Auto Repair Product Reviews - Reviews of Products to Repair, Detail and Accessorize Your Car or Truck - Funny Stuff Too- How-To Auto Repair Guides What's Wrong With My Car? How to Deal With Your Mechanic Auto Repair Reference and Technical Data Resources Tools for the Do-It-Yourself Mechanic - DIY Auto Repair Tools Emergency Auto Repairs - Roadside Fixes *Once you've learned how air conditioning works, you can recharge your own AC and save a ton of money! You always wondered how to charge a car air conditioner.Air conditioning was an invention that made the South a viable place to live and do business. When they figured out how to add it to your car, the trip there and back got a lot better, too. Your A/C system may seem complicated, and it is, but it's also easy to understand, and has some parts that you can service yourself. How it Works, BasicallyAny system that lowers temperature operates in similar fashion. First you take a gas, like Freon, and place it in a sealed system.

This freon is then pressurized using a compressor. As it's pressurized, it gets hot by absorbing the heat around it. This hot gas is then circulated through a series of tubes that dissipate the heat. Scientifically, the gas removes heat rather than adds cold, but that's a lesson in physics that doesn't really matter to us right now. The gas can lose lots of its heat, in other words it gets really cold, when you reduce the pressure. As it cools it becomes a liquid. This is when you get cold air blowing on your sweaty forehead.To use this system in a car, it needed very little adaptation from its early applications as a refrigeration device. since it was discovered that Freon (R-12) was harmful to the earth's Ozone layer, it's been phased out for automotive use, and replaced with the slightly less efficient, but harmless R-134a refrigerant. This is actually good news because for years it was against the law to service your own air conditioning system without a license. Now that the refrigerant is safer, we can all work on our own A/C systems again!

Some cars have not been converted from the old R12 to R-134a, but this conversion can be done easily.new ac unit technology Recharge Your Car's ACac unit on sale Check Your Coolant Mixturehow to repair ac in home What to Look For When You Just Can't Get Your Car to Start My Wipers are Miserable. How to Drain Your Car's Gas Tank Safely 5 Ways to Tell Your Car Is OverheatingComplete Car & Truck Repair, Tires and Factory Maintenance Services Full Service Tire & Auto Repair Shop with three locations in Colorado to Serve you. CENTENNIAL CO 303-220-0249 | LITTLETON CO 303-794-5545 | All across North America, a climate change occurs every year. The cooler spring temperatures give way to warmer weather. In some areas this lasts for two months, and in others it lasts six months or longer.

With summer comes heat. Heat can make your car unbearable to drive, which is why air conditioning was introduced by Packard in 1939. Beginning in luxury cars and now expanding into almost every vehicle produced, air conditioning has been cooling drivers and passengers for decades. Air conditioning has two main purposes. It cools the air entering the passenger compartment. It also removes the moisture from the air so it feels more comfortable inside the vehicle. In many makes, air conditioning cycles automatically when the defrost setting is chosen. It pulls the humidity from the windshield to improve your visibility. Often cold air is not required when the defrost setting is selected, which is why it is important to know that air conditioning functions even when the heat is selected on the heater control. Air conditioning systems operate in much the same manner from manufacturer to manufacturer. All makes have some common components: The air conditioning system is pressurized by a gas known as refrigerant.

Each vehicle specifies how much refrigerant is used to fill the system, and is usually three or four pounds at most in passenger vehicles. The compressor does what it's name suggests, it compresses the refrigerant from a gaseous state into a fluid. the fluid is cycled through a refrigerant line. Because it is under high pressure, this is called the high side. The next procedure occurs in the condenser. The refrigerant flows through a grid similar to a radiator. Air passes through the condenser and removes the heat from the refrigerant. The refrigerant then moves on next to the expansion valve, or orifice tube. A valve or restriction in the tube reduces the pressure in the line and the refrigerant returns to a gaseous state. Next, the refrigerant enters the receiver drier, or accumulator. Here, a desiccant in the receiver drier removes moisture that is carried in with the refrigerant in gas form. After the receiver drier, the cooler, drier refrigerant passes into the evaporator, still in its gaseous form.

The evaporator is the only part of the air conditioning system that is actually in the passenger compartment. Air is blown through the evaporator core, and the heat is removed from the air and transferred into the refrigerant, leaving cooler air exiting past the evaporator. The refrigerant cycles through to the compressor again. The process continues repeatedly.Are the new-car extras, such as paint protection, underbody coating, and loan gap insurance worth it? Hi, i worked in the automoble field for 8 years, I was the CIO of a large 8 location dealer group.   Frankly, i would be leary of doing business with a company that is still pushing paint protectant or undercoating.  Undercoating is BIG no no as it will actually cause rust.  It traps water between the steel and the undercoating causing corrosion, it plugs up the door and rocker panel drains as well as drain holes in the uni-body frame rails.  The dealers cost for the undercoating is about 250.00 including man hours, it is a huge profit booster and nothing more. 

