Automotive: Air Conditioners Parts And Repairs Information

An automotive air conditioner is nothing but a refrigerator. It throws out the heat that is trapped inside the car. But sometimes you may encounter some problems in your auto air conditioner. Before you learn how to repair a faulty air conditioner of your vehicle you must know about its parts and its functioning.

What are the main auto air conditioner parts? 

Given below are the important automotive air conditioner parts: 

• Compressor: its function is to compress and circulate the refrigerant in the whole system.
• Refrigerant: it carries the heat.
• Condenser: it changes the refrigerant phase and moves the heat out of the vehicle.
• Expansion valve: it is also known as orifice tube in some vehicles and looks like a nozzle. It performs multiple functions at the same time – dropping the refrigerant liquid pressure, measuring the flow of refrigerant liquid and atomizing (breaking it up into particles) the same.  
• Evaporator: it moves the heat to the refrigerant, thereby helping in cooling the car. 
• Receiver or drier: it operates as filter for the refrigerant by removing the moisture and some other contaminants. 

How does auto air conditioner work?

Before any repair work is undertaken, it is important to know about the working of an automotive air conditioner. The refrigerant is put under pressure by the compressor and then it is sent to the condensing coils. 

The condensing coils are located in the front portion of the radiator. When the gas gets compressed, it gets quite hot. There is heat in the car from two sources – the heat generated from the hot gas and the heat that the refrigerant gets from the evaporator. This heat from these sources is expelled to the air that flows across it from the outside. 

Upon cooling to saturation temperature, the refrigerant once again changes phase from gas into liquid. This process gives a large amount of heat known as latent vaporization heat. 

After this the liquid travels to the evaporator through the expansion valve in the automotive air conditioner. Here its pressure that it had gained in the compressor is lowered, thereby converting some of the liquid into the low-pressure gas that helps cool the remaining gas.  

Now this mixture goes into the evaporator and the heat generated from the air across the coils is absorbed by the liquid portion of the refrigerant. Then the automotive air conditioner’s blower circulates the air. This cycle is regularly repeated by the refrigerant.

How to repair your auto air conditioner?

You need to thoroughly investigate and identify the fault of your automotive air conditioner. First check if there is any refrigerant leak. Leaks can be easily spotted but it may not be that easy to fix them since it requires pulling the things apart. 

Apart from refrigerant leakage, the condensers may be choked and compressors may fail. There may be some faults that you may be able to fix on your own. For some serious faults you will have to call the mechanic. 

One must go through the air conditioning manual before the repair work is taken up. You need to have a thorough knowledge of whole automotive air conditioning system. Some of the major parts have been mentioned. In case of a fault concerning them, fan belts, wires, fuses and switches need to be checked. 

If you are not able to detect and repair the fault in your automotive air conditioner on your own, it is better to avail the services of a professional.