Additional AC for the car

Additional AC for the car

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Discussion

Chilli

Original Poster:

17,320 posts

242 months

Sunday 4th September 2016
quotequote all
Anyone 'upgraded' the ac in their cars?
Mrs C has an Expedition, and the ac is crap despite being re-gassed and serviced.
Hoping there would be some kind of upgrade available or some kind of diy unit other than a massive unit used for a house!

shirt

23,215 posts

207 months

Sunday 4th September 2016
quotequote all
Join a us forum and ask there. I've done some work to improve my ac based on what guys have done who live in Arizona. Usually involves hear treating the cabin and a/c pipes plus upgrades where available.

Quick google suggests the pump on the expedition can faulter and its best to catch a failing compressor before it seizes and contaminates the rest of the system.

There's a good cheap ac place in dip who can do custom work but the name escapes me right now

Chilli

Original Poster:

17,320 posts

242 months

Sunday 4th September 2016
quotequote all
"cool"...Ta!

ruggedscotty

5,767 posts

215 months

Sunday 4th September 2016
quotequote all
Air conditioning -

improvements - tint the windows and have something to circulate the air...

when you get into the car dont put it on max as all this does is recirculate the air, you need to have it on low for a few minutes so its pulling air in from outside which will be cooler than the air inside the cabin. then put it on the max.

the air con system itself, the cold air comes from the evaporator, or actually from the process that evaporates the refrigerant within the evaporator. people think that the more air you blow across the evaporator will give you cooler air, this may be true to a certain point but it quickly stops as the transfer of heat is limited by the surface of the evaporator and speed of air flow across the evaporator, to fast an air flow the lower the exposure time of the air to the evaporator and the less time it has to cool. a lot of physics going on...

You need to check the condensor id doing it thing and that it is in good nick - check your fins are not damaged and there aint a lot of road grit dust blocking the fins. You need good air flow here, check the fan the condition of the blades and that there is a good air flow across the condensor. Your compressor is that in good condition.

temperature - take a reading of the ambient and then note what the temperature off of the vents are and ensure that you are getting cooling. regass may be required.

Increasing capacity. This is quite a task, if the above doesnt improve then you would be looking at increasing the cooling capability. that would require extensive rework and adding in additional components to do so.