When thinking about the topic of A/C diagnostic tools, a recovery, recycle, recharge machine (R/R/R machine) is not one of the first tools that comes to mind. It may not come to mind at all in the world of inexperienced technicians.
Motor vehicles have become increasingly more complex over the last two decades to meet the ever-tightening emissions regulations and increased fuel economy requirements, as well as passenger comfort and safety.
This added complexity means technicians are flooded with additional data when diagnosing faults on vehicles. Below is a table outlining the difference between a modern vehicle and a vehicle from 20 years ago. This is only a high-level example to illustrate the differences
There was a group of several refrigerants which were blends with a high percentage of R-134a and a smaller percentage of R-142 that seemed to be the most popular.
It could be a challenging year keeping adequate supplies of R-134a on hand and it will be more expensive.
A large percentage of MACS members have refrigerant identifiers and use of them on vehicles that come into their shop for A/C service prior to beginning any service work is standard procedure.
However, there are a lot of non-MACS member shops who do not have identifiers and unfortunately are not aware of the potential issues which can be caused by refrigerant contamination.
As mentioned in last week’s article, the first thing I did with the machine was check the pressure of the refrigerant in the tank. It was extremely high (well over 400 PSI) indicating there was a refrigerant contamination problem.
What type of condenser is in that vehicle? It’s a frequent question in the mobile A/C industry.
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Independent garages have been slow to make the investment in equipment to work on R-1234yf systems, and many car dealers’ service departments couldn’t be happier about that. When the car…
