www.86garage.com

Hey, so I found out that my a/c wasn't working and all the a/c repair places I went to around my area said it would cost around 1k to convert the system to r134

YIKES...sooo much money



Anyway, I was wondering if you guys knew a cheap fix or a cheap place to do it. If anyone on the forum knows how to do it and wanna fix mine, I'll be glad to compensate.

The guys at the a/c shop told me it would be a 45 dollar examining fee just to see what the issue is...should I go ahead and do that? Is it possible to still have the r12 a/c working and charged? The places I went to made it seem like r134 was my only option.

Its going to be kinda hard to find someone with R12... R12 does get alot colder than r134 though. Try looking for someone who can re-charge with freeze12(?) I think thats what its called.. Its a alternative to R12.


And you might want to pay that 45$ to get your AC checked. It's kinda pointless to re-charge it if its not working correctly...

What I would do is pick up the conversion fittings for R134 at auto zone, then you can buy the stuff in the cans and charge it yourself once charged you can figure out if the system has any issues

i have a friend that has a a/c vacuum pump. it will tell you if you have any leaks before you put in a 40 dollar can of r12. i also have a coworker that has about 6 cans of the old r12 maybe he will sell them. ill talk to my friend and see if he is willing to pull a vaccum on your system. like projectgofast said about the conversion fittings will be needed since the hoses my buddy has are for 134a. they are cheap

what the f*@k ?autozone has a converstion kit for about 40 or 50 bux and has the r 12 to r134 retofit kit and three bottles freon witch you only need 1 or 2 they will tell you how many onches it will take and comes with the hose cant beat that jack better than 1k this is the seson to screw people over , is so hot they say whatever price they feel like it

inertia wrote: what the f*@k ?autozone has a converstion kit for about 40 or 50 bux and has the r 12 to r134 retofit kit and three bottles freon witch you only need 1 or 2 they will tell you how many onches it will take and comes with the hose cant beat that jack better than 1k this is the seson to screw people over , is so hot they say whatever price they feel like it

the worst part about this is that it wont keep you cool in the summer. you will end up turning it off and rolling down the windows. r12 or nothing in these systems. 134a is not designed for it and it will not cool dont waste your money. ask me how i know

on the other hand if you can find an evaporator dryer and condensor (maybe compressor but i think the compressor is fine with a flush) that was originally 134a and is similar to the 86 maybe you can try to make it fit on the corolla.

i sent him to Custom Car Cool (oscar knows his stuff) and he got his R12 BUT his a/c light is blinking now (oscar says it blows cold but they have to keep it jumped). could be his a/c thermistor but the R12 charge and labor brought the bill up to $300. the thermistor is not even $10 BUT with labor he's looking at an additional $200.

if you want R12 and dependable a/c expertise AS WELL AS custom a/c systems for cars that never had, CCC is the place.

oscar has been around and from my personal experience (i've been taking my cars to him since 95 - shutup, yeah i'm old), he only does the work you need and want. with replacing the fan clutch, re-charging the 78 wagon's a/c system w/ R12 cost me just over $200 for parts (fan clutch, drier & R12) and labor.

sounds like you found the right man for the job, not like there rest of those aholes

Hey Jonas,

So you told me that thermistor cost like 8 dollars and change right? So I asked that Oscar guy how much it was when he was ordering it and he kinda hesitated a little and said "uh, its under a hundred dollars".

So I'm wondering if he's gonna pull a fast one on me...hahaha, well I guess 8 dollars is under a hundred I guess he likes you better than me. So paying 3 bills for getting the A/C recharged and vacuumed is very unsatisfying knowing its still not working and they might have to revacuum/recharge everything after the new electricals come in......

I really hope this is gonna fix the problem...I'm thinking about going to this junkyard tomorrow to look for a A/C amplifier cuz they said that could be the issue as well...the junkyard guys told me Toyota uses the same A/C system from 85-95, there is a 95 Toyota pickup with A/C and they said the parts should be the same....can anyone verify this?

Anyway, gonna be in Houston for another week for this...yay!

i thought r12 was bad since people say it contains butane gas and its illegal would be bad if u wreck.. like some fireworks... lol well thats what i heard... Dont know if its true..

no r12 isnt illegal you just have to be certified to buy and sell it plus it is more expensive.

i have also heard of a good place called dixie auto air i havent been there but one of my car friends says they really know there stuff. they can do r12 too

sexaybeast87 wrote:Hey Jonas,

So you told me that thermistor cost like 8 dollars and change right? So I asked that Oscar guy how much it was when he was ordering it and he kinda hesitated a little and said "uh, its under a hundred dollars".

So I'm wondering if he's gonna pull a fast one on me...hahaha, well I guess 8 dollars is under a hundred I guess he likes you better than me. So paying 3 bills for getting the A/C recharged and vacuumed is very unsatisfying knowing its still not working and they might have to revacuum/recharge everything after the new electricals come in......

I really hope this is gonna fix the problem...I'm thinking about going to this junkyard tomorrow to look for a A/C amplifier cuz they said that could be the issue as well...the junkyard guys told me Toyota uses the same A/C system from 85-95, there is a 95 Toyota pickup with A/C and they said the parts should be the same....can anyone verify this?

Anyway, gonna be in Houston for another week for this...yay!

hmmm, unfortunately he's just a business acquaintance david. he probably hesitated to tell you because he was torn between business and integrity and it looks like business won. that's a bit disappointing. i even confirmed pricing and availability on the part: it's $8 w/ an ETA of 7 to 10 business days according to Don McGill Toyota AND Champions Toyota. the part is coming out of Ontario, Cali.

i MAY have an amplifier. i'll have to check when i get off of work today.

ga_goosh wrote:no r12 isnt illegal you just have to be certified to buy and sell it plus it is more expensive.

i have also heard of a good place called dixie auto air i havent been there but one of my car friends says they really know there stuff. they can do r12 too

Well a mechanic from komatsu told me that. i guess he was wrong...lol.. that way i can give him a hard time...lol... thanks for the clear up..

If you want a a/c system that works great r134 isn't a good choice. r134 is good with systems that came equipt with r134. If you want a/c I recommend not getting r12 either, unless its cheap. a product called Freeze-12 is available to the market. Its the only real solution to fixing old r12 systems. HVguy has a vacuum pump and a good amount of Freeze-12, you also want to run a jumper wire on your compressor (after adding some oil into the system) to verify your compressor clutch still works and it isn't making a terrible noise. If it doesn't work replace the compressor and the drier, if you find any metal peices in the line, flush the entire a/c system and replace the expansion valve. If your compressor is fine add some leak dye and charge it up. I've seem vacuum pumps pull 30lbs and still have compressor seals going bad.