A/C question

[E30Nova]

Try a black car with a black interior. Swapping to a tan interior made a massive difference, but it's still a fuckin oven. I definitely feel your pain. :(

Also, does anyone know the proper way to recharge the system? I've seen people say to just get one of those cheap $5 can taps and put a couple cans of R12 in and call it a day. I want to do it right and make sure I have the right pressures and such, but I can't find any places that sell R12 gauges/hoses....or a guide that says what the ideal pressure ranges are...

Matt

[Dude]

Try a black car with a black interior. Swapping to a tan interior made a massive difference, but it's still a fuckin oven. I definitely feel your pain. :(

Also, does anyone know the proper way to recharge the system? I've seen people say to just get one of those cheap $5 can taps and put a couple cans of R12 in and call it a day. I want to do it right and make sure I have the right pressures and such, but I can't find any places that sell R12 gauges/hoses....or a guide that says what the ideal pressure ranges are...

Matt

Wondering all this stuff too. Im having trouble finding a tutorial specific to recharging e30's

[Eric Giles]

A few years back I was able to find a set of R12 manifold gauges at the local Carquest parts store for around $80. They are available online at many places-here is a quick search I pulled up on ebay for some:

http://bit.ly/9risYp

As far as recharging the system it's really no different on an E30 than it is any other car. Hook the high and low side lines of the gauge set to the respective lines on the E30 making sure both valves are closed. The center line of the gauge set is where you connect your can of refrigerant. Start the car, jumper the low side pressure switch on the receiver/dryer so that the compressor will kick on (assuming you have no charge in the system currently) and then slowly open the low side valve on the gauge set. The compressor should start slowly pulling in the refrigerant into the system if it is working properly.

Note that its a good idea to put the can of refrigerant into a bowl of warm to hot water as this allows the charging process to happen a bit faster. Note that I didn't mention anything about pulling a vacuum on the system since I take it you won't be replacing any of the current parts like o-rings, receiver drier, etc. Just remember if or when you do start replacing a/c parts, you MUST pull a full vacuum on the system for a minimum of 30 minutes before you recharge or it's just not going to work well at all. You don't want air in any a/c system. Then again, if your refrigerant has already leaked out, you probably already have air in the system anyway...

[E30Nova]

Yeah I pulled a vacuum on it when I was in college and it was completely empty, so I plan on replacing all the o-rings, txv and drier anyway. Thanks for the tips. :)

Matt