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Forum Index : Off topic archive. : What a week.
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5036 |
Well its been a hell of a week. The bloody dog went missing. I came home on Tuesday to find "Nelly" had some how got off her chain. Thats ok I thought, she goes for little adventures occasionally and will be back in a couple of hours. 10pm that night, no dog! Didn't get much sleep. Next day I went to work as usual, but by 9am I had to come home and start looking. Still no dog. So I printed out about 50 flyers and delivered them to all the local letter boxes. I also phoned the local pounds and RSPCA. Wednesday night came and went, no dog. Thursday I started phoning the local vets and put adds in the local newspaper. Thursday night, no dog. Friday I had to take the car in to get the air conditioner fixed. They phoned me about 10am to say the compressor had died, and it was also running the old R12 gas. $1400 to fix. Now this was a bad week. Needless to say I now wind the windows down. 11am I did my daily phone around of the pounds.. "Yes we have a dog like that" It was her. Cost me $76 to get her back, but I didn't care. Nelly now has a laser cut stainless dog tag with her name and my phone number. And I dont care about the air conditioner in the car!
The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| brucedownunder2 Guru  Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548 |
She's worth every cent
what a beautiful dog , but sorry about the air-conditioner,me thinks you will be fixing it yourself,I bet you could get one from a wrecker,exchange it ,of course the old ones gas has ALL leaked out -pity that-- then check around for a evac+gas for the replaced one. bet you come out sweeter than 1400. I saw some 50mm link gal chain at the recyclers the other day -you want a hundred metres for Nell? bet she wouldn't stray more than the letter box !!! Bruce Bushboy |
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Chris Senior Member  Joined: 12/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 146 |
My dad gets his car airconditioner regassed pretty cheap thru some guy that does fridge regassing. You should look into it... Its probably a much cheaper alternative. |
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Ricco Newbie  Joined: 14/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3 |
Hello Gizmo, One of my mates is a refrigeration/air conditioning mechanic, he has been at it all of his adult life (he's 59 now). The R12 systems used mineral based oils for lubrication. The reason you were quoted $1200 is that most repair shops use R134A gas, it is not compatible with mineral oils so the compressor has to be taken off and the old oil drained out, while its off the front seal is replaced, new Poly Alkalene Glycol (PAG) oil is then run into the compressor, after passing a leak test it is re installed, 'All' of the old black neoprene 'o' rings have to be replaced as R134A will rot them away. This includes those on the input to the evaporator, which is a nightmare on its own to get at on some cars. Then the whole system is flushed out with flushing gas, a new filter dryer is installed, then a test vacuum applied to the complete system. If it holds that OK for 30 minutes (no leaks) then the vacuum is replaced by dry nitrogen at 100 psi for another 30 minutes. If any leaks are discovered, and many are, they are tracked down and repaired, and then the vacuum/nitrogen process is repeated. Finally the refrigerant is charged into the system. As you can appreciate this whole process takes time especially if a slow leak is discovered in the final stages, hence the high $$$$'s. To avoid this long arduous process my friend Doug has for many years used SP34E gas as a legal replacement for the now banned R12 gas. In NSW SP34E is distributed by Kirby Refrigeration. Most importantly the SP34E is compatible with mineral oils so there is no need to clean out the compressor or replace all of the o rings etc, just fix the leak, replace the dryer, do the vac test, nitrogen pressure test, charge with SP34E, it is a drop in replacement gas. All up this will usually cost the customer about $235 this includes the new dryer, a lot less than $1200. Unfortunately the price of SP34E has been incrementing at a rapid rate, so I have been following up a lead that another refrigeration mechanic gave me in relation to using Hydrocarbon gases as refrigerants. This led me to the University of NSW web site - school of mechanical engineering, in 1997 they conducted extensive testing into using hydrocarbon gases as replacements for R12, snip of saved data follows: "The hydrocarbons, ethane, propane, isobutane, normal butane, isopentane and normal pentane, occur naturally in petroleum. They and their mixtures are commonly used as refrigerants. Their refrigerant numbers are 170, 290, 600a, 600, 601a and 601 respectively. Hydrocarbon refrigerants are popular and safe with simple precautions. Over 20 million user years in car air conditioners between 1991 and 2000 gave no personal injury or property damage from the flammability of hydrocarbon refrigerants." Fortunately as at 1st September 2005 NSW fell into line with Victoria, South Aust & West Aust. in allowing Hydrocarbon refrigerants to be legally used in automotive air conditioning systems. An Australian company Hychill has been supplying Vict. SA & WA for some years, they have a complete line up of drop in replacement gases so at last the Dupont Flourocarbon monopoly has been broken in NSW. In your case the gas to use is HR12, check out http://www.hychill.com.au/. After much badgering on my part Doug has now fully swung over to using HR12 and is extremely pleased with it. As a side issue the molecules of HR12 (butane etc) are larger than the old R12, so if you had a slow leak with R12 most probably the HR12 won't leak at all. I recently repaired a leak and recharged my brothers Sumitomo excavator (R134A system) with HR12 and now he is complaining it is too cold. The Hychill range is distributed in NSW and Victoria by Bursons (the car parts/accessories shops). A few years back I re charged my brothers Falcon Ute R12 system (it had a slow leak) with plain old propane/LPG and it was still in it and working when he sold it a couple of years later. You probably won't have access to a vac pump, nitrogen, drop charger or a set of gauges. So a rough and ready DIY method follows. With the engine running add LPG vapour into the compressor suction side Schrader valve until the gas bubbles just stop flowing past the sight glass on top of the filter dryer. This will then be an overcharge as you only need one third as much gas with hydrocarbon as compared to R12 & R134A. So then bleed out the gas until the bubbles just begin to re form, this will be close enough. Let me know if you need more info. The archived Uni info etc on my hard drive is 35m/b so I can post you a CD if you want it. Kind regards, Ricco. Ricco |
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Pt w/field Matt Senior Member Joined: 24/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 105 |
hi Glenn go and the wrecker boys with a vacced out gas tank and suck some r12 out of the old cars,you can make a vac pump out of old fridge or aircond compressors,for guages i use oil/air pressure guages and ball valves with no4 jic hydraulic fittings/hoses matt down south |
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Highlander Senior Member Joined: 03/10/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
Hey Glenn, glad to hear about the dog. You don't realize how much you love the little buggers till they go missing or get sick. I had the same problem with one of my vehicles, I got quoted enormous amounts to fix it then one guy gave me a price of a few hundred, I'll find out what gas he used. Anyway it works ok but not as well as the old gas. PS Has Nell been microchipped? Central Victorian highlands |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5036 |
One of the "features" of this forum is it will display any message with a recent reply at the top of the list. This has its good points and bad points. The original post was in October 2005. I ended up getting the air conditioner fixed a few months ago, before it started to warm up. After spending last summer without the air conditioner, I made a promise to myself I would fix it before the next summer. They had to replace the compressor and dryer, flush it out and regas, ended up at $950. The car has been a bit of trouble over the last year, cost more to fix than it is worth, but hopefully it will last a couple more years. I would like to keep it longer, but the plastic is falling apart like it does in modern cars. No microchip in Nell, but thats a good idea incase she looses her collar. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| dwyer Guru Joined: 19/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 573 |
Hi Gimzo L have same problem with the council over dog register and got me nearly $200 fine was send by state revenue and just like try to kidnap my dog and demand money in exhange for dog release. Thank to Ricco for explaining most intersting about . In your case the gas to use is HR12 and will pass on to my nephew who is refrigerants machanic Dwyer the bushman |
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