Time to get the A/C Season in shape for summer. Don’t want to be stuck in the heat without AC.

Service your A/C System every 60K miles. Take it to a licensed repair facility and have them evacuate and recharge your system. During this they will replace the ac compressor oil which is key to long life.

A couple of tips if you need to replace any ac components;

1. Always buy new. You can get lots of new A/C Compressors here.
2. Always change the drier and orifice tube (if applicable)
3. Always flush the system and put in new oil and new freon.

A/C systems are violent and difficult, not worth cutting corners on. Should be done by a licensed mechanic or someone who has worked on these.

So I’ve had some people ask how does the ac compressor system breaks down. Below are a couple of useful charts and diagrams that will probably explain it better than I can.

The air conditioning compressor turns liquid freon into gas freon. The condenser cools the gas down into a liquid, sending it to the evaporator. The evaporator turns cool liquid into cool air, removing the heat from the cabin. The warm liquid goes back to the compressor. Then it starts all over again

Some keys to the system are that the size of the fins on the ac condenser directly affect how well it performs. If those fins are not working very well then the gas will never get very cold and performance will suffer. We have done lots of articles about condensers, so feel free to do a search and find those.

Check out the diagrams for more info.

So I’ve gotten a few questions regarding the AC Compressor System Expansion Valve and how to repair it.

All ac systems have to have a place to release excess pressure. Many air conditioning compressor systems use an expansion device to release pressure in the atmosphere. This can either be an expansion valve or an expansion block, see picture for more on the difference. They are just different designs of the same. The valve has an external sensor arm while the block is pressure based.

So how to you repair an expansion valve? The answer is to buy a new one. You can clean it out and blow some air through it, but with prices of only $30-$60 for a new one, its just not worth the risk. Most expanison valves are mounted on the ac evaporator, which is inside the firewall. Replacing it can be 3-8 hours of labor because you may have to disassemble the whole dash. Whether you are paying someone for that or doing it yourself it is just not worth it. Buy a new one from a trusted source.