Stinger said:
People that work at parts stores are morons...I would trust them to tell me if I had a booger on my lip or not.
HEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Not all of us are un-educated idiots. But I do understand, i work at a parts store and have to deal with other parts stores occasionally, and yes, most of those people are complete idiots. But, then again, it depends where you go. If you go a place that pays $2.00 an hour to their employees what do you expect?
Now, on with the A/C question.
If your compressor doesn't kick in it's most likely one of three problems.
1. your system is undercharged, probably caused by a leak.
2. Your Clutch Cycling switch is defective, it's the one located on the accumulator by the firewall.
3. your compressor/clutch is defective.
both 1. and 2. can be checked by disconnecting the plug going to the cycling switch and bridgeing the connector.f
Whoever said you have to have a license to work with 134a is absolutey, positively correct, the EPA requires that any work peformed on an automobile air conditioning system be performed by an EPA certified technician. As far as buying the refrigerant, anyone can buy 134a. If you read the fine print this is all mentioned on the back of those cheap Wal-Mart kits.
That cheap Wal-Mart kit is not a good ideal, although it will produce cold air.
When you retrofit, you must change the oil and refrigerant, which the kit does. What most people don't know is that you also must change the filter/drier. The dessicant in the accumulator isn't compatible with 134a. The dessicant won't remove moisture from the system and will result in the system becoming comtaminated with moisture, 134a + moisture = acid. This can take a while depending on the system, so some people have no problem with the Wal-Mart kits, but you will sooner or later and when it fails it will hit the pocketbook hard.
Also, when you retrofit, R134a operated at slightly different pressures than R12. with R12 30lbs of pressure meant that the refrigerant was at about 30 degrees. with 134a 30 lbs of pressure will equal about 35 to 40 degrees.
Sooo, you know that little switch we were talking about on the accumulator/can on the firewall? guess what, since it's calibrated to kick the compressor out at 32deg with R12, it actually kicks out at about 40 to 45 with 134a. a retrofit switch is available for this. I have retrofitted a lot of vehicles with great success, as long as you don't try to go cheap, this doesn't work on A/C work, spend the money do it right and enjoy for years.
This is one of the reasons that most people say 134a doesn't cool well in an R12 system, and some it won't because of condensor design.
It's illegal to top off a system and keep going, if the system is low, the EPA states that you must repair the leak, not top it off every year.
I have all the proof for this and will gladly post it here if you like, in addition read my signature i'm certified to work on auto a/c systems and have been doing it for a while now.
any more questions?