![](/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Facebook.png")
If your automobile’s climate control is increasingly failing, make an appointment at Fred’s Auto Repair for a professional assessment.
Air Conditioning
As the days get warmer, you’ll probably turn on your automobile’s air conditioner (A/C) to keep things comfortable. If your A/C isn’t cooling down as well as it used to, it is possible that you have:
- A damaged compressor
- Low refrigerant or blocked valves
- Leakage from loose hoses or seals
- Broken cooling fan
- An electrical fault including failed switch, fuse, sensor or relay
Due to the wide variety of potential air conditioning failure sources, repair costs can range from simply adding a can of Freon to spending well over one thousand dollars. Of all of these issues, it is important to address leaks sooner to reduce the likelihood of more expensive repair later. Rubber seals and hoses lose their elasticity with age and if moisture enters your air conditioning system and mixes with refrigerant it will corrode your system on the inside with acid. If your A/C compressor fails so does the water pump, alternator and power steering.
HEATING
An A/C breakdown is uncomfortable, but only in the instance of extreme heat is it dangerous. In addition to allowing freezing temperatures during extreme cold, a broken heater could prevent your defogger from being able to eliminate ice or fog build-up on your windshield.
Unless you have an electric car fitted with an electrical heater, the likelihood is that you have a water-cooled engine. A thermostat regulates how hot your engine gets. Your engine then heats up your coolant, passing the heated fluid through valves into the car’s heating core. A blower fan then pushes warm air into your cabin via this radiator-like component.
As you can see, your heating system has multiple components so heater failure can stem from:
- A bad thermostat
- An inoperative blower fan
- Low or leaking antifreeze
- Coolant contaminated with debris or rust
- A failing heater core
- Electrical problems with fuses or wires
- Damaged heater controls
When your heater is on, your car should blow warm air. But what if instead the air is cold or there is no air at all? If you your car blows cold air, it is more likely that coolant is low or a blend door is stuck. If you car heater doesn’t blow air at all, it is most likely a bad blower motor. However, there are several other potential causes of your heating failure. At Fred’s, well perform the necessary diagnostic procedures to get your car repaired and back on the road again.
