subject: Automotive Repair-how To Understand Your Vehicle's Air Conditioning System [print this page] Most cars have AC in order to make summer driving more enjoyable. In the South, it's almost required to have a good air conditioner, and when it quits, everyone suffers. Getting stuck in rush hour traffic is bad enough with AC!
Even though it's not a good way to conserve fuel, you may have to run the AC in the middle of summer. If the car overheats, dangerous things can happen, but if the driver is overheated, road rage can happen. The AC requires almost 8 horsepower to run. This consumes fuel. However, when on the open road where the speed limit is sixty, running the air conditioner is probably a better financial choice than having the windows open. The wind causes a drag on the vehicle when the windows are wide open that uses up more fuel than it takes to run the air conditioner.
How does the AC even work?
Your car AC works like a normal window AC. Freon is a gas that is contained by being sealed. The system has a compressor that pressurizes the Freon. The heat around the unit is absorbed as this happens. Then the hot gas that is absorbed is passed over a series of coils or tubes that disperse the collected heat. Contrary to what you might imagine, the system does not add cold air but instead removes collected heat. When pressure on the Freon is reduced the gas gets extremely cold and turns to a liquid. Newer models of vehicles use environmentally friendly Freon. It is now not illegal to work on these systems without a special license.
The operation of the coolant system for the air conditioning of your vehicle is simple but does use several different components:
There is the compressor which is the main part of your air conditioning system. The compressor does just what it says and compresses the Freon used to create cooling. The compressor is connected to the engine by a belt. The clutch is in the compressor and gets turned on when you flip on the AC.
The unit has a condenser that is located next to the radiator. The little radiator pushes the cooled air into the car. In order to control it from getting too cold, there is a thermal expansion valve. This is how you will choose the temperature. There is also an accumulator to filter and collect sludge.
