How to Get the Max Cold Out of Your Air Conditioner!

Have you ever wondered why the air conditioner in your car isn’t keeping the car cool?

What’s Happening & Why?

Manufacturer air conditioning (A/C) systems are carefully balanced. They’re designed to cool the vehicle effectively using the new refrigerant, R-134a, in place of R-12, commonly called “Freon.” R-134a protects the environment by not using chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that damage the ozone layer. An R-134a system has the same performance characteristics and capabilities as an R-12 system.

As always, however, quick cooling is affected by vehicle design and the nature of sunlight. Like other modern vehicles, they are designed with a lot of glass. The large glass area contributes to safety by giving the driver a good view of traffic, but it contributes to higher interior temperatures when the vehicle is parked or driven in sunlight. On a sunny day, the temperature inside a closed, parked vehicle could reach 140ºF, even though the outside temperature is only 85º or 90ºF.

What Can Be Done?

First, make sure the heater control cable is properly adjusted, then have a performance test done to make sure the A/C system is performing as designed. Once test results show that your A/C system is OK, regularly do these things:

• Park the vehicle in the shade whenever possible. When parking in the sun, use sun shades and leave the windows open a little where it’s safe to do so.
• If the vehicle has been sitting in the sun, start the engine, set the fan to maximum speed, and turn on the A/C system. Open all the windows, select FRESH mode so outside air will force hot air out of the vehicle, and set the air direction to the upper vent position for airflow directly on you. Once the vehicle is aired out, close the windows. After driving a while, set the fan to a lower speed, set air direction to upper and lower, and switch to RECIRCULATION mode for maximum cooling.
• Once the vehicle is cooled down, use the driest air possible. The more humidity the A/C system has to remove from the air, the less heat it removes. If the outside air is humid, use the RECIRCULATION mode, which allows the system to cool the air in the passenger compartment over and over again, thus drying the air and supplying maximum cooling. If the outside air is dry, however, change over to FRESH. The FRESH mode allows the system to cool the outside air coming in and also helps to prevent “air conditioning odor” the next time you drive the vehicle.