Is your car, truck or SUV’s air conditioning system fading, fading, fading this McHenry summer?

When this McHenry summer started, it worked great. The fan blew cold air out of the vents quickly responding to the hot days that we were already experiencing back then. But now, only half-a-dozen weeks later, your car, truck or SUV’s air conditioning just doesn’t seem to keep up.

Is it hotter out now than it was then or is your vehicle’s AC system fading, fading, fading until it reaches a point where all it will blow is hot air out of the vents? It is possible.

An air conditioning system in a car, truck or SUV may be up to any temperature a McHenry summer will throw at it. But, a system that was strong when summer started may have lost its mojo as summer continued.

If a component of your vehicle’s air conditioning system breaks, the change may be immediate and dramatic. But that’s not the way it always happens.

Often, when a car, truck or SUV’s AC system fails, it does so slowly and over time. From day to day, you don’t notice the change. The air conditioning fails so gradually that it’s only after a period of time that you can notice something is wrong.

With that in mind, it is possible that, though your vehicle’s AC worked fine earlier this summer, it may not be working right now.

Your car, truck or SUV’s air conditioning may have developed a slow leak and its charge of coolant is slowly fading. Or a part of the system is progressively getting worse. Whatever the cause, the end result is that the AC has to work longer and harder to cool you off in the vehicle.

One of the first ways you may notice this is that it takes longer for you to cool off in the car. You may notice that the air doesn’t feel as cool coming out of the vent.

If you have any doubts about your car, truck or SUV’s AC system, the first thing to do is to check the controls. Make sure you haven’t accidentally changed the settings. But if the settings are set to the maximum, and the air conditioning isn’t responding accordingly, you may want to have the system checked out.

We have enough of our McHenry summer left to justify fixing your car, truck or SUV’s air conditioning now.

Comments

Is your antifreeze safe from freezing this Richmond winter

You still have time to have it checked Well, there’s no denying it – winter tends to get chilly here in Richmond. We have to deal with snow and ice on the roads, scraping the same off our windows and windshield, and staying warm while we drive. Of course, you had your antifreeze checked before winter rolled into town. What?! You didn’t have your antifreeze checked before winter clamped down on Richmond? So, how’s your antifreeze doing? If you haven’t had it checked, there’s really no way of knowing, is there? This car has overheated in the middle of a Richmond winter. But, on the other end of the spectrum, the antifreeze can also freeze if it's not up to its job. Hopefully, you haven’t had a serious problem with your antifreeze already. If you did, you’d probably know. When antifreeze fails, it’s a potentially catastrophic condition for your vehicle’s engine. You could have hoses that have burst because of freezing antifreeze. Worse than that, your engine block may have crac...

Blocks of ice falling from cars in McHenry could cause accidents or damage

We’ve all seen those blocks of snow falling from behind the rear tires of a car when the snow rolls into McHenry . Fortunately, they’re just packed snow that will disintegrate under your vehicle’s tires as you simply drive right through them, right? Don’t count on it. Those blocks of snow are often packed so tight, condensed by the thaw-and-freeze cycle, that they’re anything but oversized snowballs . They’re often more like boulders. Hit one of those blocks and the collision between the block and one of your tires could send you careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. In some cases, they’re so solid you could pound them with a sledgehammer with little effect. They truly can represent a serious road hazard. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell how solidly they’re packed when you see them on the road, left their unwittingly by another driver. Either way, your best bet is to try to avoid them. But you want to be careful dodging blocks of ice in the road, too. You need...

Get out to McHenry Music Festival for a good time and music near to home

Some folks here in McHenry will load up the car and head out to Red Rock Amphitheater near Denver to see a show. Some will go to the MSG Sphere near Las Vegas. Some will go to the Bonaroo Festival Concert to see a show. That’s quite a bit of driving and you’d better make sure your vehicle is up to the trip. What happens, however, if something goes wrong – if your vehicle breaks down while driving there or back? What happens if the show is canceled, as happened this year with the Bonaroo Festival? We’re talking about some serious inconvenience, aren’t we? Wherever you go, whether your driving to Colorado, Nevada, Tennessee or anywhere else in this continent, you want to perform your due diligence and make sure the vehicle is up for the trip before you go. And it doesn’t really matter if you’re driving somewhere to see some live music or for any other purpose. A breakdown can be costly and may put you at the mercy of weather conditions or nefarious characters that come across you while y...

Performance Unlimited Blog

Search This Blog