hellah fresh

I have a problem as you all know most of us in here that owns a w124 has R12 for our a/c system. Well My a/c system sucks and my a/c isnt cold. I think i might be low on free-on but R12 is exspensive as hell. So i was wondering if there is a R134a conversion kit available? Oh yeah my a/c make a funny loud high pitched noise when i turn it on =\

ehr1

I know that r-12 is not cheap, but i have found that systems converted
to r-134 does not cool as well as r-12 systems. they seem to cool well at speeds. but not as well idleing in traffic. the size of the condenser is
different in r-12 cars and r-134 cars.

bamberger_1

I had both of my W124 converted from R12 to R134a and I did not notice any lack of cooling performance. The only thing additional was replacing the dryer bottle, other than that all components of the A/C were unchanged. I had it done in my MB-shop and it cost about $200 per car including the dryer, the refrigerant, the oil and labor.

hellah fresh

Dang only $200.. hmm... i wonder where i can find a conversion kit. Was that a MB dealership that done it? Oh where i stay we dont have that much of a traffic as the bigger cities.

bamberger_1

yes it was a MB dealership (but in Germany) but I guess physics are the same here and there.
You dont need a conversion kit, you just need to drain the system, swap the dryer bottle and refill with R134a. You may have to change the filler and drain valves because to prevent filling with the wrong stuff, R12 have different threads than R134a, but no problem to do.

hellah fresh

Ohh.. ok so i need a Dryer and thats all then?

mhorn

if your ac system has a leak in it, it doesn't matter if you have R-12 or R-134, it's still going to leak. Find the leak before you spend all that money and effort to convert it. Try filling the system with some U/V dye. If you have a leak it will be visible under a black light. Fix the leak, then do the conversion if you want. Do you get air blowing out of the vents when you are stopped? The high pitched noise you hear might be your blower fan or the bearings in your a/c compressor. If you don't get moving air out of the vents when stopped, your blower is probably dead. If you trun on the A/c and can't see the clutch lock up on the A/C compressor in the engine bay, or you hear the compressor squel, then you probably have a bad compressor. You can waste a lot of time and money trying to fix a simple a/c problem. Paying a service station $50 to find out what the problem actually is would be money well spent.

hellah fresh

My a/c is working but it isn't cold enough. When i stop it stills blow out air. But i just want it to be colder. Plus int he future i dont want to waste a ton of money on R12 free-on. So thats why i want to convert my system and save money. But yes it does work fine other then the noise. Im guessing it can be the bearing like you said.. but yep it is surly sqeeking.

mhorn

if the squeek is coming from inside the center dash vents, then its probably your blower motor. If the squeek gets worse when you increase the fan speed then it is definately the blower. After a while it will stop blowing air. If it is coming from inside the engine, then it is probably your compressor.