Although Paint Protectant will cause no damage, it does no good.  It is nothing more than an acrylic polymer protectant which can be purchased at an automotive store...cost for the dealer including man hours, 75-100 dollars.  It is nothing more than a profit booster.  Gap insurance is worth it, if you are involved in a collision and your car is a total loss, the insurance company generally pays you the trade value for the car.  Gap insurance will pay the difference between what the insurance pays you and how much you owe on the car.  for instance, if the insurance company pays you 2k dollars and you owe 3k, the gap insurance will pay the difference of 1k.  However, if you are finanacing 75 percent of the vehicle cost, then gap is not needed.   Here is my best advice, pay for the car and not a single additional item.  Pay no more than 10 percent over cost, ask to see the dealer invoice, add 10 percent and pay that price.  Gap insurance can be purchased through the finance company after the purchase.  

So, if the invoice states the car cost the dealer 20k, you offer 22k and not a dime more as that is a fair profit for the dealer.  Puschase no other add ons, none.  If they wont show you the invoice, there are plenty of honest dealers that will.  I would be very careful with this dealer.  Dealers also make money on financing.  for instance, they submit your loan for approval, the bank comes back and approves the loan at 6 percent interest.  The dealer will add 2 or 3 points charging 8-9 percent interest and the dealer gets the money for the points at the time of sale. Ask them how may points they are adding to the bank rate.  I summary, be careful.  dont fall in love as there are many dealers with the same car.  Offer 10 percent over the dealer invoice and purchase nothing else.  if the dealer gets defensive, fails to show you the invoice, or pulls other sneaky tactics...go to another dealer.   to find the dealer cost for your car as well as many other informative car buying tips.

I just bought a used SUV with 115k miles for my son . Should I pay to have the timing belt changed now? If it is the original timing belt, then yes - check your owners manual for the recommended changing frequency, but from a quick web search (not knowing your exact engine model) it looks like 60,000 recommended internal, and typically last 80-100,000 miles to failure if not changed. The most frequent comment (and a red note items on manufacturer's website) is that you probably have a "zero-clearance" engine, an idiotic design that means if the valves are not fully closed when the piston come to the top, it hits the valves and breaks or bends them or punches a hole in the top of the piston. Talk about planned obsolescence ! In short, if that is the case and your belt breaks or gets so loose it strips the "teth" off it or slips, your valve timing will be off, and could cause catastrophic engine damage that would require a complete engine overhaul or replacement ! Unfortunately, after looking at a video on how to change the belt, they build it so almost all the auxiliary equipment has to be taken off to change the belt - the alternator, water pump, radiator upper hose, power steering pump, air conditioner, etc - so rough cost is $800-1200 !

If you are getting it changed, it is also recommended to replace the water pump while it is off. Hopefully some Montero mechanic will hop on this question and expand on this, but NO engine belt of any type should be trusted to go 115K miles.Is a transmission flush really necessary?How much does it cost to change transmission fluid At a quick lube type place, with unknown brand of fluid - from about $30-60 depending if done as part of a general fluid change package or all by itself. If transmission fluid filters need replacing too (usually are changed with fluid change on an automatic transmission), more like $75-125 range. At dealer, using OEM parts and fluid, about twice to triple that. Normal auto repair shop about halfway in between those two. One reason for higher price is they will not (if reputable) extract the old fluid through the dipstick tube and put in new - they will remove the pan or maintenance panel (which commonly has to be done fgor filter replacements) and clean the pan at a minimum regardless.

This assumes you do not need band or continuously variable shift friction surface replacement or adjustment, which can crank it up from $50-100 for band adjustment to several hundreds more for replacements. Do NOT let some shop convince you to pay for a transmission flush - not only is it unnecessary, but usually uses contaminated fluid from other cars or harmful chemicals (sometimes even tap water or diesel fluid) and can seriously damage your transmission. If your transmission filters were not doing their job or you smoked your transmission fluid, the proper cure (assuming not bad enough to require transmission overhaul) is to change to new fluid and filters, then replace them again in a short time - typcially 50-250 miles recommended by manufacturers, to let the new fluid pick up the dirt and sludge and transport to the filters for cleaning. IF manual transmission - from about $40-75 for one with drain pan and no filters, to as much as $200 range for one with filters that requires removing side panel to change filter and clean it out.