legacycentral bbs

I'm having some temperature problems here in sunny humid florida. The A/C in my Legacy doesnt seem to pump out the cold air as readily as it did in the wintertime, when I really didn't even need it.

Anyway.... I couldn't find the charge capacity anywhere in my manual or in the engine bay for the a/c system. Does anyone know how much R134a refrigerant is supposed to be in a 1994 Legacy Sport Sedan? I'd like to completely evacuate and recharge it to proper capacity.

Anyone know how well this a/c is supposed to actually work in Florida during 95-100 degree temperatures anyway? I mean... is it SUPPOSED to get ice-cold, or just cool? Damn 134...

About 2 years ago I had a shop repair my system to the tune of $1450.... they replaced everything that needed to be replaced and converted it over to R134a.... A few days after I got it back, I took it back to the shop because it didn't get as cold as I thought it should (being a $1400 repair and all, I expected it to be ice cold as almost all the parts were new.) The shop told me that since R134a runs at a higher pressure and that my system was designed to run on R12, that was as good as it was going to get...

I voted room temp..... kind of lukewarm..... it works better in the night....

I think the shop may have done something wrond though...maybe put too much oil in and not enough refrig...... but at least it "works"....

Andrew

What a load of crap... yeah R12 -> R134a conversions usually dont go well since the old R12 conensers were not as large (as R12 was a much more effective refrigerant)... usually ends up with that result.

Also, R134a systems, when overcharged, cool MUCH less efficiently. I just increased the cooling power of my a/c by letting some of the refrigerant out. It's still only "cool" though, and thats after like 15 minutes of uninterrupted highway driving. It gets pretty cold at night, or in rain, but thats to be expected. In FL you need it to get cold in the friggin relentless heat we have here.

Anyway thats the main reason I need to find the exact capacity of our A/C systems, it should be on a sticker somewhere in the engine bay but mine seems to be missing. Does yours state the capacity anywhere? It wasnt in the owners manual.

The shop put a label under the hood, but i can't read the capacity anymore....

If you have the stock a/c label it'll say the amount of refrigerant and oil that should be in there.

if done properly a 134a conversion will cool just as well.

Josh - I know, thats why I've been having trouble, my label appears to be missing Do you run 134a? Can you read me whats on your label? Pleeeeeease? lol

and.. every 12->134 conversion I've ever seen doesnt cool as well as previously because most older condensers simply weren't as big as they have to be now to make up for the drop in cooling efficiency. I guess it's fine as long as you're not in a state where the average summer temperature is 90+ degrees with 80-100% humidity Isn't Texas a bit drier than FL? We've got like... swamps up the yin-yang.

Chris,

Did your car originally come with 134a? Is your system a calsonic or dexel? Give me the year and all the specs on your car.

I'll look in the Haynes a/c book I have for all your specs.

Houston is not dry....Houston is a muggy shit hole....just like FL. So I give no excuses. If my system can be made to cool like a mofo here, anyone's system can be converted to cool well elsewhere.

Hmm... well that is at least encouraging, that your system cools that well in another hot muggy area. I was afraid I was going to get the response that our cars just didn't cool very well at all and that was that.

Please excuse my geographical ignorance, never been to Texas.

Well I've got a 1994 Legacy Sport Sedan, turbo, AWD, manual transmission. It's a left-hand drive, uses the metric system, and the owner's manual is in english and french. It also has an engine block heater, ready to plug in for cold icy mornings. I suspect the car originates from Canada.

As far as my a/c system specifics, hmm... where would I find what kind of system it is? I really don't know if it was always R134a or if it was converted over - I didn't get the car until it had 200,000 km on it. There is minimal information in my engine bay, as far as stickers, labels, and what not.

best way to know if your car is from canada is to check the seatbelts. if it's canadian, it wont have auto deathbelts

ah, indeed. I was pleasantly surprised when I purchased the car to find it did not have automatic deathbelts. I hate those things. Kinda glad my car's Canadian now.

(by the way Lauren I love the quote... lol... that was a good post)

The capacity is 23 to 26.5 oz as per the Blue sticker under my hood.

My A/C is borderline TO cold. When I do use the AC, I never have it on full blue. That's just way to cold to deal with.

oh you've already found this thread... I was about to post that information from your PM. Thanks BAC!

Info I have is that if you were to redo the system, you'd add 5.30 oz of oil to the system.

and 1.65 lbs of refrigerant.

It doesn't however say whether it's r134a or r12.

You can look at your fittings. If they are blue and red......you probably have r134a. If they're like maroon and some other color....you probably have r12.

You could tell for sure, because the fittings are different....regardless of color.

This is assuming if it was converted, they put the proper fittings on.....

Well I definately have R134a fittings, and according to a PM from BAC the '94 was the first year to use 134a from the factory.

Thanks for the info, I'll figure this damn system out yet.

Yeah.....your system may be a completely different bird. You still could redo it pretty easily. Discharge it.....take the compressor out....dump oil out, blow lines out with compressed air. Replace receiver/dryer. Refill compressor & receiver/dryer with specified amount of oil. Then have a vacuum pulled....and charged up.

hmm... I gotta new question for all (both) you "colder than a polar bear's testicles" voters - how LONG does it take in 95+ degree weather for your A/C to get cold from a fresh start? Now that I've let out a bit of refrigerant, it takes my system about 10 minutes to get "cool" and approaches "cold" in around 20 minutes of driving.

I wouldn't think that's horrible.....probably not great.........don't know if you can really make that as a "definite" test.

The one time I used my AC the other day, it was no more than 5 minutes before I had to turn it down. I RARELY use my AC though. I prefer windows down. Better fuel economy.

Agreed, BAC... unfortunately, here in FL if you have anywhere you need to get without being completely soaked in your own sweat, A/C is quite a necessary feature.

I've taken to leaving the A/C on and remote-starting my car 5 minutes before actually getting into it so its not so bad.