Basic Checklist For An A/C Gone Haywire

It was supposed to be a joyous ride home from work. Even though it was sweltering outside, I could take comfort in my cars air conditioning. Then I sat in my extremely warm car and turned it on, rushing to hit the A/C button. As increasingly warm air hit me, I knew it wasn't going to be the pleasant ride home that I thought it would be.

That left me with the windows down for the duration of my ride home. I consulted my father and his first reaction was that there must be a hole (even though we couldn't spot one), so we proceeded to buy refrigerant and sealer from the store. The very next day, when we were going to fix the hole, we noticed that there was a different problem.

The compressor wasn't turning when I hit the A/C button. We figured that there was a distinct possibility that it wasn't getting power. This led us to check every fuse that affected the air conditioning system. None of them were broken. We even used my multimeter to check them, but none of the fuses were dead.

We were stumped. The next day, my father got the idea from his friend to check the direct power line. We measured the voltage coming out when the A/C button was on and it seemed to be fine. We didn't know the exact voltage necessary, but the important part at the time was that there was voltage. My father plugged it back in. I hoped for a miracle as I turned on the A/C and I heard my father yell something.

It was very miraculous indeed. The compressor was turning! My father took out a small wire brush and cleaned the contacts of the plug, careful not to bend or break them. So what was originally thought to be a hole in the system turned out to be an electrically bad contact.

So before you jump to conclusions and buy unnecessary equipment the next time your A/C breaks down, make sure that everything is electrically stable. It could be as simple as replacing a fuse or cleaning contacts to a plug.