(SINGING) 1, 2, 3, 4.
Rev up your engines!
It's time for the Scotty Kilmer Channel.
Today, I'm going to show you how you can easily
maintain your car's air conditioning
system to keep it blowing cool in the coming hot summer
months.
Now, my Toyota may be 22 years old,
but the AC, hey, it's still got freezing cold air.
And that's because I maintain it, things that you can easily
do yourself, like this.
Turn the AC on full blast, then go under the hood of the car
and check the cooling fans on the radiator.
This one's working, and that one's working too.
You need a lot of airflow so the air conditioning condenser
gets cooled to get cold air inside the car.
It'll work with just one of the fans working,
but it won't work that well when it's hot.
And it will strain the compressor
and make it burn itself out faster.
So make sure both fans are working
if it's a two fan system.
If it's one fan system and the one fan doesn't work,
then you'll really have problems.
If they aren't working, fix them right away.
Over time, these fans will wear out.
And heck, they only have one, two, three, four
bolts holding them on.
They're very easy to replace if the motors burn out.
Over the years, I've had many customers
have to have me replace their air conditioning
compressors only to find out that the fans weren't working
too.
And the non-working fans made the compressor blow up.
So check the fans first.
Now, the next thing to do is to check for debris.
And I've been a bad boy.
I haven't cleaned mine recently, because it's been
raining a lot here in Houston.
But you want to get all the leaves and debris out
of the intake.
You don't want it sucked into the car
where it can jam up the AC evaporator and cause
inefficiency.
And speaking of debris, look inside the front
on the AC condenser.
It looks like a radiator.
It's the condenser.
Bugs can get on there-- especially if you drive
in buggy areas--
clog them up, and then they won't work as good.
I mainly drive in the city, so mine's really clean.
But if you drive in the country a lot at night,
you'll see a lot of bugs.
You need to hose them off with water and clean them off.
Now, the next thing to check for any kind of debris
is the cabin air filter.
My car is too old.
It doesn't have one, but this Volvo does.
And here's how you check them.
You go into the glove box.
And in this case, you take the bottom splash pan off.
And inside is where the filter lies.
It's inside here.
And you can see, this one's really dirty.
Since these filters are hidden away,
most people don't think about them.
So it's a good idea to do them in the beginning of the summer.
And check them every few months, because leaves and debris
can get in here, and it'll make your AC not work as good.
Now, the next thing to check is the fan belt. Look at it
and make sure it's tight, and make
sure it doesn't have a bunch of cracks in it and needs
replacing.
Because if the fan belt's cracked
or if it's loose and slipping, the compressor will slip
and it won't work as well.
Plus it'll make it work harder, and it
can burn itself out that way.
Now, the last thing to check is the refrigerant.
Now, you can't really check it, unless you
have a set of AC gauges.
Now, realize that all AC compressors
leak a little bit of refrigerant,
because they have a shaft that spins
and there's a seal on the shelf.
If the seal was perfectly good and didn't allow any leakage,
it would run dry and burn out.
So there's always a little AC oil that gets in there,
and it leaks a little bit out.
So over time, you're going to lose refrigerant.
Now, if you have to add refrigerant
once every three, four, or five years, that's no big deal.
If you have to add it every month or so,
you've got a leak that you're going to need to fix.
But you can check it like this.
You hook up the low pressure gauge
to the low side and the high pressure gauge
to the high side.
And, of course, if you don't have gauges
or are worried about using them, you
can pay a mechanic to do this.
Then you start the car and turn the AC on.
[ENGINE STARTING]
And you can see, the low side is about 30 pounds.
And the high side is about 150 pounds.
Now, it's early in the morning here,
so that's normal for early in the morning pressures.
The pressures actually depend on the temperature outside,
the relative humidity.
There's charts for that kind of stuff.
But as long as you're between 30 and 40 pounds on a low side
and 150 to 200 something on the high side,
it should be perfectly full of refrigerant.
So if you want to remain a cool kitty this summer,
now you know what to do with your car's AC.
And remember, if you've got any questions,
just visit the Scotty Kilmer Channel.