nanhodges2733

Hi, Ya'll! My name is Nan Hodges, I live in rural Western North Carolina, and own a 1986 Toyota truck.

I'm trying to find out the proper freon to use to recharge the air conditioner. I've looked on multiple sites and they suggest either R134A or R12. I checked my owners' manual and it lists R12. I read that R12 has been discontinued and I can buy reclaimed.

Do I have to use the R12 to recharge? Or since my truck is out of freon, can I put in the R134A?

Also, I read it will take about 3 pounds of freon to recharge the system, how many cans is that?

I will really appreciate any advice and help I can get from the community. Thank you in advance for your help.

Nan Hodges
nanhodges2733@gmail.com

mct75

Have it evacuated and converted over to 134a. That's really the only proper way to do it. You can try playing around with cans of stuff but you may just end up ruining the compressor.

scope103

You can't just "recharge" it; you have a leak. It's tempting to get one of those "A/C in a can" products, and hope you can get just a few more days of cooling, but you're wasting your time and money.

So spend a few dollars and fix it right. Here's everything I know about A/C: https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...-r134a-284801/

mwisham

If it truly was an R-12 system, you will have to drain any oil out and replace the oil with PAG oil. You will also need to have the leak repaired and a good vacuum pulled on the system before recharging it with R-134A. The fittings for the R-12 and R-134A are different so anyone familiar with A/C systems should be able to look at them and tell you which refrigerant your system has.

wyoming9

iTrader: (1)

First you need to find out if it was ever converted to 134a

If you can take a picture of the valves with the caps off it is quite easy to tell.

Although it is possible someone converted it using adapter fittings and removed them.

Terrys87

iTrader: (1)

I believe it was '92 that they went to R134. Your truck did come with R12, if it was converted at one time it should have a sticker under the hood but it could be gone or never converted.

scope103, great write up. I added it to my Ventilation Thread https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f116...trucks-286766/

scope103

January 1, 1994. My '94 was built in 1993, so it came with R12. It looks like Toyota took the full count.

By law, you have to put a sticker with the refrigerant and amount of charge when converting. (and the correct conversion valves) But if you're dealing with a 29 year old truck, just about anything COULD have happened.

RAD4Runner

1986 4Runner: Service A/C that has been Converted to 134A
Hi folks,
My truck sat unused for 3 months. Started right up but A/C/ does not blow cold anymore. Compressor clutch works / compressor turns and idle goes up when AC is turned on. Blower blows strong but no cold air.
It was converted to 134A over 5 years ago. Hopefully just needs a recharge?

The refrigerant in cans each come with a gauge, and according to O'Reilly clerk the gage can be detached from the can, attached to the low side to check condition low-charge, full-charged or leaking.
I would return the can for "core" refund and keep the gage for diagnostic/service purpose later. So for around $40 I would have a diagnostic / service tool.
Sounds right?

There are 4 kinds available.
AC Pro 20-oz with "proprietary-looking" gage
Arctic Freeze 18-oz with "proprietary-looking" gage
Arctic Freeze 22-Oz with gage that looks like a standard gage housing.
Any feedback on how well each of those worked for you?
TIA.




UNCOVERED TRUCK AFTER 3 MONTHS

scope103

Please don't waste your money on anything in that picture.

First, for $59 (ahem, $48 with a coupon) you can get a set of real gauges. https://www.harborfreight.com/ac-r13...set-62707.html These will measure both high and low side, allow evacuating and charging, and will even work on R12, if one of those dinosaurs comes your way. Say what you will about our beloved HF, these are pretty good gauges. And they come in a case.

Second, charging AC while monitoring only the low-side pressure is for amateurs. Not you. Do it the right way.

Third, refrigerant doesn't just take a vacation. Not in 3 months, not in 35 years. You have a leak. Maybe it's a slow leak, and you can buy one of those cans every 6 weeks or so, but then you're just killing us all (R134a isn't as bad as R12, but it's still a powerful ozone depleter.)

That "air conditioner in a can" goes for about $50 in my neighborhood. For 20oz of R134a. If you get it in "old school" cans, you get about 36oz for 1/2 the cost (If you're dead flat, and since you have a leak you will be, you'll need around 26oz, or two $50 cans). That product is for the kind of people you see every day at Autozone or O'Reilly's. You know who they are; driving their POS car that they hate. They're gonna get a Tesla when the lottery ticket hits, so they don't want to spend any money on their current car. But when it gets really hot, they get another 2-3 weeks of cool for $50. Don't you do that.

Since you have a leak, it goes both ways. You've slowly picked up some moisture in your system. You need to evacuate it. (Yup, HF has that pump too!)

Fixing your own AC requires a little investment in tools and time. Something we on this forum do on a regular basis. But AC professionals get paid for a reason; there's no shame in recognizing that this is more than you want to mess with, and getting it done by someone who knows what she's doing.

RAD4Runner

Thanks, Scope. Yeah, I need to review AC servicing - Did it in the Navy about 30 years ago - LOL!

Re leak: It worked strong for 5 years until before I left. Could it be from dried up seals from not using it for that long?

scope103

Mine crapped out a few months ago (hey, that was the start of summer! Maybe it's been out since last summer). I had, over 25 years, rubbed a hole through the hardline that runs under the battery tray. Since I used UV-dyed PAG when I converted to R134a, I just looked around (when it's very dark) with a UV light and found some fluorescent trail. To confirm the leak (my gauges confirmed there was no refrigerant) I squirted a little air into the system and looked for bubbles in soap spray. (You could use refrigerant to look for leaks, but why?)

Could it be a seal? Well, I certainly don't know. But if your gauges say you have no refrigerant (they will), it won't hurt to shoot in air to find the leak. You'll have to evacuate it before replacing the refrigerant, but you (or a shop) have to do that anyway.

Good luck!

RAD4Runner

Thanks again, Scope. I'll inspect system more thoroughly tomorrow. I remember from Navy A/C/ days that leaks would also leave oily residue at leak points from the compressor oil.

Melrose 4r

I recently borrowed a friend’s Harbor Freight gauges and was not able to use them with R12. Perhaps the older sets do include the necessary fittings but current ones don’t. It makes no mention of R12 in the link Scope showed. In fact it specifies R134 Only.

coryc85

Ray - also, not sure about O'Reilly's, but Autozone and Advance Auto both have loan a tool programs, and AC gauges were in the program. If I remember correctly, they were decent MasterCool gauges, I used them and then returned them.

scope103

I'm no expert (and I never got paid for A/C work, Armed Forces or otherwise), but my understanding is that PAG isn't as "oily" as mineral oil. With R12-vintage mineral oil, you'd often find the oily streak near the leak. Supposedly, PAG doesn't leave as clear a trail. For me, once I FOUND the leak I could see a little oily-ish residue, but in the path under the battery tray it was hard to pick out from road dirt.

Interesting ...

My set looks exactly like the one on current HF website. The hoses, without the quick-release R134a adapters, are the correct thread to connect to R12 fittings (and I used them to determine my R12 system was empty). But you are correct that the instructions (on the website) are pretty clear!

Truck83

I have a 83 custom 10 Truck that uses R12 refrigerant, can I use R134 in the place of it?

scope103

I'd like to just say "no," but (like everything) it's more complicated than that. I found this article https://www.hagerty.com/media/mainte...s-and-the-law/ to be a pretty good summary of the dos and don'ts. (Spoiler: the problem is the lubricant.)

This does raise the question: why? Refrigerant is not a maintenance item; your refrigerant is gone because you have a leak. R134a isn't quite as deadly as R12, but if you're adding a can every two weeks during the summer you're eventually killing all of us.