2003-2011 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
 | [Main 93 Bulletin Board | BBFAQ |
Prev by Date | Next by Date | Post Followup ]
Member Login / Signup - Members see fewer ads. - Latest Member Gallery Photos
Re: 2006 9-3SC in the shop today, A/C recharge Posted by SWEDECAR [Email]  (#112)  [Profile/Gallery]
(more from SWEDECAR) on Sat, 18 Aug 2018 09:01:39
In Reply to: 2006 9-3SC in the shop today, A/C recharge, MI-Roger [Profile/Gallery]
, Fri, 17 Aug 2018 17:00:26
Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup
|
An A/C system that does not "leak" is kind of a sleeper problem that will be costly at some point.
All A/C systems will weep small amounts of freon from when the car is new even without having any real leaks and at some point, it will need a recharge and oil added.
For some reasons, the oil that is added and dissolved in the freon have a tendency to be depleted over the years so even though the freon charge is still ok to cool the car, the oil is gone and that will slowly ruin the compressor. Roughly a total of 6 Oz of oil is in the system and standard practice is to add 2 Oz when you recharge.
I have had a few cars with complete service history where nothing had been done to A/C system and compressor had failed. When opening up the system it was bone dry inside. As a comparison, I have had cars where the system has been recharged so many times that oil is drooling out the pipes when you open it up.
I try to listen for whiny and noisy compressors and suggest a A/C service recharge with adding oil if I suspect that might be the case.
Now at 170K miles, the A/C compressor gave up its ghost on my wife's car even though, for safe guard, I had recharged the system a couple of times through its life (no leaks during all this years and miles).
It didn't fail catastrophically but just decided to go limp the more it ran. At cold start it was cooling ok, but slowly doing less and less of a good job as minutes were added to run time.
When replacing it I was very surprised to see how little oil came out of the system since I knew I had recharged and added oil twice over the years.
R134a is not really that different from R12 and "throwing" a bottle in by the owner should work the same as in the old days if it is in fact low on freon. The big difference is that the volume of most A/C systems have dropped in half compared to the 80s and early 90s cars so you have to be more careful not overcharging the system and also not over saturate the system with oil alone if you do it on a regular basis.
Anders
, Fri, 17 Aug 2018 17:00:26, Sat, 18 Aug 2018 09:01:39 <-- Viewing This Message
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
