Re: first, and poor, experience with online service booking
Posted: Wed Oct 06, 2021 7:32 pm
No No, even further back to at least 2000 VW Group and others had moved to to R134a, my 2000 VW Passat 4motion had R134a and my wife's 2002 VW Polo 1.4 16V both had R134a.grazuncle2 wrote: Tue Oct 05, 2021 9:01 pm That's what the salesman said when i took charge of my, then new, 9N3.. He told us to use the AC at least weekly to keeps seals in good condition.. Didn't understand what he meant at the time though..
Just discovered that the refrigerant in my old 9N3 is now banned a banned substance! R11 or R12.. a CFC. and yes the replacement apparently is a thinner gas and more likely to escape seals/hoses.
Also both these cars and all our cars since had variable displacement AC compressors so they get driven continuously by the engine, when not required their displacement is 5 > 10% when has been sized to always maintain an oil mist circulation so all plastic materials, seals and piping will not get dried out enough to leak more than the accepted amount 5 > 10% per annum even if the AC is never requested to provide chilling.
My wife had a 2002 VW Polo 9C from new, and its AC was only used in high summer if needed, and it never ever had its AC system topped up in the 13 years 105K miles that we owned it from new - though I'm sure that quite a lot of the R134a would have been lost across the plastic seals and pipes, though there was enough left to provide all the chilling in summer that we needed. My 2000 VW Passat again owned from new, was only regassed because I knew that it had a leak across a solid pipe join, I proved it existed with a frig gas sniffer and could see the slightly oily deposit at that point - VW ignored what I said and did a standard "regas" with "no leaks found - so it continued to leak more than necessary, but it also provided chilling when needed throughout its 13 years 85K miles with me.
My wife's current 2015 VW Polo 1.2TSI does have a leak in its AC system which I have yet to find, regassing it only keeps the chiller working for 6 months, and again when submitted for regassing it comes back fully charged, so using the standard recharge kit does indicate to the AC person that that system is still free of gross leaks and so fit to be recharged.
Edit:- it does seem to be the case that the latest version of AC gas for use in MAC systems is more prone to leaking across the seals/pipes than the previous R134a though!