>Subject: '87 4kq: A/C: good as it gets?

[Christopher Ritchie]

>My 4kq is the first car I've had w/air conditioning, and I live in a
>climate
>where I don't often need to use it, so I don't know how much to expect of
>the
>AC. But on a recent road trip, I would have liked to be a bit cooler.
>
>I recently drove up from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C., and back a few days
>later.
>I'd guesstimate that ambient temp was 80F, maybe a few degrees higher. The
>air
>coming from the center dash vent was somewhat cooler than ambient, but an
>Arctic blast it definitely wasn't. Presumably I would have been warmer w/o
>the
>AC, but as I said, I was still slightly uncomfortable.
>
>Is this as good as it gets? If not, what are the first things to check, and
>roughly what might it set me back to fix them? TIA
>

The Bentley should tell you what kind of temperatures to expect coming out
of the vents.  You can buy a thermometer for this purpose for around $7.
But it sounds like you already know it's not cold enough.  No, that's not as
good as it gets.  It may be a lousy system, but any system should cool a car
on a long ride in 80F temperatures.

Put the system on max cool.  Put the desired temperature all the down to
"LO".  Does the compressor run all the time?  If so, that's as good as it
gets with the system in its present condition.  And that isn't good enough.

To troubleshoot further, you need to have gauges ($75) to measure high and
low side temperatures.  Then compare your readings with the Bentley.

I assume you have not converted to R-134a - you still have the original R-12
system.  The usual reason for not enough cooling on old systems is that
there is not enough R-12 in the system to do the job.  In the bad old days,
you'd simply throw a can or 2 in there at the beginning of the season.
These little R-12 cans now cost over $20 each.  And you can't buy them.  You
would need somebody else to install them.  You may not want to take a chance
that this is your problem at these prices.  If you have to fix something
later on the system, you lose the R-12.  You've got a 14 year old system.
It probably needs work.

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