Larry,

My R134a car is marginal above 95F. Have you ever seen someone flush PAG oil and R134a ; put conversion fittings, mineral oil and R-12 into the car?

Saw R134a in walmart last week $12.99/14oz can.

$525/30lbs=17.5 per # plus shipping. ALways buy in the winter- it's cheaper. I use to buy a 30# container in Jan/Feb and could sell it to a friends shop and make a few hundred dollars. That was about 5 years ago when R-12 prices were high.

Is R-12 still made in Mexico??

Michael

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Michael McGuire
83 300d
01 vw A4 TDI
66 Chevy Corsa
68 GMC V6 w/oD
86 300E

If dollars are not the issue then you might want to consider the conversion to r134a. If you travel in the Canadian country side and don't partake of the lower states. Then you want to make sure your car is setup for the environment you exist in (IE R12 is illegal and no one will work on it). Since R12 is illegal and the car will work, though marginally for Texas standards, The car should be fine for the Toronto area. If yo travel to the Florida Keys inthe summer then stay R12

Make sure they do the conversion correctly. Flush the lines and components. Replace the dryer and expansion valve if not R134a compatable and go for it.

I have done the R134A conversion in my 82 300TD. But with the parallell flow condensor. It works fine. if I were in Toronto I would really consider the conversion. Mercedes here in Texas will do it. Consider talking to them.

Dave

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1970 220D, owned 1980-1990
1980 240D, owned 1990-1992
1982 300TD, owned 1992-1993
1986 300SDL, owned 1993-2004
1999 E300, owned 1999-2003
1982 300TD, 213,880mi, owned since Nov 18, 1991- Aug 4, 2010 SOLD
1988 560SL, 100,000mi, owned since 1995
1965 Mustang Fastback Mileage Unknown(My sons)
1983 240D, 176,000mi (My daughers) owned since 2004
2007 Honda Accord EX-L I4 auto, the new daily driver
1985 300D 264,000mi Son's new daily driver.(sold)
2008 Hyundai Tiberon. Daughters new car

Thanks for all your replies and the ensuing discussion; it was very valuable reading for me. I am still leaning to do an R12 recharge on my 1992 300E. Since R12 is unavailable legally anywhere in Canada, kindly refer back to my original question regarding suggestions of honest techs in the US that will do R12 and won't charge me the dreaded $100/lb. I also want to avoid the instance on another thread where the tech said he was putting in R12 and quoted less than $50/lb but ended up putting Freeze 12 instead. The cities I can easily get to are:
Buffalo, NY
Pt.Huron / Flint / Saginaw, MI
Toledo, OH
South Bend, IN
Boston, MA
Dallas / Ft.Worth, TX

As Larry Bible said, (paraphrase) do the job properly with the proper ingredients. I fully agree!!

Thanks again for an informative discussion,
ARVY

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ARVY

1999 E430
1999 C230 Kompressor
1992 300E (write-off)
1984 190D 2.2 (sold)

samiam4,

You left out a VERY important step, evacuation. You MUST draw a vacuum long enough to remove the vast majority of moisture. If you don't it won't cool very well, but more importantly the remaining moisture will combine with the refrigerant to make an acid that will eat up the system from the inside out. Also for a converted system you should use Ester oil NOT PAG oil.

That said, I would NOT convert to 134 if you are in a warm climate.

Good luck,