allerton

Hi, I just bought a 90' 560SEL.

Two problems:

1.left speakers are all silent. What would be the cause? Left amplifier? where to reach it? other possibilities?

2. A/C not working. The last owner told me it was retrofeit to R134. And A/C was working fine until this summer. He did a recharge but got leak. How much to fix the leak? Do I need go to a dealer or I can go any A/C shop?

I'm newbie here, appreciate all your input.

CplRowland

1. Is it a stock head unit? Maybe try pulling it out and making sure the wires are connected to the back. Sounds stupid, but on the unit that came in my mbz, they slipped out pretty easily.

2. This is a common problem. Could be many many things. From what I have heard leaking is very common when converting to R134... something to do with it being smaller molecules. It is usually recommended to switch back to original as it blows colder anyway. The size of the compressor, evaporator, condensator were all based on R12, which is more efficient than R134. R134 requires more volume to cool the same quantity of air and does not work as well, runs VERY high head pressures which on occasion over taxes our older AC components. As I said, you can expect leaks and possibly a blown evaporator.

CplRowland

I guess I should add that it depends where you are from whether or not you can even get r12 legally. Where do you live?

allerton

I'm in OH. The old repair record showed that recerver/drier were replaced at the time ( Aug 2000 ) the system was retrofit to R134. But I really doubt the mechanic did this because the drier looks pretty small and old, it looks like the original stuff.

Anyway, what are the chances that the system can go back to R12? will it be too expensice?

For the radio problem, the radio is a stock head. Are there separate wires for left/right output? If it does, I'll try to pull the head out and check the wires. But if there was only one out put wire in the back, I guess it would not be the connector because the right side speakers work fine.

CplRowland

There were 2 seperate outputs on mine. One for left and one for right. If that is not the problem then it could be the amps. Mine does not have factory amps so I really couldn't help you there. You may need to just follow the wires to see where the problem is, which would probably be quite a task. As far as going back to r12, I'm not sure of the cost. Try going to www.126world.com and asking him. He owns a shop in Canton, MI will probably be able to offer more help than I can. Otherwise, go to benzworld.org and do a search for your questions. There is a lot of good info there. 126world is there too. His name is www_126world_com.

allerton

Thanks for the info.

For the radio, I found it is the left amplifier. I took off
the back seat today, and switched the left and right
amplifiers, then I found that the left one was defective.

I opened the little box, but found no any clue, all stuff
look good, and no any burned little element. I probabaly
need to find a good one somewhere.

CplRowland

If you plan to replace the stock head unit soon, don't worry about the amp. From what I read when searching for answers, the stock amps will not work with an aftermarket head unit anyway. You will end up having to bypass them, which will be very frustrating if you put money/effort into replacing or repairing the amp.

CplRowland

p.s. glad to see you found the problem