A sealed air conditioning system does not consume refrigerant. If yours is low, it leaked, and topping it off without finding the leak buys you a few weeks and vents refrigerant into the atmosphere. That is why our first step is pressure and leak testing rather than hooking up a can and sending you on your way.
In Prescott the A/C season is long and the loads are real, especially for work trucks idling on a job site and diesel pickups towing on the grades. A system that is marginal in May fails in July, so it is worth diagnosing properly the first time.
What we handle
Blows warm or only cools while moving
Low charge, a failed cooling fan, a restricted condenser or a clutch that is not engaging. Each of those has a different fix and a very different price.
Leak location
We pressure test and inspect the condenser, hoses, o-rings, evaporator case drain and compressor shaft seal to find where the refrigerant is escaping before adding any.
Compressor, condenser and clutch failures
When a compressor comes apart it can send debris through the whole system, so we check for contamination rather than bolting a new compressor onto a dirty circuit.
Controls, blend doors and blower faults
No airflow, air coming out the wrong vents, or one side cold and one side warm is usually electrical or actuator-related, not a refrigerant problem at all.
What is included
- Performance test with vent temperature and system pressures recorded
- Leak testing before any refrigerant is added
- Inspection of the compressor clutch, cooling fans, cabin filter and condenser airflow
- A written finding and quote before parts are ordered
What is not included
- Topping off a known leaking system as a permanent fix
- Retrofitting older systems to a refrigerant they were not designed for
What affects the price
We do not publish flat prices, because quoting a repair before diagnosing it is how people get surprised on the invoice. These are the factors that move the number on this type of job:
- Which component failed, an o-ring is not a compressor, and an evaporator is behind the dash
- Whether a failed compressor contaminated the lines and required system flushing
- Refrigerant type, as newer vehicles use R-1234yf, which costs considerably more than R-134a
- Whether the fault is intermittent and only appears at certain temperatures or engine speeds
How the job runs
- 1
Tell us what it does
Warm at idle, warm all the time, cold then warm after ten minutes, or no airflow at all, each points somewhere different.
- 2
Test the system
We record vent temperatures and high and low side pressures, then leak test.
- 3
Get the finding and price
We tell you the failed component and what the repair costs before we start.
- 4
Repair, evacuate and recharge
The system is repaired, evacuated to remove moisture, charged to the vehicle's specification, and retested.
Where we do this work
All work is performed at our shop at 690 6th Street, Prescott, AZ 86301, Mon - Fri: 7:30am - 5:00pm. Customers regularly drive in from Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, Dewey-Humboldt.