Mobile Service
Car AC Repair and Recharge, Done at Your Door
Leak detection, evacuation and recharge for R134a and 1234YF systems, plus compressor and condenser work, at your home or job site.
What we do
What the job covers
There is a moment in every Florida summer when the vents go from cold to lukewarm and stay there. A car that has sat in a Clearwater lot all afternoon does not recover on the drive home with the windows down, so this stops being a comfort problem fast.
We come to the car with the recovery machine, the vacuum pump, the scales and both refrigerants. We find where it is leaking, repair it, and charge the system by weight so it holds through the season instead of to the end of the month.
Performance test
Vent temperature, high and low side pressures and compressor engagement, measured before we touch anything. That reading tells us where in the system to look.
Leak detection
UV dye, electronic sniffer and nitrogen pressure testing. Condenser stone damage, service port valves, evaporator drain staining and O-rings are the usual finds.
Evacuate and recharge
Vacuum the system down, hold it to prove it is sealed, then charge R134a or 1234YF by weight to the manufacturer's specification. Not by pressure, and not by feel.
Compressor and clutch work
Compressor replacement with the drier, orifice or expansion valve and a full flush, plus clutch, relay and pressure switch faults where the compressor itself is fine.
Condenser and cooling fans
Rock-damaged condensers and a cooling fan that has stopped are the two reasons an AC works on the highway and quits at a stop light.
Cabin airflow
Blower motors, resistor packs, blend door actuators and cabin filters, for the cars where the refrigerant is fine and the air is not moving.
In your words
What people tell us before we arrive
The AC blows warm at idle and gets cold again once I'm moving
It was cold last summer and now it's just blowing outside air
There's a clicking from under the hood every few seconds when the AC is on
It smells damp when I first turn the AC on
The air comes out cold but there's hardly any of it
I had it recharged in the spring and it's warm again
Any of these and we can tell you what it is before we touch a wheel. Send us the symptom and we will bring the parts.
Setting it straight
A recharge is not a repair
Automotive air conditioning is a sealed system. It does not consume refrigerant the way an engine consumes oil. If it is low, it leaked, and the only question is where. A shop that hooks up a can, fills it to pressure and sends you off has sold you the same repair you will buy again before the end of summer, and every ounce that went in is now leaking into the air. The cans on the shelf at the auto parts store make it worse, because most of them carry a sealant that reacts with moisture and sets up inside the condenser and the service equipment. We put dye or nitrogen through the system, find the leak, show you where it is, and repair it before anything gets charged. Then the recharge holds.
The visit
How an on-site repair runs
Tell us what the vents do
Year, make, model and what happens. Warm at idle, warm all the time, cold then warm after twenty minutes and weak airflow are four different faults, and knowing which one gets the right parts in the van.
We test and find the leak
Gauges on, vent temperature measured, then dye or nitrogen to locate the leak. We show you where it is going before we talk about a repair. The estimate is free.
We repair, then charge by weight
Fix the leak, pull a vacuum, hold it to prove the system is sealed, then charge to the exact weight the manufacturer specifies and retest the vent temperature.
When a compressor fails, the drier and the orifice go with it
A compressor that fails internally does not fail quietly. It sends metal through the whole system, and that debris sits in the condenser, the orifice tube or expansion valve, and the receiver drier. Fit a new compressor to that system and the debris comes straight back through it. So the rule is fixed: an internal compressor failure means we flush the lines and the condenser, replace the drier or accumulator, replace the orifice tube or expansion valve, and charge with the correct oil type and volume for the new unit. Skipping any of it is how a compressor gets replaced twice in one summer. If the compressor is fine and the fault is a clutch, a relay or a pressure switch, we say so and the job gets much smaller.
AC fails in the heat, and the heat is where your car already is
An AC fault is worst in a car that has been sitting in the sun in a parking lot all afternoon. That is also the exact condition the system needs to be in for a real performance test. High side pressure on a hot soaked car in a Clearwater parking lot in August tells us things the same car never shows after twenty minutes of highway driving with the fan pulling air through the condenser.
The practical half matters more. Nobody wants to drive to a shop with no AC in the car, twice, in a Florida summer. We bring the recovery machine, the vacuum pump, the scales and both refrigerants to your driveway, and you sit somewhere with air conditioning while we work.
- We test the system hot and soaked, the way it actually fails
- You never drive a car with no AC across the bay and back
- We carry R134a and 1234YF, so the system gets what it takes
Questions
Before you book
Can you just top it up?
We can, and we will tell you what it is worth first. If the leak is a service port O-ring, that is a small repair and worth doing properly. If it is the evaporator behind the dash, a charge buys you a season and you should know that going in rather than finding out in July.
Do you work on 1234YF systems?
Yes. Vehicles from roughly 2015 onward use 1234YF, and it needs different equipment and different service ports from R134a. We carry both. Anyone charging a 1234YF system with R134a is damaging it.
Why does my AC go warm at a stop light and cold again when I drive?
That is almost always airflow across the condenser. At speed the car rams air through it. At idle it depends on the cooling fan, so a dead fan, a failed fan relay or a condenser packed with leaves and lovebugs produces exactly that symptom. It can also be a system overcharged by a previous recharge.
Where we work
Book this service in your city
- Car AC Repair and Recharge in Clearwater
- Car AC Repair and Recharge in St. Petersburg
- Car AC Repair and Recharge in Tampa
- Car AC Repair and Recharge in Dunedin
- Car AC Repair and Recharge in Pinellas Park
- Car AC Repair and Recharge in Sarasota
AC across a fleet
A driver in a van with no AC in a Tampa August is a safety issue before it is a comfort issue. We service a fleet on site between routes and check the whole system rather than topping it up, so the same van is not back on the list in six weeks.
Get the AC cold again
Tell us the vehicle and what the vents are doing. We send a free estimate and bring the gauges, the vacuum pump and both refrigerants to you across Tampa Bay.
Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM