Air Con R12 to R134a ??

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jpskiller

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Been thinking about getting my air con checked / gassed but apparantly the old R12 gas stopped production in 93' and is illegal for garages to use but im not sure about that.

Is it possible to use subsitute gas or does this require an expensive system change, if change which bits are we talking.

has anyone filled there old car recently!
 
There are a lot of changes to every seal and possibly the compressor as well as the charging points.

You can't use R12 anymore as it contains CFC.
 
You can't use R12 anymore as it contains CFC.

Yeah but the hole in the ozone frenzy has largely slipped under the radar now as being a non issue, so whats the problem?

You can still fill up with R12 pretty much anywhere outside of the UK.
 
Yep, I have done it... in fact many places will still do R12 here if you know the right people.

The Ozone layer was never a problem and man did nothing to fix it. Cue the next green crisis.
 
Been thinking about getting my air con checked / gassed but apparantly the old R12 gas stopped production in 93' and is illegal for garages to use but im not sure about that.

Is it possible to use subsitute gas or does this require an expensive system change, if change which bits are we talking.

has anyone filled there old car recently!

if all gas is u can put in r134a orr49
 
Ive heard RS24 can be used as direct replacement, and is CFC ok, anyone tried it

http://www.bee-cool-aircon.co.uk/questions.html

q.gif
My car is an import, or was made before 1994, and has R12 refrigerant. Can this be re-gassed, or ‘retrofitted’?


a.gif
We are also able to ‘Retro-fit’ older vehicles carrying the now banned R12 refrigerant. This was fitted to vehicles prior to 1994. We can use an industry accepted replacement gas called RS24. This gas, although expensive, will avoid the need to replace all the major mechanical components of the system, and will prove to be almost identical to the now banned R12

might ask around for this stuff instead. at least this could be used to test my system to see if it works (I can hope)
 
yes thats right you need R24 , any decent air con specialist should be able to sort it easily enough
 
Hi Jpskiller,

Is your air conditioning working at the moment? If it's not, I'd be more concerned over what is wrong with the system itself at the moment - faulty condensor, compressor, pipework etc - may make the repair quite expensive overall (before you even think about getting it vacced and re-gassed).

Best of luck,

Will
 
It wont work if there is no gas in it

I had three cars done on Tuesday , my E class (barely blowing cold) my Skyline (working ok but needed a top up as not done for some time) and a neighbours Mazda Bongo camper thing (air con not working at all )

My E class had 350gr of gas instead of the required 1000gr

My Skyline was about 250gr down

Neighbours Mazda had none , just a small amount of pressure left
 
Hi Jpskiller,

Is your air conditioning working at the moment? If it's not, I'd be more concerned over what is wrong with the system itself at the moment - faulty condensor, compressor, pipework etc - may make the repair quite expensive overall (before you even think about getting it vacced and re-gassed).

Best of luck,

Will

Thats the point have to get gassed to test ;). So was looking for cheap gas/test as I wouldent be surprised if other items where faulty. I've been told of a firm local to me who will do the conversion/ gas / test for a resonable price, but it will have to wait a few weeks other jobs to be done first.
 
Thats the point have to get gassed to test ;). So was looking for cheap gas/test as I wouldent be surprised if other items where faulty. I've been told of a firm local to me who will do the conversion/ gas / test for a resonable price, but it will have to wait a few weeks other jobs to be done first.

Hi Jpskiller,

Any air conditioning outfit worth their salt should never charge a faulty system with refrigerant, if the gas has gone it's obviously got a leak somewhere.

The correct method is to pressurise the system with a gas such as nitrogen, and if required, to add a UV/flourescent dye to trace the source of the leak.

Only once the system is 100% leak free should it ever be 'gassed', many cowboy outfits don't follow this and just 'gas' systems regardless :(

Will
 
Hi Jpskiller,

Any air conditioning outfit worth their salt should never charge a faulty system with refrigerant, if the gas has gone it's obviously got a leak somewhere.

The correct method is to pressurise the system with a gas such as nitrogen, and if required, to add a UV/flourescent dye to trace the source of the leak.

Only once the system is 100% leak free should it ever be 'gassed', many cowboy outfits don't follow this and just 'gas' systems regardless :(

Will

Thats not strictly the case , refrigerant will leak out of the system over time so all systems leak, but if the system holds a vaccum then it must be leak free so is safe to gas.

There should be no need to introduce a dye to the system unless a leak has already been detected and you need to pinpoint it .
 
My 1990 300E has been converted to r134a with the Retro Pro kit, costing about £50 +VAT on top of the normal servicing charge:

http://tinyurl.com/3jsmjd

The job was done by Aircool AC Ltd (Beds: 0845 009 2345), who have installed plenty of them with no problems.

It looks like R12 has been illegal since 01/01/2001, and that seems to be illegal to use, not just to acquire.
 
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Been thinking about getting my air con checked / gassed but apparantly the old R12 gas stopped production in 93' and is illegal for garages to use but im not sure about that.

Is it possible to use subsitute gas or does this require an expensive system change, if change which bits are we talking.

has anyone filled there old car recently!


Apparently can be done a retrofit at very little cost. See this video:

http://www.id-usa.com/video/redo/fullvideo-high.wmv
 
thats just the adaptors... you do have to change the drier too (at the very least).. then a full system flush has to be done..
 

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