Whether you are taking a well-deserved holiday in a hotter climate or just experiencing a very sunny summer, your air-con plays an important part in making your car enjoyable during the hotter months.
It can be a disaster if your air-con fails when you need it the most, especially if there is any potential risk of suffering from sunstroke when carrying passengers or animals within the vehicle. A faulty air-con should be diagnosed as soon as possible. Here are some tips to ensure your air-con keeps working.
What’s that smell?
If there is a lingering smell in your car, it might be because your air-con is on the verge of malfunctioning. Keep an eye out for the following smells permeating your car:
- Damp smells: This can signal a build-up of mould capable of damaging the inside of your air-con.
- Pungent odours: This can show that your air-con is damaged due to an influx of dirt, grime and dust blocking up the important pipes.
- Chemical or exhaust fume smells: This can be from your breaks not working efficiently or may be due to a leak in the system causing the smell of the liquid to be emitted from the faulty air-con. It is best to take your car to a garage if you do this, as breathing in these fumes can cause you to feel dizzy.
- A smell of gas: This can mean that there is a potential coolant leakage.
In order to prevent these smells, be sure to clean your air conditioner (AC) regularly with cleaning fluid or book an anti-bacterial clean from a professional AC cleaning company.
Have you checked that refrigerant?
The refrigerant is a gas that is found within your air-con and is critical to ensuring that your device is working efficiently, as this is what provides the cold air in the car’s interior. However, if the gas permeates away from the air-con itself, then it means that there is more of a chance of your device breaking down or blowing warm air instead of cold.
Luckily, this problem can be fixed very easily, as it indicates that there is a crack in the pipes of your air-con system. This is where the refrigerant is escaping and can be easily sealed with a quick trip to a garage, such as the Horndean-based Windmill Garage in Hampshire.
Why won’t my air con turn off?
Whilst it can be one thing to have your air-con not switch on, it can be a completely different thing if it will not switch off, especially during the winter months of the year. If this air-con won’t turn off, this can cause some serious drainage to your car’s battery. Here are some reasons why the air-con might be faulty in this manner:
- A shorted blower control circuit;
- A faulty or loose ribbon cable;
- Broken dials on the “on” button.