Gerb

Anybody know what I have to replace? The ventilated seats don't blow as cold as they use to as well. A lot of major maintenance coming up could it be alternator?

Tro209

Well the seats are actually just ventilated seats. Meaning that they blow air but not cold air. Essentially they are just blowing the air that Is in the car, around the area where the seat is. So if it's a cold day outside and it's cold inside your car, then chances are your seat will blow cold since the air in the car is being blown through those holes on the seat. While in a hot day, at least in my case, the air will blow but it's not cold air, just regular air to keep you from sweating to much (although it usually does nothing for me unless I have the air conditioning on in the car)

As for the AC not blowing cold, have you tried buying some antifreeze? That usually tends to be the case most of the time. Or if the AC just isn't blowing as hard as it used to, then you may need to replace the fan

Bichon

I assume that Tro209 meant refrigerant, not antifreeze. Low refrigerant is a very common cause of an A/C that isn't performing up-to-par, whereas low antifreeze is associated with engine overheating and problems with no heat.

A good shop will use a set of manifold gauges to determine if low refrigerant is the problem. If it is, they will add UV dye or use an electronic leak detector to find and repair the leak. After the leak is fixed, they'll recover the existing refrigerant, and use a vacuum pump to remove residual air and moisture by pulling a deep vacuum. Then they'll recharge the system with the correct amount of refrigerant.

Owners who don't want to incur that expense will just buy an A/C repair kit (consisting of a small can of refrigerant and a cheap gauge) from the auto parts store, and try adding refrigerant themselves. Since that doesn't fix the leak, the problem will eventually recur, but if the leak is slow enough it will often last the summer.

NYKnick101

As Bichon said its probably the refrigerant and AC needs to be recharged. its fairly easy to do with the recharge kits at the auto store. and much cheaper than what most shops would charge