There's a forum member who tried those tanks, which need a special regulator and runs empty real fast. I do not think it's worthwhile. Better to rent a 20 lb tank.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

So I have not been able to find anyone in Atlanta who wants to deal with freon or pressure test my system. What should it cost if I find someone who will do the pressure test - or do I need to buy tanks, gauges, etc and try to do it myself?

Very few shops wants to deal with R12 or older cars. What's the history of your AC and current status?

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Freon leaked out two summers ago; compressor locked up last summer. Have four cans of R12 and do not own gauges.

I'd first ascertain extent of the damage from the locked up compressor by cutting open receiver dryer to examine debris captured (if any), color and smell of the oil. Depending what you find, there's different options to follow.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

It's been a few months now and the re-manufactured in China 4 Seasons R4 compressor continues to work great.... nice and quiet!

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

It's not a matter of "want". R12 is heavily regulated, and the price has gone up 10x in recent years. Only 20+ year old cars use it, so it does not make economic sense for most mechanics.

Same reason most mechanics don't "want" to work on carburetors or contact breaker points ignitions - this stuff is older than most of the mechanics are, and they aren't trained in it anyways.

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1998 E300 turbodiesel

America's Rights and Freedoms Are Not The Enemy!

@Funola ;

Here we are Spring 2018, is this rebuilt R2 compressor still cranking out 45* F air ? .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

The reman in Mexico 4 Seasons R4 is working fine! I have not driven the 85 300D all winter and the AC was not used since last summer. Today was a warm day- up to low 70 F. The car was in the sun all day and the interior was around 120 F when I started the engine, turned on the AC and let it idle. I started this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uTSw4tkkeg when the vent temp dropped to around 55 F. It continued to drop to 42 F when I turned off the camera.

To recap what was done to the AC to get it working:

reman in Mexico 4 Seasons R4 heavy with big clutch coil and o-ring seals- from Pepboys
new receiver/ dryer
new TXV
all new o-rings
all hoses original
original condenser
original evaporator
16" aux fan
Flushed entire system and recharged with R12 + synthetic oil

I came up with a vacuum flush system which made a dirty/ unpleasant job easy breezy. You can read about it here Vacuum flush AC system

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Thank you .

I have difficulty getting under the dash anymore due to my injuries and old age, I'd love o replace every darn AC hose on all three of my W123's .

After the last batch of R12 got stolen by an incompetent shop I gave up and am now using R134a .

It's O.K. but the only Mercedes I ever had that truly chilled the car was my 1980 300CD, when I did the entire Klima I HVCA I re charged it with R12 and nearly froze in there during a California Desert Summer .
Sadly by that time I was pissed off and done with the car, sold it at a dead loss and have never had another get below 49*F at the vents....

I'll go look into that vacuum flushing thread right now, appreciate the link .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

As I said earlier, all hoses are original to the car, I did not replace any of them.

The hoses that were easy to remove, I pressure tested them by submerging in water while monitoring with a digital pressure gauge looking for bubbles and whether the gauge drops in pressure. Here's an old video of such a test.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsROH43eLxg

This hose is good. The 2 hoses through the firewall were pressure tested in place, not under water. Turned out all my hoses were fine.

I did replace all the o-rings which is a must do IMO for a 33 year old car. A few of the old o-rings were really flattened/ mangled and was surely leaking slowly from the looks of them.


https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CATAAB_enUS627US627&ei=mT_jWr7KJqPZ5gL-5LN4&q=.995+Mpa+to+psi&oq=.995+Mpa+to+psi&gs_l=psy-ab.3...278104.281411.0.282734.3.3.0.0.0.0.83.231.3.3.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.1.75...0i8i30k1.0.6Njr45SSvqg

The gauge is in units of MPA. That's 0.995 MPA which is 144 psi. 150 psi is the limit of the gauge.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

All the hoses on my SDL are original to the car and I'm running R134a with no leaks. O-rings are an absolute *MUST DO* when doing an R&R on the A/C system. A lot of people make a big deal out of replacing the hoses. If they aren't rotten, don't bother.

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Current stable:
1995 E320 149K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 120K (SLoL)

Black Sheep:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

+1. I had about 10 old AC hoses in my collection stripped from W123's. A few of them looked rotten on the outside yet they passed the under water pressure test. W123 AC hoses are thick and tough!

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked