Automotive Air Conditioning: Replace or Repair?

by

Chris Robertson

Whether you work on cars for a living or simply do your own work or perhaps help out a friend or family member with their car problems, one thing’s for sure: it is very frustrating when you either can’t find the parts you need, or you can only buy an entire replacement unit. Sure, you can usually get parts from your local dealer’s parts department, but usually at a very high price. Whatever happened to affordable repair parts? Automotive Air Conditioning is one area where you can often save a lot of money by repairing an existing system instead of simply replacing the whole thing.

Let’s face it: in most parts of the US during most of the year, when the A/C goes out in a car, it needs to be fixed. Somehow, unless you lived in the warmest parts of the country, it used to be possible to go without auto A/C quite well, but something must have changed as these days windows fog up much more than they used to when the A/C isn’t on. And forget about selling an older car if the AC doesn’t work. For better or worse, air conditioning has become something that absolutely must be in working condition.

Unfortunately, A/C is one of the things that tends to break down as a car gets older, and even in newer cars it can develop problems. That’s because while the basic concept of air conditioning is simple (it’s really nothing more than a mobile refrigerator), an A/C system takes a lot of use and abuse on the road. It must deal with shock, vibration and ever-changing and often extreme temperatures. It also consists of numerous parts and systems installed in various parts of a car. So whether it’s the compressor, drier, accumulator, expansion valve, evaporator, condenser or some of the numerous lines, fittings and other small A/C parts, there’s a lot that can go wrong. And since precious refrigerant is involved, there must be absolutely no leaks.

Add to that the fact that trouble-shooting auto A/C can be a time-consuming and often frustrating task where repairs must be done right the first time around because you don’t want to go through the whole process again for a long time. What this means is that with A/C repairs more than with most other car repairs, it’s essential to get the exact right new or replacement parts.

And since A/C repair tends to be costly due to the time it can take to track down a leak or get to certain parts and replace them, the question often comes up whether it’s okay to save money by repairing instead of replacing, or by using remanufactured parts instead of new ones. The answer, as always, is, “it depends.” Getting a remanufactured compressor can save a good deal of money compared to just buying a new compressor. As long as you get a remanufactured unit from a place that uses high quality OEM replacement parts and performs proper testing and quality assurance when rebuilding the compressors, you can indeed save money.

While it’s generally best to replace a worn compressor with a new or remanufactured one, many other parts of an automotive A/C system can be repaired relatively easily. All if takes is a good source of auto A/C parts. Do some research and get to know the companies that specialize in automotive air conditioning parts. You can save yourself a lot of time and money that way.

Chris Robertson

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Majon International

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