How to stay cool on the cheap
Remember Tab soda? Well, not only is it, pretty much, the final choice in soda, but it's also the final choice in coolant substitutes.
If the air conditioning in your car isn’t keeping you cool there may be cheaper fixes than driving down the highway with your windows open.
Before you spend $100 to $250 having a mechanic poor coolant into your compressor, try doing it yourself. It’s easy.
The air conditioning units in cars used to run on Freon, which has been outlawed due to its harmful environmental effects. Cars now use Tetrafluoroethane, more commonly known as 134a.
Head to your nearest parts shop and ask for a 134a hose and a couple cans of the refrigerant. If you suspect you may have a leak, buy one can of R-134a, which has an oil in it that will glow green under a mechanic’s light, so he can find the source of the leak. The hose will cost $5 to $10 and the cans of coolant run about $8 a piece. Mechanics who offer this service on special will usually charge a minimum of $99 plus $25 for each additional can.
To put the coolant into your air conditioning unit, turn the car on with the AC running. Attach the hose to the canister of refrigerant, the regular 134a without the oil. Twist the knob on the hose to puncture the can and open it but don’t twist the knob out again until you attach the hose to the low-pressure valve on your AC unit under the hood of your car.
There is a low pressure and high-pressure valve. The hose will only fit on the low-pressure valve—the high-pressure valve is for blowing air.
Once the hose is attached at both ends, back the knob out and let the refrigerant flow into the compressor.
After you add the cans, the compressor should activate. If it doesn’t, stop. Adding coolant when the compressor is frozen and doesn’t work at all could cause your system to blow up. Also, if your serpentine belt begins to smoke, immediately stop and turn off the car, disconnect the hose and use a pencil or screwdriver to release the pressure from the system. Never use more than three cans of refrigerant. These are the worst-case scenarios.
If, after a few days after you added the coolant, it begins blowing warm air again, put a can of the R-134a into the system and take the car to a mechanic for inspection. The most common locations for leaks are in the seals around the compressor or the condenser.
If you suffer only a minor leak and it takes weeks or months for you to notice weakness in your air conditioning system, it may not be worth repairing. Just carry the hose and a couple canisters of 134a along for a quick $16 fix.
—Amanda H. Miller
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