Last year toward the end of the summer I noticed one day that my A/C doesn't work. It's a 1993 SC400 so I'm on crappy R12, nobody wants to test my A/C. Wondering what I should do?

 

get a refrigerent check to see if its empty or not check the plugs on the compressor and if its empty have them do the retrofit and vacuum it down and add pag oil and recharge it and find the leak

 

My thoughts exactly. Change it over to R134A and forget the R12. Pull a vacuum down and add dye and see for the stuff to appear. It may be in your dash, condenser, or compressor. Good luck. I know that Firestone does the changeover.

 

just make sure they flush the system out and get rid of the R12 oil (as much as possible) before you convert to R134a.

 

I honestly didn't mind just refilling with R12 because I was probably going to sell this SC, but is there anyway definitive way I could know that all it needs is freon and not a new compressor / condenser?

 

if the compressor doesn't click on chances are it's low on freon/refrigrant.

to check for a leak you'll need to do a small charge with some dye and check if there's anything leaking.

unfortuntely if you want to keep it at R12 you'll need to pick up some R12 so you can do a small charge and check for leaks. then you'll need to fix the leak and then recharge. freon doesn't get used up. if you just add more R12 and not fix the leak then your AC will soon be warm again.

R12 is only avail to certified HVAC people.

 

r-12s expensive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I know, but the way I see it is a R12 recharge is probably going to cost me the the same, if not less, than a R134a retrofit. I know long term the R134a conversion is definitely worth it, but for the sake of selling, that won't be my concern.

 

I had a recharge early last year and it was 89 bucks a ounce. It took 2 ounces to top it off, it was empty. Its very expensive. The retrofit changeover was only 80 bucks for me.

 

I would gladly pay 80 bucks to have it retrofitted, but who can do it for that price in my area?

 

DIY the retrofit. Darn easy and you can rent free of charge the vacume pump and ac gauge set from AutoZone. Ton's of info on the net and youtube on how to do this DIY, no biggy.