Air Conditioning Repair

What you might be noticing

• —Air that is cool but not cold, or cold at speed and warm at idle
• —It worked fine last summer and does nothing this one
• —The compressor clutch cycles rapidly, or never engages at all
• —A musty smell when the fan first comes on
• —Weak airflow even with the fan on high
• —Water pooling in the passenger footwell

How we do the job

1. 01

   Measure the pressures

   High and low side readings tell you a great deal before anything is opened - whether the system is undercharged, overcharged, blocked, or has a failing compressor. It is a five-minute test that prevents expensive guesses.

2. 02

   Find the leak

   Dye, an electronic sniffer, or a vacuum hold test depending on the system. A slow leak at a schrader valve or an o-ring is cheap. A leaking evaporator buried behind the dash is not - and you deserve to know which one you have before you commit.

3. 03

   Repair, then evacuate

   Once the leak is fixed the system gets pulled into a deep vacuum. That removes air and, more importantly, moisture - moisture in an A/C system forms acid and destroys the compressor from the inside.

4. 04

   Charge by weight, not by feel

   Every system has a specified refrigerant charge in ounces or grams. Overcharging cools worse than undercharging and stresses the compressor. It goes in by weight.

5. 05

   Check the simple things too

   A blocked cabin filter or a condenser packed with road grime makes a healthy system perform badly. Those get checked before anyone suggests replacing a compressor.

What it costs

Diagnosis and a leak test is a set, modest charge. Beyond that the range is wide and honest to admit: an o-ring and a recharge is inexpensive, a condenser is a moderate job, and an evaporator behind the dashboard is a big one. You will get the number for your specific fault before any work starts.

Common questions

Can you just top it up?

We can, but we will tell you plainly that it is a temporary fix. A sealed system does not consume refrigerant - if it is low, it is leaking. Recharging without repairing means paying for refrigerant again, and running low on oil-carrying refrigerant is hard on the compressor.

Do I need A/C in Colorado?

More than people expect. Summer afternoons here get genuinely hot, and the air conditioning system is also what dries the air for your defroster - so a dead A/C compressor often shows up as windows that will not clear in winter.

My car uses R-1234yf. Can you work on it?

Newer vehicles use R-1234yf rather than R-134a, and the two are not interchangeable - different equipment, and the refrigerant itself costs considerably more. Call with your year and model and we will tell you straight away whether we can service yours.

When should I get it looked at?

Spring, before the first genuinely hot week. That is when every shop in town is booked solid with air conditioning, and a leak found in April is a far more relaxed repair than one found in July.