Corvette AC System Overview / 1988-2019

Transcript [Music] hello everybody welcome back to c&s corvettes this is your buddy lyle with more interesting and hopefully useful corvette information for you today i want to talk to you about ac systems in modern corvettes and by modern i'm really starting in like 1988 going up through 2019. before we get to that please take the time to like subscribe bell notify all the good stuff very much appreciate it as always helps me so i can help you going into ac systems there are some misconceptions about ac systems as a whole and specifically the ones in the 88 to 2019 corvette that i want to cover some basics with you on so that you have a better idea of what that system is made of what it does and why it does certain things that it does that may help you understand its function better and be able to pick out problems before they become really big problems first of all let's go ahead and cover some of the basic parts of your ac system biggest and most expensive part is your ac compressor that is mounted at the one side or the other of your engine it is run by one of the engine drive belts and it works just like the ac compressor on your ac system at home by compressing the fluid making pressure and setting that refrigerant throughout the system to dissipate heat and send that cooled air back through your car and then back out to dissipate more heat in a big circle that's basically what an ac system does so you've got your compressor that's the pump uh at the front of your car you've got the condenser which looks like a smaller radiator in front of your radiator and its job is exactly just like your car's engine cooling radiator is to dissipate heat because ac systems don't cool the air what they do is remove heat from the air which results in cold air if that makes sense so the the compressor sends that stuff through there it dissipates heat cooled refrigerant goes back flows through and cools the inside of your car the inside of your car has a similar looking thing but it's much more compact a little chunkier called an evaporator core and it does the exact opposite of the condenser it actually is where the cold the air is blown through from the outside inlets and it cools that air as it goes into your vent system and then ultimately into your cabin to cool you also made of brass or copper or whatever another's part of the system is your accumulator dryer it's a silver aluminum cylinder about that big that is basically well accumulates junk and it helps dry out and remove any excess moisture from the system does exactly what it says most modern systems also have a tiny little thing about that long about the thickness of a pencil called an orifice tube that is another long thin tube with a screened filter in it to capture any debris that may result from say metal shavings from your ac compressor whatever so they don't go through and contaminate the entire system they all get caught right there two other things that you need to be aware of the hoses that come off of your ac compressor and then run back to the evaporator core and up to the condenser that's called your manifold hose assembly that handles all of the pressure and handles all the things that are moving around there's also usually a hard line that is either all steel or steel with some rubber bits in it that's called the liquid line so all of those things working together form the route that that refrigerant takes throughout the system and around your car corvette systems in particular starting in 1988 1988 with the nip and denso condenser and continuing on until the end of the c7 run have a low pressure switch that is connected directly to your car's brain and when that low pressure switch notes that the system pressure has lowered to a certain point meaning that you're low on refrigerant it automatically disables the clutch on the front of your ac compressor now just so you understand your ac compressor there's a there's a pulley on that that's spinning all the time spinning spinning spinning spinning spinning and it is free spinning until you turn on your air conditioning when your air conditioning comes on there is a clutch just like the clutch in your transmission that grabs on to that spinning pulley and now the engine is turning the compressor it's no longer free spinning when there's low pressure in the system the computer shuts down the activation of the clutch so that you can't use your ac compressor why does it do that lyle it does that to prevent your compressor from damaging itself by running on low pressure because that's what can kill the internals of your compressor uh if you you're going to kind of see if you're starting to get low pressure where all of a sudden the car's ac is cooling but it's not nearly as cold as it was maybe a week ago or two weeks ago a noticeable difference even when you got it cranked all the way to the lowest setting and it's cool but it's not cold it's telling you your refrigerant levels are probably getting low another thing people don't understand is once that computer shuts off that ac clutch switch there is no force on earth that will make that clutch kick on unless you reset the computer how do you do that lyle well very simply unhook the battery for five minutes let the car sit hook the wrap battery back up and then you'll be free to recharge the system you don't want to run the compressor without the machine being on it without it being ready to be filled again but that's how you reset the ac compressor safety shutdown is just by disconnecting the battery for a few minutes a note on refrigerant your ac system is a sealed system the refrigerant can't evaporate or disappear on its own and unlike your engine which can consume oil or consume coolant in certain situations and burn them and blow them out the tailed pipe your ac system can't consume refrigerant once it's in and that system is sealed it is there the only way you get low refrigerant is by having a leak somewhere yes they leak and they leak from several different places common areas uh the compressor itself especially on the c5 it's an aluminum bodied and we have found that there will be fault lines or cracks in the compressor with age and you will actually leak refrigerant through the aluminum case or the front seal where the drive shaft from the clutch goes into the compressor will begin to leak you can also find faults especially now this is more of an older car thing like the c4s the rubber in the manifold hose assembly remember that hose assembly that goes from the compressor back to the evaporator and then up to your condenser and all that stuff the rubber and the o-rings in the connections for that hose can get dried out and cracked and shrink and you can lose refrigerant that way however the number one place we find corvettes leaking refrigerant are the high and low service ports which are known as schrader valves they're the little little silver things stick up about that high usually they'll have a little black plastic cap on them and inside is a little schrader valve kind of like the valve on your bicycle tires or your car tires that you push in and it allows to fill or empty okay those leak and they are the most common problem that we see on ac here especially here at cns corvettes and the good news is they are inexpensive they're about 12 dollars a piece we change that anytime we do any ac work on any corvette we automatically change those two service ports first thing no matter what because we know they're problematic and they're inexpensive so how do you determine where your leak is if you're not a mechanic take it to a mechanic because he has a machine called a sniffer and it looks like one of those big old chunky cell phones from back in the 80s and it's got a long flexible metal cable with a little rubber nose on the end that this thing literally is sensitive to refrigerant and it sniffs the air to determine where your leak is from so you've got this box in your hand and you've got this long thing and you're just moving that around to different parts and once you get to where there's a refrigerant leak it beeps at you it's really neat it's like a bloodhound in a box it is very good at locating your leaks but again most common are compressor manifold hose or service ports any any qualified mechanic can do corvette air conditioning there is nothing that is super corvette specific about it if you have a trusted mechanic that you've been working with for years you can trust him most likely with any of your ac needs a word on guaranteed cold air i was driving down the street here in sarasota florida the other day and i saw a shop that i won't name that had a big billboard outside that said ice cold air guaranteed awesome but let's think about what that means that doesn't mean that you're going to magically get ice cold air that means that they are going to replace parts on your car until they can make that guarantee stick and on older cars like 60s and 70s and early 80s cars that could mean literally an entire new ac system all those parts i listed earlier all new that's going to be very very expensive and time-consuming and their guarantee will be good but don't ever make the mistake of thinking that that guarantee of cold air is going to cost you 100 bucks and you're going to be able to wave that guarantee around and say i've got cold air forever because it is not disingenuous but it is a sales ploy and be aware that that could mean thousands and thousands of dollars and if you elect not to do just one thing on that list they say okay we'll do the work we can't give you the guarantee if we don't do everything be aware of that okay stick with your trusted mechanic as much as you can this is not something that needs to go to a specialist although i happily do ac work i hope you found this useful uh if you find out that you have other ac issues um there are actually ways to go in and read codes on your ac system and stuff which i don't want to get into in this video because it'd be a half hour long but if you want to see a video about that process and how to get in and search for your codes let me know in the comments below and maybe in a couple of weeks i can do another separate video that focuses just on how to access that information i'd be happy to share it with you i just don't want to bore everybody to death in one single video i try to spread the boredom over several thank you so much for watching i hope you have a wonderful weekend we'll see you next week [Music] you