Some of you may remember back in May 2019 the compressor on this car failed and lost all of its R12. After doing some research, I ended up getting a more modern lighter weight Four Seasons compressor replacement but, on the advice of several acquaintances decided to have the system converted to 134A at the same time, as R12 is becoming more expensive and rare. After the repair and replacement was competed, I was very disappointed that R134A was not as cold as R12. At the time, I said if I had it to do over, I might have spent the extra $$$ and found R12. But, whatās done is done. Recently, a friend gave me a 3/4 full can of R134A with the hose and gauge attached, said he didnāt need it anymore. With plenty of time on my hands these days, I decided to try an experiment. First, I sprayed the condenser from under the front of the car with a proprietary a/c condenser cleaner. After waiting an appropriate amount of time, I rinsed it down with a water hose. Then, I started up the car and turned on the a/c to maximum cool setting. Following the instructions on the can, I hooked up the device to the a/c nipple. The gauge on the hose showed the level of āchargeā was in the middle of the ānormalā zone, but it appeared there was room to add a bit more R134A to the system to reach the high end of the normal zone without overcharging, which I did. After disconnecting the hose from the car, I shut the hood and climbed in to the car. To my delight, the air coming out of the center a/c vent was cooler than I remember experiencing over the last 18 months. It was a warm day, not too oppressive, with outside temps around 80 degrees F. I invited the Mrs. to join me for a drive along the highway, she also claimed it hasnāt run this cold in the last fourteen months. After a few minutes of driving, the a/c fan even went to a lower speed on the āautoā setting. When I had to stop for three minutes at a long traffic light, the air became āless coolā, but once I started driving and accelerating, cold air returned. I know it wasnāt an oppressively hot day, and R12 Iām sure runs colder, but this is still much of an improvement,. To those of you who have converted their systems to R134A, I highly recommend you try my prescription for colder a/c
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Where did you find your modern Four Seasons compressor? What did you do to convert the car? Iāve gone through several A6 compressors and they keep failing. Iām wanting to update to a more modern compressor for my '85 XJ6.