72 4.5 280SE air conditioning

[suckapunks]

Was wondering if my a/c needs to be worked on to get it colder. It's cool, but it never gets cold cold. Is this correct or is the unit just getting tired and it needs to get freshened up?

Thanks

[ABDow]

Suggest as a start that you check to see that it does not need regassing. If the gas has partially leaked out you'll get inefficient a/c.

[nhdoc]

Yeah, start by having the pressures checked with a real set of manifold gauges reading both high and low sides...then you can tell what's going on better. Insufficient cooling can be caused by many things including undercharging, overcharging, clog in the system, bad expansion valve, dirty evaporator coils, dirty condensor coils, bad aux fan, etc...

If you start with the most common issue, that is the refrigerant charge, you can diagnose most other problems too. Is the car still running R12 or has it been "converted" to R134A. My 280SEL 4.5 was converted and I was able to finally get it fairly cool, but still not as ice cold as it should have been but I think R12 is better for these systems in general. Measure the temperature of the air exiting the vents too.

[JimFreeh]

Originally Posted by suckapunks

Was wondering if my a/c needs to be worked on to get it colder. It's cool, but it never gets cold cold. Is this correct or is the unit just getting tired and it needs to get freshened up?

Thanks

While crude by today's standards, the W108 system can produce some COLD air when using R12. The 4.5 used a GM compressor, and as everyone knows, one thing GM can do right is A/C!

Without getting a grasp on things such as outlet temps, low and high pressures, aux fan performance, etc, it's impossible to find the "magic bullet", so to speak.

Your system can do well, but more info is needed to determine why it is not performing to your expectations.

Jim