[DML] Re: Air conditioning from R12 to R13

[Marc A Levy <malevy@xxxx>]

I assume your talking about R134A. 

DONT DO IT... Dont do it to *ANY* car.

R134a runs at higher pressure than R12, and cools much less
efficiently. 

To do a PROPER R134a conversion, you need to replace all the seals in
the system, and flush the entire system of the old oil. Failure to
remove all of the old R12 oil will cause the orifice to clog, and the
compressor to die a slow death. All of the work you need to do for a
proper conversion increases the potential for something to break. You
may kink or snap a line while trying to replace the seals (for
instance...)

Assuming you do a proper conversion, you still run the risk of damage to
the system because it will be running at higher pressure that it was
designed for (not to mention, all of the parts are 18 years old). For
the time the system does work with R134a, you can expect the cooling to
not be as efficient as a proper running R12 system.

The R12 scare is over, you can still buy it plenty of it (and it's not
to expensive if you shop it).

On this same topic, Spring is here so many of us will be getting our AC
charge topped of soon. Make sure your shop is NOT using a blend, and is
using PURE R12. Some places will use a R12 blend, that most likely
includes PROPANE in the mix. While Propane works well as a R-12
replacement, it is highly flammable... A leak could be deadly!

Marc

> "David Jacobs (NEC)" wrote:
> 
> Has anyone had any experience with changing the coolant for the air
> conditioner from R12 to R13? I have seen kits at the auto store that
> claim that it is a simple matter of just changing the coolant.
> However I seem to think that there might be more involved.
>