Sunshine Coast’s Best Value
Car Air Conditioning Service!
Why Pay For Multiple Air-Con Services Just To Find a Leak?
While it May be Great for the Service Providers Hip Pocket, it Certainly Isn’t Good for Yours and Nor Does it Encourage Them to Find and Repair the Problem.
Get an Air-Con Service at Carite Auto Repairs For Just $143 & Get Free Re-Gassing for 2 Years from the initial service!
Car Air Conditioning Done Rite!
The ARC (Australian Refrigeration Council)_ Recommends that you use your cars Air Conditioner for a minimum of 5 minutes a week in order to keep the system lubricated and to stop seals from drying out and shrinking or cracking and causing a leak in the Air Conditioning System.
Your cars air conditioner is a sealed system similar to your refrigerator at home and does not “use” gas (refrigerant) over time. Reduced Performance in your cars Air Conditioning could indicate a leak in the system which not only causes your cars air conditioning to become ineffective but could also cause further damage left for too long or worse yet leaking refrigerant into the atmosphere causes harm to the environment and should be rectified immediately where possible.
Leaking refrigerant is probably the most common cause of air conditioning failure although there are many components that make up a cars air conditioning system including but not limited to the compressor, condenser, evaporator, TX Valve (thermal exchange valve), cooling fans, hoses, seals, o’rings, service valves, receiver drier/desiccant bags, drive belts as well as a host of electrical components such as switches, relays, fuses, pressure switches, thermistors, compressor clutches etc. and thorough inspection and diagnosis of your cars air conditioning system is not only highly recommended but is required by law before simply just re-gassing your cars air conditioner.
If after a thorough inspection we find that your cars air conditioning components are in good operating condition and the refrigerant pressures are low indicating a possible leak, then a thorough leak detection process must take place in order to attempt to find and repair the leak before re-gassing the system and potentially causing more damage to your cars air conditioning system and harm to the environment.
The leak detection processes used are dependent on a case by case basis but generally include; UV Dye which if added to the system can help visually see the point of origin of the leak using a UV light, unfortunately though this is not very useful if your if your cars air conditioner has not been re-gassed and dye wasn’t added to the system from new or if the leak is somewhere we can’t see like the evaporator under the vehicles dashboard; Electronic leak detector which literally sniffs the air for traces of refrigerant and can be useful to help identify leaks in hard to reach places such as the evaporator, but due to their super sensitivity can be very hard to rely on just by themselves and are more suited as part of a complete process; and lastly pressurizing the system with nitrogen and listening for leaks or spraying soapy water on joins and connections and looking for bubbling, great leak detection method under the correct circumstances but not very useful for small leaks or leaks in hard to reach places.
In the event that we have inspected your cars air conditioning system and found that the components are in serviceable condition and we have carried out a thorough leak inspection without any obvious signs of leaks then we would recommend to renew the service valves (as they’re generally cheap and a very common cause of leaks) and carry out an air-con service with UV Dye added to the system, then get you (the customer) to drive the vehicle using the a/c daily and return the vehicle after a week or so of driving or as soon as the a/c becomes noticeably less efficient. We can then inspect the vehicle using a UV Light which will make the dye glow and help us find where the leak is coming from. We can then use soapy water to confirm the leak or in the instance that no dye is found visually after a thorough inspection and refrigerant pressure have dropped then we may assume the leak may be from somewhere that we can’t visually inspect such as the evaporator, which generally lives in a box under your vehicle dash board, then we may use an electronic leak detector to confirm or more accurately make an educated guess that the leak could be coming from the evaporator. This method of re-gassing the system with Uv Dye is not a solution but part of the diagnostic procedure to help identify the origin of the leak and get it repaired as soon as possible rather than just re-gassing the air conditioner and letting it go until it fails again, which could be detrimental to the environment.
So what if we do find a leak in your cars air conditioning system? If a leak is found in your cars air conditioning system it is against the law and unhealthy for the environment to re-gas the system and put it back into service until the leak has been repaired. We would first quote the cost of the repair and get approval from you (the customer) before commencing any work. If we have already re-gassed your cars air conditioner as part of the testing procedure and found the leak upon returning for inspection, then we would quote the cost of the repair and possibly remove the remaining refrigerant from the system until repairs are carried out to prevent further damage to the environment.
Will you have to pay for another Air-Con Service? No, unlike other air-con shops we will not charge you for another re-gas or air-con service for 2 Years after an Air-Con Service at Carite Auto Repairs, provided we diagnose and repair the problem. There may be some diagnostic time required in order to find the leak and once we have found the cause of the leak then we will quote parts and labour to repair the leak and if we carry out the required repair(s) we will the re-gas your system again for Free, as many times as required for 2 years from the initial service!
Refrigerant Trading Authorisation Number AU37040
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