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Air conditioning maintenance
 You
may not want to, but sometimes it is necessary to perform a little
air conditioning maintenance on your vehicle. Of course, there are
some things that you should know before you perform air conditioning
maintenance on your vehicle, especially if you have an older vehicle:
· 1987 marks the year of the Montreal Protocol which set
a timetable for phasing out ozone-depleting chemicals like the chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs) found in some (not all) of the air conditioning systems of
older automobiles. Of course, now, manufacturers are no longer able
to use CFCs in air conditioning systems. (Most of us know the CFC-based
R-12 by its trade name, Freon).
· The Clean Air Act was passed in 1990.
· Therefore, if you are performing air conditioning maintenance
on an older vehicle, then you need to know whether or not it uses
Freon for its air conditioning system. CFCs are only available to
consumers in limited supplies, so it will be harder to find some
for your vehicle. Also, Freon needs to be disposed of properly.
You should most definitely talk with a certified professional before
even considering dealing with Freon or other CFCs.
· To make your air conditioning maintenance better, you can
think about switching to an alternative refrigerant. Cars manufactured
after 1994 all run on R-134a, but your car will need to run on a
different alternative to Freon.
· The alternatives to Freon are much better than Freon, but
they are far from perfect. In fact the alternatives to Freon are
rated based on their global warming, ozone-depleting, toxicity,
and flammability characteristics. Then, these alternative refrigerants
are given one of two labels: they are either “unacceptable”
or “acceptable under certain use conditions.”
· “Use conditions” are steps that a certified
professional would follow while performing your air conditioning
maintenance. “Use conditions” includes all of the steps
and special equipment that certified shops must follow. Unless you
are certified, you should not do such air conditioning maintenance
yourself.
· Although the Clean Air Act is very important for the environment,
it has made air
conditioning maintenance a little bit more difficult.
You can no longer perform great air conditioning maintenance on
your car by simply tipping some more Freon into your air conditioning
system. Instead, for air conditioning maintenance you must take
your car to a certified professional with specialty equipment.
· In the end, the best thing for both your older car and
the environment is for you to take your vehicle to a certified professional
for any air conditioning maintenance that must be performed
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