the bottomline on r134a and/or autofrost on r12 audis (nippondenso)

[Chris Covington]

How do you know that it appears that R134 works?  Everyone I've heard from
indicates that the charge lasts shortly, and then depletes.  Even
Autofrost warns against using the system in cars with "nitrile-based"
hoses:

Q. Do the hoses, driers, or the oil need changing?
A. In general, no. Most American built cars have used nylon lined
"barrier" hoses for years. These are fine for R-406a and GHG-X4. Some real
old cars, foreign cars, and cars with "port of entry" add - on A/C systems
may have "nitrile" rubber hoses, which can leak R-134a and all currently
legal alternative refrigerants at a higher rate. It is therefore
recommended that nitrile rubber hoses be replaced. All current replacement
hoses are now of the barrier type.

(this is from http://www.techmgmt.com/air/qa.htm and
http://www.autofrost.com/autofrost-X3.pdf)

Maybe it is that we have nitrile-based hoses and therefore R134a and
Autofrost won't hold the charge properly on our nippondenso systems (the
molecules are much smaller and escape through stock hoses).  Either
might work on older Audis with the York (GM?) compressor and I assume
hoses, but I'm not sure.  So it looks like I'll be going with R12.

Chris
'91 200q20v


On Wed, 27 Jun 2001, George Sidman wrote:

> This thread lands right on my need to recharge the system in
> my car. It appears that the R12 or the upgrade to R134 works
> fine as well. Anyone have a good description of just how you
> do it yourself?
> --
> George Sidman, President
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