What are the Symptoms of a Bad Car AC Expansion Valve

The AC expansion valve is found within the air conditioning system of your car and the purpose of the valve is to manage how much refrigerant liquid can flow throughout this system.

Whenever there is an abundance of refrigerant, the core of the evaporator will get too cold and eventually freeze.

And in the absence of enough refrigerant, the core would get too hot and then will start to overheat.

To prevent such scenario from happening, the AC expansion valve controls the flow based on the temperature of the evaporator and the demand for cool air that is coming from the system.

In case your car has an expansion valve that stops working properly, then you will come across the following symptoms that mostly pertain to the functionality of the AC system.

Warm air

The very first symptom of a bad AC expansion valve is when you turn on your air conditioner and warm air starts blowing out of the vents.

This happens as not enough refrigerant is making its way to the core of the evaporator and it is mainly recognized at the time when it is hot outside.

Frost on the vents

A car’s air conditioner should never be cold enough to the point where frost forms on the vents and if it's occurring, then this is an indication that your evaporator is freezing.

The air that comes out of the vents will also be a lot colder than normal and will eventually damage the overall performance of the system.

This happens as the AC expansion valve was not able to stop an overflow of refrigerant from entering the core.

AC compressor is on

When your AC expansion valve stays open and do not shut properly, it allows the refrigerant to be continuously pumped into the air conditioning system.

The compressor will just keep on pumping the refrigerant without ever stopping and result in more stress build-up on the compressor.

Inconsistent air flow

A bad AC expansion valve will result in an inconsistent performance in its ability to regulate the flow of refrigerant throughout the system.

In such an event, the air coming out of the vent may be too cold or too warm and the air will start to alternate back and forth between different temperatures at various times.

The bottom line

If you are experiencing any of the above symptoms and continue to ignore them, then slowly other components within the air conditioning system will start to wear down and fail.

And when some of the vital components of the air conditioner get damaged, it will eventually result in your entire air conditioning system failing.

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