Audi 4000 A/C questions

[Ti Kan]

Hi all,

Hoipe there are some A/C experts on this list that can shed some
light on some questions I have.

My Audi 4000 4-cyl A/C system has a leak somewhere and I am going
to have it leak-tested and repaired.

I'm afraid that staying with the R12 freon is going to become a serious
money sink in the long run, so I am also interested in an R134a
conversion.  The car has a Mini-York compressor which is what comes
on all the Audi 4000s with 4-cylinder engine, as well as the VW Quantum
and many other early VW models (factory part number 171 820 805).

Upon talking to a local A/C shop they said that the Mini-York is not
R134a compatible, not even if I change to a new one. Is there merit in
that statement? If so why? And are there any alternatives, such as going
to a different compressor?  I know that there are adapter brackets
available to fit a Sanden compressor to systems that use a standard
York compressor (like those that comes on 4Kqs and CGTs), but I don't
think that will work on the Mini-York.

If I have to change to a different compressor, what are my options?
I checked and noticed that the later Audi 80/90 4-cylinder cars have
a different bracket and uses a Nippondenso 10P17C compressor.  Is this
compressor R134a compatible?  If so then maybe the solution is to source
use that bracket and compressor.

Lastly, Audi doesn't offer a "packaged" R134a retrofit kit for the 4000s,
but VW does for the Quantum.  Since these two are virtually identical
under the hood, perhaps the Quantum kit will work on the 4000.  Does anyone
know what the factory retrofit kit actually includes?

Thanks for any info.

-Ti
01 S4 2.7 biturbo quattro
84 5000S 2.1 turbo
80 4000 2.0
-- 
    ///  Ti Kan                Vorsprung durch Technik
   ///   AMB Research Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA. USA
  ///    ti at amb.org
 //////  http://www.amb.org/ti/
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