Rep Power: 0

Hello all. I'm about to replace my punctured condenser and receiver/drier. I went to autozone to rent the vacuum pump to evacuate the system and noticed two types of Pag 46 oils. One was in a pourable form and the other was in a compressed form mixed with some r134a. Do I assemble the condenser and pour the pag in, then seal everything up then evacuate the system and fill with r134a OR do I seal everything, evacuate, then use the compressed can to put the oil in then the r134a? I'm just not sure if the oil should be like a gas when it goes in and/or if it will be sucked out if I evacuate the system after pouring it in. Any help would be appreciated.
Regards,
Steve

 
Rep Power: 262

You can not legally buy enough r134a to fill your system,(you can not fill your system with the little bottles that they sell, you need to buy a 30# bottle to completly fill it) you can install all the parts then have a shop fill the system. As for the oil(there is some oil in the r134a when you fill the system with it), you need to measure the oil that came out of the system so you do not over sill the system, which if you put to much oil in you can clog the system and even blow the compressor. One more thing is that I dont think autozone rents the correct evacutation machine, they cost like $15,000.00 new and you also need the manifold gauge set to correctly read what your system is doing. any more questions just ask.

 
Rep Power: 0

Actually...
There are extensive writeups on the web (honda-tech.com has one) that talk about doing it yourself. Autozone does rent the correct vacuum. Part number is 90062. Not all of them have it. You create a vacuum down to -28mmHg and leave it there for an hour. Samsclub sells the 30lb containers of r134a. It's not illegal or difficult to obtain. That is WAY too much though. The 95 Civic ONLY takes 600-650 GRAMS of r134a for the ENTIRE system and ONLY 5 OUNCES of Pag oil. That is why the little bottles that autozone sells (and Samsclub, and many other stores) is MORE than enough. The only thing I still can't find is how to put the oil in. Pour or squirt. R12, on the other hand is illegal to purchase, unless you are buying recycled R12 or old stock, but even then it's expensive and you need a license. Hope that clarifies a bit.
Regards.
Steve

 
Rep Power: 262

Well I just got done with my cert. test to handle r134a and if you get caught messing around without a cert. you can be fined heavily. Just to let ou know. The oil usually goes into the compressor first, just take off one of the lines going to it a fill from there. Good luck filling a a/c system without the correct scales or metering devices.