I noticed my A/C had a small leak about 4 years ago. So every 1 to 2 years I have to bring to A/C service center for a re-charge. Since R12 is very expensive, every time I have to pay about $100 for the service, even though they only added about 16 oz of the freon. Some places would not even re-charge for you, because it is against law to fill R-12 in a known leaked A/C system.

So I decided to say good-bye to R12, bought R134a retrofit & charging kit for $39.95 from Pep Boys yesterday.

I just followed the instructions from the kit, and in 30 minutes my A/C system is running very cool with R134a. Since I know there is a small leak exist in my A/C system, all I have to do is every year or so add 1 can R134a ($6) and some oil charge (o-ring conditioner). I did not replace dryer/receiver or o-rings.

One more thing, before being able to charge the vehicle the R-12 needs to be removed. In the old days you could just depress the valve to let what is left of the R-12 out. It is like letting the air out of a tire. But that is against the law. You are supposed to have the R-12 vacuumed out (recovered). I would not tell you how I did mine. The choice is yours.


David

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1985 300D Turbo