air con

[airevalley]

Hi all
New owner .
getting to slowly know my new toy .
its ace
anyhow , I have a 1990 c4 .
Now the air con dont work . ( ok I did not expect it to ) .
but I have been fixing cars for 20 years now so I expect to be able to get it working at least for a while through summer ( i know its a afterthought with porsche ) .
I am assuming its on R12 gas . Looking at the connections on the compressor .
So I thought , get replacement adapters then change gas to R134A .
But they dont fit !! .
Anyone got a solution ?
regards john

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

John,

I guess it's a matter of getting the right adapters!! They must be available because JZ Machtech got them fitted to my car. I would have thougt that any decent a/c specialist would be able to get the correct parts. Doing a "Google" for adapters comes up with lots of possibilities but I don't know for sure which ones will fit. I would assume that anything specfied as R12/R134A adapter would do the job - but I guess you made the same assumption!!

Regards

Dave

 

[Tony M]

Hi John,

You may find in the long run that it is a better proposition to take the car to a specialist A/C company and get them to sort it.

Here is a typical scenario. You find some adaptors and go off to buy some R134 A. The supplier won't supply it as you cannot show them a Refrigerant handling Certificate. You finally find someone that will supply the gas. You hire a vacuum pump to remove any moisture from the system then you charge the system with an indeterminate amount of gas. Low and behold you get a blast of cold air from the evaporator. Two weeks later ... No cooling because the gas has leaked out from where it leaked out originally. Hire leak detector, partially recharge system with more 134 find leak and change component or hose or compressor. Recharge and count the cost, time and frustration.

A good specialist should give a 6 month Warranty on the repair.

Good luck whichever route you take.

 

[iangray100]

I 100% agree with the last comment , or if you known the AC guy ..do what I did . Get him to diagnose the fault ...leak test etc ...buy the parts from him - as there a lot chaper than OPC as its all OEM kit ( and he didn't what to the job taking the AC evaporator and valve out ..hell of a job ) and then take it back to him for a recharge ....he wins with easy money , you win as its a lot cheaper.

Some of it I have on my web thread ..page 2/3

 

[Konstantin]

Hi there, it took a week an a half from RGA to found 3 leaks in my system and there is still one more somewhere??

Konstantin C4

 

[smallspeed]

The refrigerant handling thing seems to have gone out of the window; halfrauds now do DIY recharge kits and sell them to anyone!.. Agree though, best to get the system checked over first with some dye or whatever to find the leaks properly, then procede with rectifying yourself before getting an a/c place to do a recharge

 

[airevalley]

Morning all
Have Replaced the valves on my compressor .
Had the system tested and as expected there was a big leak on the condensor at the front , it took ages to even get some gas in the pipes as the leak was so bad .
but at least i managed to run my air con so i know that everything will work when i get a new condensor fitted .
I was going to get a replacement from gsf car parts unless anyone can recomend another supplier .?
will keep all informed
john

 

[johncolt]

Having asked the question about my air con problem, I thought I ought to report on the solution I settled on. I found an air con specialist near Ipswich (foreign shores for someone from Norwich) with wide Porsche experience. I took the car to him when he carried out some tests and examinations, and gave me an estimate.

A few days later I took it back and left it with him for a day-and-a-half. He replaced the condenser and receiver drier. Removed, cleaned and re-oiled the compressor. Flushed the system and fitted any necessary new connectors and seals etc. Recharged with R134a with dye added to the system.

I now have an efficient, working air con system. The cost - a very reasonable £411.02

Contact Chris Malster at ACautoworks. Tel. 01473 313131. e.mail acautoworks@btconnect.com