How to check a car air conditioner with your own hands
Tips for motorists

How to check a car air conditioner with your own hands

Every car owner has to deal with checking the car air conditioner. The easiest way to perform the procedure is in a car service, where specialists will evaluate and eliminate the problems that have arisen. But if you wish, you can do the work yourself. To do this, you need to know what to do and in what order.

When to check the operation of the air conditioner in the car

A car equipped with air conditioning is much more comfortable to drive, because in the cabin you can set the desired temperature in hot weather. But since the air conditioning system consists of several mechanisms that wear out and fail over time, it is important to know and be able to check their performance. It is worth dwelling on how to do this in more detail.

Checking the performance of the air conditioner from the passenger compartment and under the hood

Car air conditioning diagnostics can be performed as follows:

  1. Start the engine and activate the cooling system. If the machine is equipped with climate control, set the minimum temperature.
    How to check a car air conditioner with your own hands
    To check the air conditioner, you must activate the system
  2. Check the flow of cold air through the air ducts in the cabin at idle and while driving. If there is no cold flow during parking or the air is not cooled enough, then most likely the radiator of the system is clogged with dirt and needs to be cleaned. Otherwise, the freon will heat up, the pressure in the system will increase and the gas will break out.
  3. With a palm, they take on a thick tube that goes from the passenger compartment to the compressor. 3-5 seconds after turning on the system, it should become cold. If this does not happen, then there is not enough freon in the circuit, which may be caused by leakage through the heat exchanger or joints.
    How to check a car air conditioner with your own hands
    During diagnostics, a thin and thick tube is checked with a palm for temperature
  4. Touch the tube connecting the compressor and the radiator. In hot weather it should be hot, in cool weather it should be warm.
  5. They touch a thin tube that goes from the radiator to the passenger compartment. At any time of the year, it should be warm, but not hot.

Learn how to repair an air conditioner radiator: https://bumper.guru/klassicheskie-modeli-vaz/sistema-ohdazhdeniya/remont-radiatora-kondicionera-avtomobilya.html

Video: do-it-yourself air conditioning diagnostics

Do-it-yourself air conditioner diagnostics

Visual inspection of air conditioner tubes

Visual inspection of tubes and hoses is intended to detect a leak. Violation of tightness can be caused by corrosion of aluminum tubes, mechanical damage to hoses, tubes, and also to the radiator. Most often, aluminum tubes are damaged by corrosion at the points of attachment to the body. There are cases when depressurization occurs due to rubbing of pipes and hoses, which depends on the design features of the layout of the engine compartment equipment. In this case, aluminum elements are restored by welding with argon welding, and rubber hoses are replaced with new ones.

It is far from always possible to visually determine a leak, but in a service environment the procedure is simplified.

Leak Check

Leaks in most cases manifest themselves as reduced cooling efficiency. In this case, the following is checked:

Video: search for a freon leak in an air conditioner

Checking the air conditioning compressor

The compressor is a pump with an electromagnetic clutch and a pulley. With its help, freon is circulated in the system when the air conditioner is turned on. Most often, the following problems occur with it:

If, after turning on the air conditioner, a noise appears that is not characteristic of the normal operation of the system, then the most likely cause is a pulley bearing failure. This can happen due to a number of factors: poor quality of roads, improper operation of electronics and lack of performance of individual components. If such a breakdown is detected, it must be eliminated as soon as possible, since it leads to damage to the electromagnetic clutch. To check the latter, start the engine and press the air conditioner button. At the same time, the engine speed will decrease slightly, and a characteristic click will also be heard, indicating that the clutch is engaged. If this does not happen, you need to figure out what caused the malfunction.

Video: check the air conditioning compressor without removing it from the car

Checking the radiator of the air conditioner

The condenser or radiator of the air conditioning system is located in front of the main radiator of the cooling system of the power unit. Car operation is inextricably linked with radiator pollution by insects, dust, fluff, etc. As a result, heat transfer deteriorates, which leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the air conditioner. This manifests itself in the form of a weak flow of cold air in the cabin. Diagnosis of the radiator is reduced to an external examination of the device. To do this, assess its condition through the lower grille. In case of severe contamination, clean it with compressed air or a brush.

When compressed air is supplied, the pressure must not exceed 3 bar.

If the radiator has serious damage, which can be caused by a stone, you should visit an auto repair shop to assess the problem and further repair.

Evaporator check

The evaporator of the air conditioning system is usually located in the cabin under the panel. Getting to this device, if necessary, is quite problematic. If the unit is very dirty, when the air conditioner is turned on, an unpleasant smell will be present in the cabin. You can clean the air conditioner yourself or in the service.

Learn how to choose and install an air conditioner on a VAZ 2107: https://bumper.guru/klassicheskie-modeli-vaz/salon/konditsioner-na-vaz-2107.html

Check for damage, dirt, traces of oil

During the diagnosis of the system in question, first of all, attention is paid to the following malfunctions:

Based on the detected defects, they take certain steps to eliminate the malfunction.

Checking the car air conditioner for performance in winter

The car air conditioner is equipped with a special sensor that prevents the device from starting if the temperature outside is below zero. This is due to an increase in the viscosity of the oil, which practically loses its properties at low temperatures. Therefore, if it becomes necessary to diagnose the air conditioner in the winter, you should find a warm parking lot and, leaving the car there for a while, warm up the units of the system in question. After a while, you can check the air conditioner from the passenger compartment and under the hood, as described above.

How to check if the air conditioner is charged

An important component in the operation of an air conditioner is its filling with freon. The lack of this substance leads to improper functioning of the system and insufficient cooling. Therefore, it is important to know how to determine the level of refrigerant in order to top it up if necessary. The check is performed as follows:

  1. Open the hood and wipe a special eye, then turn on the air conditioner to the maximum.
  2. At first, we observe the appearance of a liquid with air bubbles, then they decrease and practically disappear. This indicates a normal level of freon.
    How to check a car air conditioner with your own hands
    At a normal level of freon, there should be no air bubbles in the window
  3. If the liquid appeared with bubbles, the number of which decreased, but remained constant, then this indicates an insufficient level of refrigerant.
  4. If there is a milky white liquid, then this clearly indicates a low level of freon in the system.
    How to check a car air conditioner with your own hands
    With an insufficient level of freon, a white-milky liquid will be observed in the window

More about refueling the air conditioner: https://bumper.guru/klassicheskie-modeli-vaz/sistema-ohdazhdeniya/kak-chasto-nuzhno-zapravlyat-kondicioner-v-avtomobile.html

Video: Checking air conditioning refueling

Knowing how the air conditioning system is diagnosed, you can independently deal with the nuances that have arisen and determine what caused this or that malfunction. Do-it-yourself testing does not require any special tools and devices. It is enough to familiarize yourself with the step-by-step actions and follow them in the course of work.

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