There’s nothing cheaper or more benign than soap bubbles for finding a leak. As a technician with a 1999 Pontiac Bonneville complained, he tried trace dye and two different electronic leak detectors with no luck, despite the fact that the system was gushing between a half-pound and a pound overnight. But when he swabbed the compressor nose with soap solution, presto, it bubbled. His conclusion: back to basics does it.
The compressor is usually belt-driven by the engine crankshaft, and engages through an electromagnetic clutch.
Contaminated or unknown refrigerant must be removed from a system using dedicated recovery-only equipment, and properly disposed of.
Motor vehicle air conditioning systems can release refrigerant into the atmosphere in a number of ways.
Whenever you hear the term refrigerant contamination the first thing you probably think of is mixed refrigerants. However, the most prevalent contaminant, particularly in recycled refrigerant, is air. What…
Have you ever lifted the hood of your car and noticed a label calling out specifications for your mobile A/C system? Did you ever wonder why it was there? Your car’s manufacturer put that label under the hood to provide necessary information for your service professional. Avoid removing this label from your car.
No one is particularly patient when it comes to passenger compartment cool down in hot weather. We’re all impatient in today’s society. We want it now! So, when the inside of our car is hot we are also cranky.
Extreme heat is still gripping much of the United States and summer long-distance travel is still on many people’s agenda. In order to make it through the rest of this record breaking hot summer make sure to have your service professional check your engine cooling system belts and hoses.
The cooling system hoses and belts can deteriorate over a period of time. The
Over the last few years, due to trends in styling, many newer cars do not have conventional grills up front. Very often, a closed panel resides, or the hood extends down to where a grill would have been. But all vehicles still depend on air passing through the radiator to provide engine cooling, and also for A/C system operation.
The heater core is located inside the passenger compartment of the vehicle, quite often very deeply buried inside or under the instrument panel, or behind some other type of interior trim panel. Some SUVs and vans have two heater cores, a front and a rear.
A radiator has 2 tanks, one containing the inlet and one containing the outlet. These tanks, which can be at the top and bottom or sides, are usually made of aluminum, brass, copper, or plastic (most newer vehicles use the plastic type).
