- Unless it's sweltering, open a window, or if is cool enough, open a vent. Using your air conditioning while driving in the city can reduce your mileage by 10 percent. The general rule is that if you are driving at lower speeds, the drag caused by opening your windows won't reduce gas mileage. Use the AC when drag is an issue at highway speeds.
- If little or no cool air is coming out of your car's air conditioning vents, the trouble could be as simple as an ill-fitting or broken drive belt or a blown fuse. Troubleshoot the simple possibilities before focusing on more expensive ones. Depending on their location in your car, broken lines, hoses and clogged valves can be labor intensive at the mechanic. For more complicated problems, you may have to hook your car up to a computer to find compressor, evaporator, refrigerant or condenser issues, especially with today's computer-operated vehicles.
- Test your car's air conditioning before the weather gets hot. A quick test that you can do at home is to crank up the AC as far as it will go. Listen for unusual sounds and make sure that the air coming out of your car's vents flows strongly, cooling your entire vehicle. The air coming from the vents should be around 55 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.
- You don't have to believe in global warming to understand that automobile emissions hurt the environment. Your car's air conditioning uses environmentally-friendly refrigerant (HFC-134a) for its cooling system as freon (CFC-12), the most common older model car AC refrigerant, is off the market. Make it a point to ask before you purchase a vehicle what kind of air conditioning refrigerant it uses and what is covered under warranty.
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