Any one know anything about A/C?

[gatesj at mailblocks.com (John Gates)]

No, no flame here either, it's worth discussing..

I don't make the assertion that refill kits are injecting any 
appreciable amount of moist air into the system, it would only be in 
the hose and one would hope that a healthy dryer would take care of 
that.  What I'm saying is that if there is a leaky system and air has 
gotten into the leak (system very low, expansion and contraction of 
gasses inside the system from ambient temp changes causing it to expel 
and then suck in air over time) and someone refills it, you get this 
situation.  I definitely know of a few people who are friends who found 
their system empty in the later springtime and went to crap-mart to get 
a refill kit.  Who knows what was in the system and what happened in 
there in the weeks or months that it would run before it got low 
again...

Of course, here in the north country, people don't use their A/C from 
October to April at least, so there is plenty of time for it to leak 
down to nothing unnoticed.

It just seems suspicious, that's all.

I definitely can't claim to have heard about A4 VW or other marques 
having problems, but I haven't been reading a lot lately..

As far as Canada/US, etc, I don't know the reasoning, if you're asking 
a rhetorical question, what IS the answer?  I am curious!  Would the 
Canadian government mandate that use of a certain chemical be avoided 
because it causes damage to components?  Is that under their purview?  
I could understand if they mandated against its use because of 
environmental impacts...

The core question is, then, why are A4 VW's affected in such 
quantities, when we have been using R-134a in VW and other vehicles 
since the early 90's?  Is there a problem with recent lots of the gas, 
lubricant, or is there a design defect in the latest systems?  Or is 
something else at work like the consumer going to crap-mart and buying 
recharge kits?  Or a combination of all three?  R-134a has been working 
fine for over a decade as far as I know, though I certainly could have 
missed something..

John Gates
--
'85 Scirocco
'97 Jetta GLX

-----Original Message-----
From: David Utley <fahrvegnugen@cox.net>
To: John Gates <gatesj@mailblocks.com>; sukchew@cox-internet.com; 
timjmcconnell@gmail.com; Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
Sent: Mon, 20 Jun 2005 14:24:32 -0400
Subject: Re: Re: Any one know anything about A/C?


>
> From: John Gates <gatesj@mailblocks.com>
> Date: 2005/06/20 Mon AM 11:29:56 EDT
\

 If 134a was corrosive by itself it seems like it would be
> corrosive on all different types of vehicles.

The only thing I can quibble with directly is this.  I sent a note 
directly to
you, I assume you did not get it...  The corrosion is indeed from 
moisture
making its' way into the system.  As to whether it is the oil or the 
gas that it
mixes with to make the corrosive, I dunno.  However, the possibility of 
moisture
making its' way into the system by way of refill kits is a more than 
plausible
scenario.  However, the frequency of it seems unlikely as I 
mentioned...  Also,
I believe there are other vehicles that are having trouble, not just 
VW.  In the
meantime I cannot find the link I keep mentioning...  :-(


Also, if R134 is okay, why do you think Canada does not allow it in 
their
vehicles?  Also, why do you think we are the only country that -does- 
use it?

No flammage intended here either John...  :-)

David

'83 GTI, Daily Driver...
'87 16V, parts car
'82 pickup, 2.0 16V, collecting dust...