By Steve Schaeber, MACS manager of service training Proper air flow across the heat exchangers in an air conditioning system is key to its being able to transfer heat efficiently….
On Jul 14th, we discussed a lawsuit filed by Kevin O’Shea against Ford Motor Co, alleging that the company offered vehicles that “used an excessive amount of Nocolok flux in the design, manufacture and assembly of the air conditioner system evaporator cores, thereby creating an unreasonable health and safety risk …” According to the complaint, “exposure to and inhalation of the flux is extremely dangerous and can result in the development of several diseases and conditions.
Usually made of aluminum and mounted at the front of the vehicle, condensers are one of the two heat exchangers in a mobile air conditioning system. They are constructed as a series of tubes with fins surrounding the tubes. The fins attached to the tubes increase the surface area exposed to the air.
Thermostats open and close with changes in engine temperature, and sometimes become stuck. If stuck open, the engine never warms up properly and there is little or no heat from the heater. A stuck-open thermostat can also be a cause of poor fuel economy.
Stuck closed, a failed thermostat can cause engine overheating because the coolant
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.
This particular cabin air filter came from a Volvo class 8 truck and it hadn’t been changed for three years! It was retired in favor of a replacement. We wanted to share this photo with you to show you how cabin air filters do their job
A 1990 amendment to the Clean Air Act has forever changed the way air conditioning systems are serviced. It is believed that the release of CFC-12 to the atmosphere is responsible for depletion of the earth’s ozone layer.
Check your owner’s manual to see if your car has a cabin air filter. If the answer is yes you may want to make a note to check with your service professional to see if it should be replaced.
ATC systems contain what we’ll refer to as three major component groups. These are: The Controller – The “brains” of the system; The Sensors – Supply the controller with pertinent…
