A/C Retro Fit - R406A

[Henry A Harper III]

James Marriott and I tried R406a last summer because it sounded like a good
thing on the website... His 89 200q and 83 beater 4kq, my 91 200q and
"beater" 88 GTI. While it was in there it cooled very well...but the R22
component leaks out pretty quickly (~several weeks) through the original
hoses on our cars. This year I have put some R12 in the 200 (did compressor
shaft seal last year before filling with R406a, that's why the previous R12
has leaked out) along with the remaining components of the R406a and it
works fairly well. Tried an R134a conversion on the GTI, since James was
all excited about his $40 jug of R134a from Costco; replaced the
receiver/drier with compatible-with-R134a-dessicant model (any new one will
be) and it was working well the first day (40deg vent temps, 85 ambient).
Also put in make-your-old-o-rings-work-with-R134a-in-a-can from FLAPS, a
good amount of ester oil, and the $60 two-part moisture-activated stop-leak
from acsource.com. Did not change expansion valve or any o-rings. The next
day I was driving home and turned on the a/c and poof, the front compressor
seal exploded, losing all the R134a and oiling the alternator belt. New
shaft seal & compressor o-ring kit will be installed soon, James blames the
R406a somewhat. He just got back from a California trip with his 200q
converted to R134a (new receiver-drier, o-rings, compressor rebuild kit)
and says it was nice and cold.

HTH
Henry Harper
http://www.henry-harper.com hah at alumni.rice.edu
1991 200 quattro, 116k, fairly cold a/c (but ambient hasn't peaked yet this
year)
1988 GTI 16v, 228k, pieces parts to go in

On Friday, June 21, 2002 1:10 PM, Djdawson2 at aol.com
[SMTP:Djdawson2 at aol.com] wrote:
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> Rich,
> I don't know if you saw my post on AC retro...  I have used R406a quite a
few
> times with really good results.  I did have one bad experience on my
urq...
> compressor failed 7 days after install, but those are those junk York
> compressors.  That AC hadn't been working for many years, which probably
> caused the failure.  In 200's it has worked very well.  At $195/keg, it's
a
> great alternative to R12.
> HTH,
> Dave
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