Long term experience with A/C conversion?

[Voluted]

Has anyone here had their A/C converted to r134a for over half a year now? I was without A/C last summer and it was a sweaty mess for me and my passengers on the hotter days. I want to know if your conversion went well or not, and if you had to replace any major parts as a result of the conversion (eg. the compressor). I have a new dryer ready to go, and the system still has some pressure in it but does not put out cold air.

[ScreamerBeemer]

I did the conversion last summer and it worked great. I replaced the drier and all the o-rings vacuumed the system then charged it. It would blow cold enough to see fog come from the vents. Then in the fall, I let my fiance dirve my car. The next day the AC didn't work, so I asked her about it. She said it made noises......I just haven't messed with it yet. I don't know if it just lost refrigerent or what.

[D. Clay]

Mine was converted three years ago and is still going. I think BMW's from about 1988 up are compatible with 134-A although they came with 12. My compressor has been going for about 7 years now. My A/C was always a little weak and the shop that converted it said it was not moving enough air over the condensor when sitting still. They put a shop fan in front of the car and it cooled down like it should. The A/C acivates the slower speed of the condensor fan. I used that wire to activate a relay and ran 12 volts to it. Now it works a lot better.

[sheepdog]

I used Freeeze 12 over 2 years ago.
My system was pretty much empty, I drained off what little was there (air) put some freeze 12 in, purged it again, then filled it with the kit I got from Ebay.

Been working great. Not as cold probably as it could be, but I used no guages or anything, just filled till' it was cold.  So far so good. For $40 and an hours work I am not going to complain.

Not all of the old ones are r-134 compatible.

Some were r-134, some are r-12 based on part numbers.
There is a retrofit kit listed on Realoem for cheap, but requires some effort to install.

[strad]

My car was converted at some point before I got it.  It has a drier with a date stamp of 1994 on it -- don't know what else they replaced.  It works great though.

[Wizard]

Did my A/C a couple of years ago.. System was empty so replaced the dryer and refilled system with 134 (One of those Walmart kits). Rewired my front aux fan to come on at HIGH speed with A/C on. Works great even in the HOT Florida summers.

[Voluted]

Thanks guys. I am really glad to hear it is a simple cheap conversion to get AC working. Last summer i was under the impression that it would cost upwards of $1000 so i put it in the back of my mind.

[vwdee]

Has anyone used the retrofit kits from AUtozone.   In the box they have the oil and refrigerant and say that you dont need to replace the drier, just the fittings.  

Sounds fishy to me but any advice on this?

[tjts1]

Get duracool. Just do it!
http://www.duracool.com/Duracool/faqs.html

[DesktopDave]

I'm still putting mine off.  I'm considering an r134 vac-n-fill.  Does anyone know which compressor seals are compatible?

I also just wired my fan to run high pending a new resistor.  I had to upgrade the fuse from 15 to 30 to keep it from blowing with the A/C compressor on.  Anyone else have that experience?

[dude8383]

Get duracool. Just do it!
http://www.duracool.com/Duracool/faqs.html

do you speak from experience on this? just curious because i will be hooking up a/c in my 24v car and i know that the lines were converted to R134a.