Month: October 2022

When you hear hissing sounds coming from your vehicle, you might start thinking the worst.   One type of hissing coming from around your air conditioner may be a normal sound, or it could be a sign of serious trouble.

First – the normal sound.  When you turn off your vehicle, the refrigerant goes from its high-pressure side to the low-pressure side. Some of those noises are normal.  But when it hisses all the time, that’s another story.

One cause could be that the refrigerant is leaking.  Air conditioners are fairly complex systems that involve various pumps, hoses, valves and motors.  When your air conditioner is cooling, the refrigerant changes from a gas to a liquid and back.  That refrigerant is under pressure, and there are many places it can leak from. 

A hissing sound can also be a failed valve in your air conditioner’s compressor.  It is what controls the refrigerant’s pressurization.  It’s important to have this fixed fairly quickly after it develops a problem because when it isn’t, that can lead to more extensive—and expensive—repairs.

If you hear screeching coming from your air conditioner at the same time you hear hissing, your compressor may be on its last legs. It could also be a defective clutch. 

Any time you hear a noise you haven’t routinely heard before, bring your vehicle to us so a technician can check the various components and properly repair the problems.  Air conditioning systems are complex and are best handled by a professional with the right tools and equipment.  When your AC has a hissy fit, let us cool it off and you at the same time.  

Tylers Auto TV
12485 SW MAIN ST
TIGARD, OR 97223
(503) 639-5588
http://www.tylersautomotive.com

In warm weather, you want to be in a cool vehicle. When we’re talking cool, we don’t mean stylish or trendy, but cool as in not sweltering inside.  And if your vehicle’s air conditioner stops working correctly, it seems to always break at the worst time—during a heat wave. 

Automotive air conditioning problems fail for a number of reasons:

• Blower motor not working.  No air comes through the vents, even though the rest of the system could be working fine.
• Refrigerant leak. When the gas that cools the air off escapes from the air conditioning system, your air conditioner can no longer cool off the outside air
• Condenser and compressor. These are parts of your AC system that compress and expand a refrigerant gas to cool off the outside air. They are fairly complex.

When you bring your vehicle into our service center, we’ll run a series of diagnostic tests to figure out what isn’t working correctly.  The air conditioning system has a lot of parts. There are electrical and mechanical components plus a series of hoses and tubes that all can wear out over time.  Any one of these can fail.

A lot of drivers think they have a “Freon leak” and believe that if they get their AC system recharged with the refrigerant, everything will be fine.  But AC systems are so complex, it usually takes a trained technician to accurately figure out where the problems are.

Sometimes the solution is simple.  If your blower motor wears out or there’s a fuse that has blown, the technician can replace the bad parts and you’ll quickly be back to enjoying your rolling refrigerator. But when compressors or condensers go bad, those are much more involved and expensive to fix.

For instance, electrical problems can sometimes lead to acid to build up and corrode other parts of your AC system.  Sometimes that causes so much damage, your whole air conditioning system has to be replaced. That’s why it’s always a good idea to have your AC regularly maintained.  Our technicians can find a problem early and prevent more expensive repairs down the road. That’s really the cool way to go.

Tylers Auto TV
12485 SW MAIN ST
TIGARD, OR 97223
(503) 639-5588
http://www.tylersautomotive.com

On a hot day, you want your vehicle’s air conditioning to work.  When the air blowing out of your vents isn’t cold, it’s easy to think, “I’ll just take it by the shop and have them top off my refrigerant.” But while some people think air conditioning is that simple, it’s actually not.

If your refrigerant is low, something has to have happened for it to be depleted.  Perhaps there’s a leak in the system.  Or some hoses or clamps have failed.  If the system isn’t evaluated by someone who knows air conditioning, it’s possible that adding refrigerant will just be a band-aid solution.

It’s also possible that contaminants have gotten into the refrigerant, such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, argon, or air.  Some of those gases do not condense like refrigerant does which can increase the pressure inside the system and strain the lines and other components. At that point, the best course of action may be to have the old refrigerant (with its contaminants) bled from the system and have your AC recharged with new refrigerant.

Bring it to us, and we can inspect and test the system and all its components.  That will include a pressure test for leaks.  Most vehicle manufacturers don’t have a service schedule for air conditioning systems, so one way to know when you should have it looked at is when it’s not behaving the way it used to.  For example, it may not get cold as fast as it did before or even at all.

So, when hot air is exiting your vents when you want it to be cold, schedule an appointment and have a trained technician take care of it.  Are you cool with that?

Tylers Auto TV
12485 SW MAIN ST
TIGARD, OR 97223
(503) 639-5588
http://www.tylersautomotive.com