Cheapy AC retrofit kit seems to work.

[tino]

As previously posted was considering on charging my AC but here in Canada R12 is illegal. Bought a cheap retrofit kit through Ebay for approx $49.00 but was told that the kits are suicide to the AC system. Anyways went to an AC shop and asked them to evacuate the remaining R12 but the shop owner quoted me $195 just to evacuate. Outside the shop one of the techs approached me and put a pressure gauge on the low side, which showed very little - he pressed the high side and it hissed for 3 to 5 seconds. He told me that I must have a bad leak and that I would have nothing to lose to try the kit. When I went home I just snuged on the adaptor to the low side started the car with the AC on high and snapped on the charge hose with one canister containing ester oil, sealant, conditioner and R134a and then ditto for a second can. The weather up her in Toronto, Ontario has been hot with temp. 25 to 27 C but in traffic my outside temp gauge reaching 30 +. Have been using my AC constantly for a week and it seems to work great - have just today checked the pressure with the gauge provided and it hasn't gone down.

[dmorrison]

Well it's done, but the problem you will have in the future, about 1-1.5 years from now, will be a bad compressor. Since you did not remove the mineral oil from the system and then added the ester oil. Neither oil will remain in a suspended state. Therefore the compressor will not be lubricated properly and will fail in the future.

Sorry about that.

Dave

[tino]

Please excuse my ignorance and perhaps the following naïve question – but I’m always thinking. Does a shop vac have enough power to vacuum an AC system? I wonder if I could vacuum the AC by airtight attaching one end of a fill hose to my shop vac and the other to the high-pressure side. Could leave the vac run for a hour or more.

[92300SE]

You should send this question to the Book of records.

[dmorrison]

Actually what you needed to do was to flush the system with a AC flush liquid. Prior to adding the Esther oil. that is the only way to remove the mineral oil form the old parts. You can still do this but it does require some work. Disconnect all parts and completely flush them.

Go here for additional info

http://www.ackits.com/

Dave

[Arthur Dalton]

Originally Posted by 92300SE

You should send this question to the Book of records.

I have a better one ..
Guy calls and ask me if he should use Unleaded or High Test gas???????

[boneheaddoctor]

If this job is not done right you will destroy the evaporator...the COndesor and the Compressor......oh it might work this summer...it might even work next summer....but in a short amount of time it will be rendered junk thats beyond repair and replacement of all parts will be highly expensive.

the oils are not compatible and they are very hdroscopic which means they draw moisture that was in the lines from not being properly evactuated with a proper vacume pump...not a vacume cleaner....they form acids that will eat the system from the inside out.

I highly recomend doing a search on Airconditioning.....freon and a few other terms..there have been some extremely informative threads you need to read by experts in the field...

[Wes Bender]

Didn't the kit that you bought have instructions or warnings on the proper method of using it?

Its too bad that you didn't do a search on this forum and/or the diesel forum and learn a little bit about AC systems before you undertook the switch.

Before its too late, I would evacuate and purge the system and then service it correctly. You might still save the system components.

Good luck,
Wes

[boneheaddoctor]

Originally Posted by Wes Bender

Didn't the kit that you bought have instructions or warnings on the proper method of using it?

Its too bad that you didn't do a search on this forum and/or the diesel forum and learn a little bit about AC systems before you undertook the switch.

Before its too late, I would evacuate and purge the system and then service it correctly. You might still save the system components.

Good luck,
Wes

At least he didn't use a leak sealer....then it would have been too late.

[petaling]

a leaking evap is a very common problem in a 300e.For 45$,I would gladly have Ac albeit for 1-2 months or even weeks,which is the extent of the need for AC in toronto.
Oasis100 and I have been without AC for a few years in toronto.If your AC fails afterwards.With dealer repair,you may be looking at $2000 more than your car's worth.
If your indy agrees to use your US online parts,you may be looking at $1000.
Then again you can never be sure.
Your 45$ is money well spent.
I am looking at $1000 by a moonlighting mechanic(MB tech at Yonge/Steeles)But i've been procrastinating for a few years as there is no guarantee that there wont a bottomless pit waiting for you.Plus I take off 2 weeks summer holiday so my need for AC is even cut shorter.

[detroit442]

I've done several "redneck retros" dating back to 1998 and all of them are still operating. I only had one compressor failure on a 1992 Cutlass that had 195,000 miles on it. The compressor was making a lot of noise before the retro and it only lasted three years. The trick is to use the A/C system stop leak.

[boneheaddoctor]

Originally Posted by tkamiya

He DID the research as indicated on his first post.... and went ahead and did the "conversion" anyway. I saw those kits at the auto shop. The one I saw was long on benefits and short on warnings.

No doubt his A/c will break down in the (near) future, but *almost* knowing proper repair for his A/C will exceed the actual value of the whole car, perhpaps it was a calculated gamble...

Let's not be so hard on this buy....

If he had read the many posts by Leathermang and LarryBible he wouldn't have done this...if it had air and moisture in it and the wrong oil acids form and eat out the condensor and evaporator from the inside out....IF the Compressor holds together long enough.

I feel sorry for the next owner of this car if it lasts that long.

[Moneypit SEL]

For what it's worth:
When I got my 300 SEL, one of its many little problems was no A/C. I won't bore you with all the gory details of what it took to get it running, but one of the things I did was convert it to r-134a (replaced reciever/dryer, added pag oil and leak detecting dye, evacuated system). Around here, 134a costs about 1/3 the price of r-12. So far, I'm happy enough with the results, but if it turns out that I have a leak, I'll likely go back to r-12 after repairing said leak.

As to the cheapie stop-leak stuff, I once used some in a Dodge Neon. It was leaking from the evaporator core enough to require topping up every 2 or 3 weeks. I didn't have the time or inclination to pull the dashboard for replacement, so in went the $10.00 stop-leak. The A/C was still blowing ice cold when I traded the car 6 months later. Again, your mileage may vary.

about ten years ago, I decided to try one on an '83 Toyota Celica that my kids were driving, which hadn't had working air for 5 years or more by then already. I did just what Tino did, and last fall, when I sold the car to my brother-in-law, the air was still working without further attention (about 155,000 miles on the car by then). Within a few months, his daughter drove it home from college (in Oklahoma) with a bad coolant leak and cracked the head, so I have no way of knowing how much longer this supposedly ruinous job would have lasted.

[blueranger]

the ac people always try to make it seem mysterous and difficult...

i wish i could have caught you before you did this becasue there is this product called freeze 12 that you can just add to your r12 system and it will mix with what ever r12 that is in there... but you will be fine with what you got....

dont worry about it..