What is an Expansion Valve?

Sounds like something from a cool action movie, right? The expansion valve is a critical part of your car’s air conditioning system. The air conditioning system in your car relies on refrigerant, and the expansion valve controls the amount of refrigerant that enters a key component, called the evaporator core. The expansion valve is also responsible for converting high-pressure liquid refrigerant, from the compressor, into low-pressure refrigerant. Having a functional expansion valve is important, because if there’s either not enough refrigerant or too much refrigerant entering the evaporator core, the air conditioning will not work right. And the cabin of your car will get nothing but warm air. It's also worth noting that not all cars have expansion valves. Some have a device called an orifice tube instead, which serves a similar purpose. And, that’s pretty much it. The expansion valve can fail after a bit of use, at which point your car’s air conditioning system will be a fair bit compromised. So, hope you like warm weather.

How urgent is an Expansion Valve Replacement?

The air conditioning system is extremely important when it comes to your comfort in your car, which I’m guessing you value. That said, it’s not important from a safety feature, unless you’re planning on driving through Death Valley.

So, you can keep driving your car, and you’ll be safe. But you may be super uncomfortable, and you’re probably going to cause further damage to the air conditioning system, which  doesn’t seem like the greatest idea to me.