R-12 conversion to R134 ... BTDT? Any regrets? Recommendations?

[Mitchell S. Haskins]

Do it.  I had my 88 90Q done, and it blows ice cold.  The good part is that
R134 is going to be here for quite some time.  R12 will soon be either
unavailable, or EXTREMELY expensive within the next 4 years.  The conversion
kits MAY come down in price, but, if you're having leakage, you're going to
be looking at replacing the leaking components anyway, so go for the
conversion.

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-admin at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-admin at audifans.com]On
Behalf Of Fred Munro
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 7:42 AM
To: quattro at audifans.com; Dave Conner
Subject: Re: R-12 conversion to R134 ... BTDT? Any regrets?
Recommendations?


Do a dye test for leaks, Dave. I had a similar problem with my '91 200q. It
lost it's R12 charge over the winter. The dealer recharged it, did a sniffer
test & found no leaks. The charge was gone in a month. Took it back and had
a dye test done. The compressor was leaking at the manifold gasket, the
condenser had a pinhole leak at one of the mounting bolts, and the
high-pressure pipe was full of pinhole leaks, all of which showed up quite
nicely on the dye test. All were too small to trigger a sniffer.
The dealer even recharged the R12 for free since they said they should have
caught the leaks the first time (after I had replaced the leaky components,
of course).

Fred Munro
'94 S4



----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Conner" <conner at cfm.ohio-state.edu>
To: <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2001 12:34 PM
Subject: R-12 conversion to R134 ... BTDT? Any regrets? Recommendations?


> I've got three type 44's still running R-12 and all three need recharged.
> I understand some people are buying a cheap DIY kit ($35) and retrofitting
> to R134.  I'd like to hear from folks who did this and whether they would
> do it again, etc.
>
> Two of my cars have only gradually lost their cooling effectiveness over a
> period of 3-5 years, so I'm willing to consider having them checked out
> and recharged with R-12.  The third car got a new compressor/dryer last
> year and the A/C worked great, but over the winter seems to have lost all
> the R-12.  I guess I blew it by not converting this one to R134 at the
time
> this stuff was replaced.  I installed the parts myself and had a local
shop
> charge it with R12.  They say they pressure (vacuum?) tested the system
> before charging and it showed no sign of leaking.  They suggest that over
> the winter the front seal could dry out due to lack of use and the R12
> wouild leak out.  Everything may be fine if they recharging the sytem
> because the seal would re-seal itself.  (hmmmmm...)  I'm skeptical because
> this car gets the exact same kind of use as the others and they never did
> this, and this one never did this during past winters.
>
> Dave C.