Hey fellas, I have a quik question. I have a 1993 SC400 and I believe I have the old version of the A/C which is the R12 I think. But anyway,,,, I've been searching this forum and found that alot of people don't like it because they cause problems. My question is: what is the downfalls of having the old A/C and what can I do to prevent bad things from happening to it? Also, I just had my radiator changed out last september and I noticed a couple of things: I get a smell of bad odor coming from the vents every now and then and It takes forever for my car to get cold air coming from the vents. So I had the A/C recharged and had the mechanic put something in the A/C to clear out the smell. It cleared the smell out alittle but it still takes a long time for my car to get cold air. Why is this?

 

More than likely your AC is dying, I have a 93 and mines quit at 100k miles. Your freon is probably leaking, look for a shop or go to Lexus. From experience with Lexus your looking at spending at least $1k for a new compressor, dryer, recharge system. Lucky for me I had an extended warranty.

 

Oh ok. I figured that it might be dying. But whats the downside of having the old A/C which is the R12? Whats the difference between the new and old?

 

r12 costs a **** load more than r134a. Just get your a/c system converted over to r134

 

You're just low on freon. No big deal..just get it recharged. You can still buy R12 in cans if you get a license to buy it. I took the test online , it took me about 3 hours to take the lesson. Now I can walk into any parts store and buy Freon. It's pricey- 25-40 a can, but works still works better than a r134 retrofit.

 

R12 is much better. It is triple cold compared to 134. there's no difference between 134 and 12 on failure rate it's all just charged gas, nothing changes about your AC pump. They changed the connector fitting to accept an R134 fitting for the pressure tank to fill up, and swap your reciever dryer for a new one and you are recharged. Neither gas will produce a failure before the other and no compnents inline change.

 

so why would they change over to the 134 if the r112 is better? Weird

 

I just had my R12 A/C recharged ($100!). Interior feels like a refrigerator again . As far as I know, R12 contains CFC and is considered to cause damage to the ozone layer. That's why many countries have restricted or even banned R12. In Germany, for example, R12 is banned altogether. If you run out of it, you have no choice but to convert to R134. Luckily for me, Switzerland has not reached the modern age yet and still allows the use of R12.

Anyway, no need to convert to R134 if not legally required, as the conversion is pretty expensive and the A/C probably won't be as cold as before. At least this is what the A/C guy told me.

 

Is it suppose to take a while for the r12 version to kick in cuz sometimes in the extreme heat, it doesn't cool off fast. Think I have a leak or compressors going bad but it gets cold though. just takes a while.