As many of you know I have a 1987 GTI 16V. It has the original AC System which is still running the R12 refrigerant.
Back around 1997 I purchased a 1985 4 door Golf from a friend of mine who was/is a VW Tech at a dealership. At that time it had 67,000 original miles on it. Unfortunately a deer ran into it causing damage to the hood, fender and passenger side door. The deer also managed to damage the A/C system as well. Since this Golf was going to be a Daily Driver I decided to fix the A/C system (ie New Receiver/Dryer & evaporator) and convert the system to R134a. After the conversion was done I was curious about the temperature difference between R12 & R134a so I decided to do a little test. I put the Golf and the GTI 16V side by side in the driveway on a hot summer day (both systems fully charged in in good mechanical condition). I ran the A/C in both cars using the same fan settings with the same vents open and measured the temperature coming out of the same vent positions with the same battery operated thermometer with a wired probe. I did the test multiple times because I could not believe the results. There was less than a two degree difference between the GTI 16V with R12 and the Golf with R134a. This might not be the most scientific test but the results were interesting. Now fast forward to the present time. My 1985 Golf is no longer my Daily Driver but I do drive it on my days off. I am still running the R134a in the system. Nowadays I do have a slow leak in the system which requires me to add refrigerant about every other summer. This summer I noticed on a hot day the A/C was not all that cold. After adding refrigerant the system was back to ice cold again. One word of caution. I live in eastern Pennsylvania. This summer our temps got into the low-mid 90s. With a high dew point we got close to 100 degrees (real feel) only a couple of times. I would imagine that where you are located you have 90+ temps a lot more often. Call me strange but on very hot days I will open all the doors on my vehicles for a few minutes to let the super hot air (120+ degrees) inside the vehicle out. Even if the temp in the vehicle only drops 20-30 degrees to equal the outside temperate that is 20-30 degrees less the A/C system has to try to cool. When I need more R134a I go to the local Walmart and get some. IIRC a 12oz can is under $20. I think they also still sell conversion kits as well. In case you are wondering the A/C in my GTI 16V did work the last time I ran it. A while back I found an R12 system recharge kit somewhere. That kit has two unopened cans of R12 and I have a third can that is open and has the hose and valve system from the kit attached. At least I have the option of charging the A/C system in the GTI 16V with R12 if I would need/want to. Charlie On Wednesday, August 26, 2015 at 10:43:38 PM UTC-4, Larry Velez wrote: > > I know many have ripped out their AC systems but where I am (Tampa) it is > just not an option. > > How are you all keeping your AC systems working these days? Which newer > refrigerants are compatible now that R12 is no longer available and any > tricks to get a nice cold system? > > I wonder if swapping in a modern compressor is an option? > > Planning ahead to fixing my AC system. > > Thanks, > > -Larry > 91 GTI 16V > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MK2-16v" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mk2-16v. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mk2-16v/f7ea6929-1f20-4c00-b85d-0243f1fd58ed%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
