Car air conditioning in Coburg North
Air con blowing warm on the first hot day, cutting in and out on the freeway, or smelling like a damp towel. We diagnose the fault and repair the part that caused it.
Most air con complaints are not mysterious once the car is on a hoist. A blocked cabin filter, a condenser packed with road grime, a seized clutch on the compressor or a fan that has stopped turning all produce warm air from the vents, and each one is a different repair.
Bring it to 1/87 Newlands Road and we will tell you which of those it is before anything is fitted.
What this page covers
Diagnosis and component repair. That means finding the fault in the air conditioning system and repairing or replacing the part responsible: compressors, condensers, cooling fans, pressure switches, cabin filters, hoses, seals, belts and the electrical side that controls it all.
Refrigerant handling is licensed work in Australia. Tell us what the car is doing when you book and we will tell you what we can carry out here and what needs a licensed refrigerant technician.
We would rather be plain about the line than take the car in and surprise you later.
What the symptom usually points to
- Warm air from every vent, which points at the compressor, its clutch or a system that has lost charge
- Cold at speed, warm at the lights, which usually means the cooling fan or condenser airflow
- Weak airflow but cold enough air, which is almost always the cabin filter or the blower
- A musty smell when you switch it on, from moisture and growth on the evaporator
- A rattle or squeal when the air con button goes on, which points at the belt or the compressor clutch
- Water on the passenger floor, from a blocked evaporator drain
How we work out what is wrong
You describe it, we reproduce it
Warm all the time or only sometimes, one side or both, moving or stopped. Air con faults that come and go are much easier to find when we know when they come.
Check the simple things first
Cabin filter, drive belt, condenser face, fan operation and vent temperatures. Some jobs end here, for the price of a filter.
Test the system and the controls
We check that the compressor is being commanded on, that the pressure switches agree, and scan the climate control where the car supports it.
We name the part, then the price
Which part has failed, what the repair involves, and what it costs. You decide before anything is ordered.
The cabin filter is worth its own paragraph
It is the cheapest part of the system and the one most often forgotten. A filter packed with leaves, dust and pollen chokes the airflow, makes the blower work harder and holds moisture against the evaporator, which is where the smell comes from.
It is part of the logbook schedule on most cars. If your air con feels weak rather than warm, ask us to look at the filter before you spend money anywhere else.
What it costs
A cabin filter and a system check is a small job. A condenser or a compressor is not, and on some engines the compressor is buried behind the front of the car. There is no flat price that would be honest across both.
Book the diagnosis and the repair is priced once we know which part failed. Call 0451 109 786 with the make, model and year if you would rather ask first.
Why bring it here
We diagnose rather than guess, and you are told what we can and cannot do on your car before it is booked in. We are a VACC member workshop and a Castrol partner in Coburg North, working on European, Japanese, Korean and Chinese makes.
If part of the job needs a licensed refrigerant technician, we say so up front rather than after the car is on the hoist.