RE: old car A/C advice

["James M. De Arras" <jmd@westlab.com>]

Depending on your compressor model, changing to R-134 might be the best,
cheapest, option.

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Kurt Wesseling [mailto:kurt.wesseling@nexusmgmt.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 1999 12:19 PM
To: Steve Barber; Audi Quattro Mailing List
Subject: Re: old car A/C advice



----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Barber <steveb@cme.nist.gov>
To: Audi Quattro Mailing List <quattro@audifans.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 1999 4:21 PM
Subject: old car A/C advice


< SNIP>
> I'm not really intending to switch to R-134, but... how much should I
> expect to pay for flush/evacuation/R12 recharge and oil?  How about a
> leak test?  And how much work is it to do the compressor swap myself?
> My first impression is that the sucker is HEAVY which could make life
> difficult, and access could be difficult too.

Steve:

You should expect to be royally scr*wed!  $150-200 dollar range. R-12 is
sold at retail for around $2.00 an OZ and up!
>
> Is it reasonable to go to a shop and ask them to discharge the system,
> go home and do the work, then come back at a later date?  (i.e. do they
> have a way to reclaim the R12, or does it sit in the machine waiting
> to be put back in the car?)

You *can* discharge the system yourself...it's illegal of course, so I won't
recommend it.  If you vent any R-12 into the Earth's atmosphere the entire
world will instantly be destroyed.  Now, you wouldn't want to be responsible
for that, would you?? 8-]  It is against EPA regs to remove freon from a
cars system and then put it back in without recycling it first.  They can't
just leave it "sitting in a machine."  Not without risking big fines, at
least.

>
> Lastly, with the new receiver/drier, any precautions necessary to keep
> it from becoming contaminated in the time between installation and
> evacuation/recharge?

I would get the system discharged, by whatever method you see fit, then go
and have an A/C shop suck out whatever is left over and perform a leak test.
You don't want to leave any water in the system.  It will freeze.

If you're really interested in saving money, get EPA section 609 certified
and buy your own R-12.  Once you do, you can legally buy 12 oz cans of freon
for about 15 to 18 bucks a can.

The 25-question test can be taken online at www.imaca.org for $20.00.  They
also have an online study guide.  It took me about 3 hours of study time to
pass.  I passed on the first try.  If you pass, the IMACA web site will
print you out a temporary certificate that you can use immediately to buy
R-12.  Most auto parts stores still have it behind the counter. Nice eh?  To
me, it was definitley worth the study time.

HTH,

--Kurt
1989 200 TQ