1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I am concerned about the information that you have received from Saab mechanics. First, since r134a should be charged to no more than 80-85% of r12 capacity, you will always have bubbles in the sight glass on a converted car. It is not an overstatement to say that the sight glass is useless on a converted car. I leave mine covered with the black paint used to seal it for shipping.
There are 2 ways to charge, weight or pressure. If you are going by weight, add 2.5 cans (12oz) of r134a and see what you get. If you are charging by pressure, then use the 2.8 multiple I mentioned earlier. Judging charge by a "twice as much" mulitple isn't going to help you because just a couple of ounces more than you need will result in an overcharge which will act just like an undercharge in terms of cooling performance.
I can tell that your problem is probably not with the receiver drier because of the pressures you listed. If the receiver/drier or the expansion valve was plugged, your high side would be much higher than it is. Your low side would probably also be lower, and might even go into vacuum when the idle is raised. Since that appears not to be happening, I would say you just don't have enough r134a in there to begin to evaluate how the system is performing. Since you are OK, I am guessing you have 90 to 100F days. I would expect to see a high side pressure on your car (1,500 rpms) creeping up toward 300psi on a 100+ day. Use a brick to hold the accelerator pedal at 1,500 rpms.
Do you have a gauge set to charge the system yourself? Try adding refrigerant very slowly while watching the vent temp. What I do is to attach the charge can, clear the charge hose, then open the low side manifold for 5 - 10 seconds at a time to watch the pressures and vent temp stabilize after each shot of r134a. You have to go slowly because it's too easy to go from not quite enough to too much.
I did not understand whether you charged by weight or by pressure. Bear in mind that you may have a leak, so I would go by pressure more than by weight at this moment if you charged it more than a few days ago.
posted by 64.222.83...
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.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |