yungjmoneyboy

Alright so i dont know jack **** about fixing AC but basically heres my situation. I bought my 93 R12 ac civic hatch from a guy who claimed all it needed was a compressor. He told me it had been converted to R134a and all i needed was compressor but by the way he was talking about it i dont think he truly knew if it had been switched because he bought it recently from some other guy.. my question is how can i tell if its been converted? he gave me the lines that lead from the condensor to the compressor seperately detached. ill post a pic of them idk if itll help. But should i use an r12 compressor or r134a compressor?any tips or advice will be much appreciated.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/85075784@N07/7793164266/http://www.flickr.com/photos/85075784@N07/7793164266/ by http://www.flickr.com/people/85075784@N07/, on Flickr

fragmare

Well, it's kinda hard to tell from the pic, but it looks like it's already been converted... at least judging by the valve on the low side port and the green o-ring on the low side line. If you can unscrew the valve(s) and there's another valve underneath... it's been converted.

What you really ought to do is cap off those lines immediately (no telling how long they've been open), pull the compressor and test it with a multimeter, and buy a new receiver-drier (you're definitely going to need a new one anyway if the system's been open very long). If the compressor checks out okay, just stick with it. If it's hosed, pretty much any new or rebuilt compressor you get these days will work with R134a. Even old R12-era compressors will work with R134a as long as you use the proper type and amount of lubricant and all the residual R12 is removed from the system.

I don't know how long the system has been wide open like that, but a flush of the compenents wouldn't be a bad idea either. This is all assuming there are no leaks in the system and it will hold a vacuum.