It was a very hot week. The temperatures have soared to 90-plus degrees. One of my long time customers came in and said that her car needed a tune up. I asked what kind of problem she was having. She explained that the car was running very rough. When she was at a stop light the car was surging and it was making a growling noise under the hood.

I wrote the work order and listed her comments. Just before I printed the work order she asked if we could check the air because it wasn’t cooling the way that it should

I pulled the car in and my technician found that it really didn’t need a tune up. All of the components had checked fine. He continued to verify the problem she was having with her idle and continued to listen for the noise. We could find nothing.

I asked the tech to go ahead and check the air conditioning to see how it was cooling.

When we turned the air conditioning on the vehicle began to surge at an idle and make noise under the hood. The noise was a grrrrrr --- grrrrrr --- grrrrr sound. Immediately we knew that the air conditioning compressor was cycling too often, causing the noise. This also caused the idling problem, because when the compressor would kick on it would make the idle speed control motor boost the idle up, then when the compressor would kick off it would return engine the engine to the proper idle speed. This problem will also cause the vehicle to use too much fuel. 

The technician found that the refrigerant being low was the cause of the customer thinking that a tune up was necessary. I called the owner of the vehicle and explained that a “tune up” was not necessary. I explained that the tech had found the air conditioning to be the problem. The car needed to have the system charged and checked for leaks.

Once the a/c evacuate and recharge was completed, the technician found that the air conditioning system had a leaking condenser.

I again called and explained the situation to the customer. She authorized the air conditioning repair to be completed. The technician did so and test drove the car. The problem was gone.

When the customer came to pick the car up I went for a ride with her she was pleased that her problem had been repaired.

I see this type of problem often in auto repair. There are many possibilities as to why a car may not run properly. In this case if we hadn’t checked further the customer would have spent needless money on a vehicle “tune up”.

The words “tune up” are no longer used in the industry simply because most drivability problems are caused by a failing component, or another system failure.

Before you have a “tune up” performed have the car checked by a qualified technician. If air conditioning isn’t cooling enough have it evacuated and recharged. The system will be checked for leaks at this time.

***A note on air conditioning. It is important that a professional evacuate and recharge the system. It is not a good practice to just add refrigerant, because the system builds moisture as refrigerant goes low.

Have a Cool Summer!

By Bob Kazmierczak
Manager AAA Car Care Plus