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There are 2 types of air con gas, R12 and R134a. R12 is no longer used and R134a is whats used instead. Although R12 is a better refrigerant it was deemed too harmful to the atmosphere.
If your car runs R134a you should have no problem getting it regassed at a suitable air con outlet.
If your car runs R12 you have to get it converted to R134a, known as retrofitting. To recharge an aircon system firstly the old gas has to be completely vacuumed out. Most small car aircon places wont do it because it will contaminate their dedicated R134a equipment. Specialist air con places should be able to do it as they will have dedicated equipment for vaccing R12.
Although, if there is no gas in the system in the first place there shouldnt be a problem ***It is illegal to unavoidably vent aircon gas to the atmosphere***
Aircon systems use oil as lubrication, the prob being R12 oil is mineral based and R134a is synthetic, the 2 are not compatiable.
Once the system has been fully vaccumed, there are 2 ways to convert to R134a. The first involves adding an additive before the gas is added to make the r12 oil compatiable with the R134a gas, and has to be added with every recharge.
The other option is to remove the pump, drain the old oil (as the majority of the oil in the system is in the pump), refill the pump with Retro AC oil and regass with R134a. Any future ragassing will not require any additional work.
It is recommended that the filter drier is replaced every 3 years.
R12 and R134a connections are different sizes and the adaptors are usually supplied with the additive kit, but are not hard to get hold of.
There are 2 types of air con gas, R12 and R134a. R12 is no longer used and R134a is whats used instead. Although R12 is a better refrigerant it was deemed too harmful to the atmosphere.
If your car runs R134a you should have no problem getting it regassed at a suitable air con outlet.
If your car runs R12 you have to get it converted to R134a, known as retrofitting. To recharge an aircon system firstly the old gas has to be completely vacuumed out. Most small car aircon places wont do it because it will contaminate their dedicated R134a equipment. Specialist air con places should be able to do it as they will have dedicated equipment for vaccing R12.
Although, if there is no gas in the system in the first place there shouldnt be a problem ***It is illegal to unavoidably vent aircon gas to the atmosphere***
Aircon systems use oil as lubrication, the prob being R12 oil is mineral based and R134a is synthetic, the 2 are not compatiable.
Once the system has been fully vaccumed, there are 2 ways to convert to R134a. The first involves adding an additive before the gas is added to make the r12 oil compatiable with the R134a gas, and has to be added with every recharge.
The other option is to remove the pump, drain the old oil (as the majority of the oil in the system is in the pump), refill the pump with Retro AC oil and regass with R134a. Any future ragassing will not require any additional work.
It is recommended that the filter drier is replaced every 3 years.
R12 and R134a connections are different sizes and the adaptors are usually supplied with the additive kit, but are not hard to get hold of.
