air-con recharging

[Junks]

Well the place I used in Leigh-on-sea did mention the upgrade kit but said it probably wouldn't need it - & it didn't

[slowdown.harrison@gmail.c]

leigh on sea

A; Can I have the number please

B; how far is leigh on sea, from alderborough,
I'm going there in a month or two anyway

Richard

[That Ruddy Squirrel]

said as its a pre 94' they can't do anything with it, unless its been converted to take the new stuff.

Hippo is a 93 and she didn't need a conversion, have a scan round your rads for a yellow sticker saying R134 - if you find it then you do not need a conversion.


Trev

[TonyN]

any thoughts chaps

I have 2 LN130 J reg trucks here ATM, both run old R12 gas, Linda's 3.0 is a L reg, and has R134 gas in it.

If you have the R134 its no worrys. I know people on here have had R12 systems refilled recently.

[Morr]

......the gas now being used, is incompatible with the hoses/hardware,

where it more likely to find its way out in a shorter period, than it will have taken the original gas to leak out between refills.............,

Your original system contains R12. It is no longer legally permitted to manufacture R12, however existing stocks may still be used, if you can find someone with it you can simply have your existing system recharged - having said that, good luck finding any accessible stocks of it.

Newer systems use R134a. Simply refilling with R134a was initially presumed to require major system changes. It uses a different carrier oil (the system is actually filled with a mix of the refrigerant R134/R12 etc and an oil which lubricates the aircon pump etc) which is not compatible with the R12 carrier oil, it requires different seals, and has a lower molecular size so may seep out thru existing hosing.
Note I said above, "initially presumed". In the US where they have used a lot more aircon in their cars they found the following, you can get a carrier oil for R134a that is also compatible with the old oil. They also found the whilst the R134a did tend to seep out of R12 systems, it was only from newer ones, in systems which had been in use for a while, a reaction with either the carrier oil or the freon seemed to increase their suitability for use with R134a over time.
The upshot of this is that you can recharge your R12 system with R134a with the following proviso's..
All existing R12 should be purged, as this is a dangerous greenhouse gas, it must not be vented to atmosphere, but removed and recycled in an approved manner.
The fill ports must have R134a adaptors fitted, and be labelled accordingly.
The R134a must be added using a carrier oil suitable for use in converting from an R12 system.

There is the possibility that the system will leak a little over time, this should certainly not however be to the extent of requiring a refill every year.
It will not get quite as cold as the original system (the difference is only slight), to obtain the same low temperature as the R12 whilst using the R134a, would also require changing other components.

This has become such a common task in the US that you can buy a kit off the shelf to convert your R12 system for around US$50 from the likes of JC Whitney, pity they don't seem to sell em over this size of the planet.

[slowdown.harrison@gmail.c]

ah ha

Thanks for the informative reply.

I need to keep ringing around for existing stocks prhaps then

[Morr]

Thanks for the informative reply.

I need to keep ringing around for existing stocks prhaps then

You may find some existing stocks, but in all honesty I doubt it, altough TonyN did quote a possible source for it on this thread last august.

[slowdown.harrison@gmail.c]

hols

None of this would have mattered in the slightest, but for the fact, we might be
taking the truck on holiday right up Norh, and the AC mightv'e been handy if it works, but it seems a great deal of trouble, for not much in the way
of use here in the UK.