Mechanics and Air-conditioning in a Vechicle

Homes, offices and establishments are not the only areas where air conditioning may be installed. Cars and vehicles nowadays are usually equipped with an air conditioning unit to provide us with more comfort while inside the car.

Automobile air-conditioning or AC is described to be essentially a refrigerator with a rather different layout. So this is how mechanics see an auto AC and fix it in the same concept. For Auto Air Conditioning repairs and installations, a few major components which must be understood known by a mechanic before the task.

• What carries the heat is called refrigerant. Modern cars’ refrigerant is R-134a while older cars have r-12 Freon. R-12 Freon is rare to find and requires a license to be worked with so it costs more expensively.

• The part that first compresses then circulates the refrigerant in the auto AC system is called the compressor.

• What changes the refrigerant’s phase or transforms it from gas to liquid is the condenser. This component of the auto AC system also forces out the heat from the car.

• The component that looks like a nozzle and serves to make the refrigerant liquid pressure to plummet down is called the expansion valve. It also atomizes and gauges the flow of the refrigerant liquid.

• The component which transfers heat from the air to the refrigerant and effectively cools the interior of the car is the evaporator.

• What filters the refrigerant or oil, remove moisture and other unnecessary contaminants is called the dryer and receiver.

The process of air conditioning inside the system begins when the refrigerant is subjected to pressure by the compressor and sent to the condensing coils. The condensing coils, in general, are found at the front area of the radiator. When the gas is compressed, the temperature becomes too hot. This generated heat plus the heat of the refrigerant in the evaporator are ejected to the air. Once the refrigerant is cooled to the saturation temperature, it is transformed from gas to liquid. The liquid then passes through the evaporator to the coils of the car thereby losing pressure. At this point some of the liquid turns back again into gas while the remaining liquid is cooled. This mixture goes into the evaporator with the liquid refrigerant absorbing the heat passing across the coil to evaporate.

Common cooling inefficiencies of Auto AC includes:

• Deficient air flow to the condenser. Fixing this problem may involve ensuring that the electric fan motor for cooling is working and for models with an equipped fan blade, the fan should be turning quite fast.

• Deficient levels of refrigerant. For older cars with Freon refrigerant, the mechanic must have the necessary license before working with auto AC using Freon. Low levels of refrigerant may mean that it is leaking out and there is no refrigerant in the loop system which carries the heat. It can be fairly easy to spot a leak than to fix it. Some mechanics use a fluorescent dye that can be bought from auto-supply stores to spot a leak.

• Overheating. If the car is overheating, it would automatically follow that the auto AC to malfunction. To avoid overheating, make sure that if your car has two fans for the AC condenser and radiator are both working.