In article, (Jonathan Hacker 21420) writes: |> In article, (Mark Shaw) writes: |> >More data reported on R134a retrofits in this month's issue of |> >"Automotive Engineering." One article by Sanden Corp (compressor |> >supplier) and another one by ICI folks. The Sanden article is new |> >data, but the ICI article is a shorter version of the paper they |> >gave at SAE Congress last month (SAE 940599). |> |> Long term reliability is the critical issue. It is common |> knowledge that you can do the above and drive away with |> a working system. The real question is how many systems |> have serious failures within a year of the conversion. That |> is the data I would like to see.

You should try to read these two articles and particularily the SAE paper (940599). The ICI paper reports on some results from a two year study on about 200 vehicles world-wide in climates from hot-humid to really-hot-dry. Also, both the ICI study and the one by Sanden use techniques where they teardown the systems and measure wear and other parameters such as moisture absorption and seal deterioration. In effect their work is more meaningful than just doing a retrofit and seeing how long it runs before it fails.

One of the things ICI noticed was that they had two compressor failures early in their fleet tests, but further examination revealed that the failure was iminent anyway and could not be directly attributed to the refrofit itself.

I received just today two flyers from Castrol on their ester-based oils for retrofits - Icematic SW32, SW68 and Retro100. It also includes a brief retrofit procedure and mentions a test kit they provide to determine if the system is ready for R134a charge. You can get this info from Castrol by calling 1-800-458-5823 (they also list a domestic number of 714-660-9414). They are located in Irvine, CA. Ask for more info on their Icematic refrigerant oils. One thing they did not send, which I requested, was a Materials Safety Data Sheet regarding toxicity, etc. The PAG oils are not too user-friendly, and Castrol claims their ester-based oils are not so bad. I would just like to know how much better they really are.

Anyway, it seems that there is a lot of activity and results coming forth on retrofits. And the results look quite positive, but bears further watching.

Mark ================================================ Article: 51177 of rec.autos.tech >From: mark@wdc.sps.mot.com (Mark Shaw)