I was reading an article about R12/R134a recently since I'm about to convert the a/c in my Rabbit to R134a. The article was quite imformative although I have no idea where I found it anymore - the gist was that R134a CAN function just as efficiently as R12 although it does have some differences. In particular, R134a doesn't cool down as quickly as R12 so it almost necessitates rolling down the windows for a few minutes until the superheated air is expelled.
FWIW, I have R12 in my BMW which is supposed to have the world's least effective a/c unit. It'll cool the car to a comfortable temperature after about 10 minutes in 90 degree heat. However, the interior never feels "cold" - the black exterior probably doesn't help much. With roughly the same interior volume, my pickup which will also freeze my butt out in the same time frame but everything inside the truck feels chilly - even with a similar expanse of black roof as the BMW. The poor BMW a/c unit aside, perhaps it's b/c the truck has an a/c system that was designed for R134a. I'll be curious to learn just how well the Rabbit's a/c will work once it's converted. The only drawback is that a/c on a normally aspirated VW diesel is like adding a speed-brake. It may take me an extra 1/2 hour to drive the 35 miles to work every day BUT at least I'll be nice and cool (temperature wise that is, it's tough to look cool in a Sunshine Yellow Rabbit diesel). --- [email protected] wrote: > This has been my experience. We also converted my cousin's 92 GTI > and he > has same the opinion, YMMV. One more thing to consider is that > R134 runs > at higher pressures and in an older tired system this could speed > up the > chance of failure. On the other hand our Camry, which came from > factory > with R134, has the coldest A/C of any car I've ever owned. ===== Matthew Yip http://www.geocities.com/mgyip/ '81 Rabbit diesel - '87 GTi 16v "General Li" - '88 M5 - '99 F350 psd __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ _____________ List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com To remove yourself from this list, send mail to [email protected] with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your message See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org
