Date:         Tue, 12 Jun 2012 16:52:26 -0400
Reply-To:     Gregg Carlen <gregg.carlen@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Gregg Carlen <gregg.carlen@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: I Have Some A/C Questions, Too
In-Reply-To:  <4FD63F56.80509@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hi Jeff,

I put my AC back together on my 90 Westy last summer (couldn't stand the
heat,either). It was a little more work than I had the time for. At first,
I thought I would do the retrofit and replace the key components myself
then take to a local shop to have the hoses fabricated based on the old
ones. I found I didn't have the time so I called around the area (I'm
Northern Virginia, too) and finally came accross a shop that seemed to
really know what they were doing and had the right equipment.

It was a costly since I outsourced a lot of the work to them, but had I
done most of it myself and had them recharge, it would have been easier on
the wallet. I tried to run the system with the original hoses, but that was
a mistake. My 22 year old hoses just didn't last and blew out within a
month. After getting all newly fabricated hoses, the AC was cooling
as well as our vans do. That being said, the shop I used is in Manassas.
It's Brenner's Automotive off of Euclid; a mom and pop type shop owned by
two brothers, Brian and Kevin. Brian is the AC expert. He's got all the
right tools, parts, sources and knowledge to get things working (my 'stock'
system had been modified by the PO, so it wasn't a straight install).
Really easy going and honest guy.He was willing to do as much or as little
of the project as I desired. Didn't even charge me for drawing down the
system/recharging/reoiling the system after I had the hoses redone (only
for the replacement 134a, which I thought was fair).

The address is Brenner's Automotive, 8503-F Euclid Avenue Manassas Park, VA
20111, (703) 335-2691. Hours are M-F 8:00AM-5:30PM.

One of these days we may even meet up since we're in the near area. I'm
moving down for a month to Va Bch in July, so if you move before then...
FYI, just in case, there's a mom & pop VW shop off of Oceana Blvd near the
intersection of Oceana and General Booth Blvd that works on our vans (has a
few sitting on his lot and some parts ones out back). Can't remember the
name of the place and only bought parts from him, but seems to know his
stuff.

-Gregg
90 Westy (Blueberry), Oakton, VA



> On 6/11/2012 3:41 AM, J Stewart wrote:
>
>> He suggested I replace the parts and take it to an a/c shop and have them
>> recharge it, which sounds like good advice. Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?
>>
>>
>>
>