Hey TeeQue,
I have several high pressure and low pressure valves you are referring to as Shrader valves. They are easily replaceable in the system and have connections that allow this to be done for maint purposes.
It is recommended that if you replace ANY parts in your system that you change the r-12 black rubber O-Rings to the high pressure resistant R134 green ones at that time.
When your ready, the cheeap way to go is to Vacuum the system and see if the vacuum holds for 1 hour. If the vacuums holds charge the system with several cans of R134 and some Dye and put a manifold gauge on the system (BGB Page AC-12) to check again for leaks . If it holds pressure, charge all the way up to specs-(Low side 21-28psi, High side 206-213psi).
If it leaks buy a black light bulb, turn off the lights at night and look for the "Glowing" dye leakages, you cannot miss this glow in the night mess.
Generally, if you see bubbles in the "sight glass" of the dryer (accumulator) you need more R-134. Be cool when adding this R-134 from a "can" you could over charge this system and it will EXPLODE.
Congrats on owning your mr2 3 years more than me, I thought I was the only fossil on the planet with this original owner title.
I am old school and believe in "don't fix it if it ain't broke", you can replace all the O-rings in this system but there are so many it took me 3 days (30 Hours)to do this on the racecar and I'll never do it again.
Here's some stored parts I have that you could need.
Tim
Supercharzed Toyz Raczing
Boca Raton, Fl
PS--- AC Compressor rebuild was $175 for the "limited edition" SC unit with the revolution detector sensor in the bottom.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tq_mr2
Hi Fellow Mk1 owners,
I am the original owner of a 85 MR2 with 245,000 miles. The air conditioning started leaking about 3 years ago such that I had to refill with R12 each summer. (BTW this is NOT illegal, if you are EPA certified and can get old cans of freon. It is illegal to make new freon, but not to use up the remaining stocks of it.)
I believe the leak is coming from the Shrader valves. These aren't expensive, but you need to drain the system to replace them. My dilemma is, suppose I fix the valves and find out the compressor seals are bad. I may be throwing good money after bad. On the other hand, the A/C system in the MR2 is extremely high quality IMHO, since it lasted 20 years with only 1 refill before it started having chronic leaks.
My question is: How many of you Mark 1 owners have working A/Cs?
Did anyone try converting to the freon replacement, R134? How much did it cost and are you satisfied with it? How long did it last?
--Tom
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