You can lose your front bumper and not notice until you get home. You can lose your wing mirrors in the blink of an eye. You will notice, but not when it happens. You can even lose your windows and only pick up on it because it suddenly gets drafty in your car. But the moment your air conditioning goes out, you notice.
Air conditioning is at once the least important part of a car’s functionality, and the most important part of its usability. You can have the best car in the universe, and no one will drive it if they cannot turn on the air conditioning and relax on a hot day. So, what makes an air conditioning break?
This is a question Keegan Auto gets all the time. This short guide will walk you through what can go wrong.
Reason #1: An Electrical Issue
Imagine you get into your car at the height of summer. The sun has been blaring down for hours and will continue to bake the landscape for hours more. You are leaving work and just want to relax on your drive home. You hit the button to turn on your air conditioning, but nothing happens.
What went wrong? What did you do to deserve this? Well, it is not anything you did. It is probably a problem with the wiring and power source connected to the air conditioning’s controls. Most people worry that this indicates a greater electrical problem with the car. Rest assured, it does not. Your battery is fine.
The electrical switches of the air conditioning console are a completely different kind of electrical system than the electrical system of the car itself. They take power from the car battery, but a problem with the AC buttons is not going to cause problems with the car battery. If the car battery had problems, other things would happen.
Reason #2: A Fan Issue
Another possibility is that you get into your car and turn on the air conditioning to full blast, only to be met with a totally pathetic breath of somewhat cool air. It’s not blowing no air, and the air might even be a little cool, but there just is not enough of it. This is a very different problem than the previous one.
Rather than the electrical system not working, this is a problem the with fan. This could mean that something is obstructing the movement of the fan, weighing it down, or that a rotor is out of alignment.
Reason #3: A Refrigerant Issue
And then there is the situation where you turn on the AC and you get hot air rather than cold air. This is an uncomfortable problem to face, but it is not as bad as it seems. It means there is a leak in the AC system’s freon, which is the coolant that makes it cool. Patching that leak is a mechanic’s job.
These are the three most common reasons an air conditioning system is at fault. All three are rather hard to fix without the help of an expert, so if you would like to talk to an expert, Keegan Auto is here to help you. Just call (603) 964-3005 and we can get your BMW blowing cool air again in a jiffy.