Not that I was going to but I just wanted to know since r-12 blows all other car freons away. It seems that R-12 to R-134a kits are available so you just basically have to add the newer freon and your set to go.
What if I had a car with R-134a and the a/c wasn’t so great, could I easily convert it to R-12 to get some extra cooling?
I do not think that a system designed for R134 would work better by just changing it to R12. My guess is that it would work worse as it was designed for R134.
If the system was designed from the start to be R134a, then with R12 you do run the risk of freeze-up’s in the system. I have been told that you can replace the expansion valve to fix this…I don’t have details, just giving you a general potential concern.
This strikes me as mainly an academic question, as my experience is that virtual all factory R-134a systems work well, though some may be borderline with the car sitting still at idle. Generally, if these systems aren’t cooling well it’s because some aspect of the system needs repair, not redesign.
Proper and legal conversion includes changing the system oil and installing refrigerant-specific service valve fittings. I’m not aware of any source for adaptor fittings to go TO R-12 service–all of them are designed to convert FROM R-12.
Add to the mix the points in the preceding posts and the considerably higher cost of R-12, and it’s pretty hard to think of this as feasible. It might be “easy” to do it, but to do it in a way that covers all the bases and actually does some good would be difficult, if not impossible.
I just had my truck coverted over to the R-134a. It was an R-12 AC system but I was quoted $550 to recharge the system. The cost to convert, $165. Plus in about a year, R-12 will no longer be available except for certain commercial purposes. The AC blows just as cold as is every has. But I heard that R-134a refrigerant could be banned in the near future.