seem to be working normally. We checked high side pressure and low side pressure and both were about 40 PSI. The compressor isn’t engaging and we suspected that the low pressure switch was the cause so we jumped it and the compressor clutch did engage, so we’re pretty sure that your system is low on charge. We’d recommend servicing the AC system. That’ll be $200 for our diagnosis and another $200 for the service.
If we know that when a car’s air conditioning doesn’t work it’s caused by low refrigerant, why not play the odds and start with a service.
What If the AC Doesn’t Need a Service?
9 out of 10 cars need an AC recharge, what about that 1 in 10 car? Are we just wasting our customer’s money on an unneeded service?
Not at all. In 20 minutes, we can check a lot. Does the compressor engage? If so, how much does the AC cool. It should be able to drop the air temperature about 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
Are there and oil stains indicating a leak on the condenser, hoses, or compressor? If there’s no reason not to, we then remove the refrigerant from the car and weigh it.
If we weigh it and find the proper amount of refrigerant in the system, put it back in the system and change tack. We’re only 20 minutes in and still have the bulk of an hour for electrical testing or whatever.
We start with the service because it’s what you’ll most likely end up needing. We’re trying to give you a real price up front.
It’s pretty likely $260 is the least it will cost to have working AC. If that’s too much, save your money, don’t waste it on diagnosis. The actual car air conditioner repair may be much more.
You may need car repairs in addition to an ac service
So how likely is it that you’ll get out of here with your car’s air conditioner repaired for $260? Well of the 90% of cars that have air conditioning that doesn’t work, about half need nothing other than a service, so I guess your chances are around 45%.
So, what if you’re not one of the lucky ones? Well repair costs can range from under $100 for something small like an O-ring, to $2500 for an evaporator (the thing that gets cold; it’s buried under the dashboard). There’s no way to know in advance. Even if you pay the other guys to “diagnose” the AC, there’s no way they can know either. Sorry.
What to expect when you’re expecting (working air conditioning)
So here’s the process:
- Service the AC system
- See if it works normally with refrigerant in it. If it does,
- Check for leaks. If the AC works and there are no leaks, it’s good news, but you’re not out of the woods yet.
- Come back in a week for a AC UV dye inspection. We add a dye that glows under black light. It’s great for finding smaller leaks. The cost of this inspection is included with the original visit and we normally recommend you drive and use the AC for about a week, then come back and we’ll check the car while you wait. If there are no leaks, you’re done. Hooray!
The process can derail at any point. We might find a big leak on the day of the service. Or it could be that the AC system doesn’t work even with the correct amount of refrigerant due to a stuck expansion valve or bad compressor.
You can’t test this stuff with an empty system. And it’s also possible that you’ll drive around enjoying your newly functional air conditioning for a week, only to have us tell you have a leak during your one-week visit.
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Are you having trouble finding a place to service your newer Toyota, Honda, or Subaru with R1234yf refrigerant? We service R1234yf air conditioning, so if you’re in Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, Albany, El Cerrito, or anywhere in the East Bay Area, give us a call.
We are serious about performing proper air conditioning repairs. That’s why we became certified to service and repair automotive air conditioning through MACS (Mobile Air Conditioning Society Worldwide) and use only high quality modern equipment when servicing your car air conditioning system.