Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

I am not sure wether engine or electronics is the right chapter, so I'll post it here:
I am thinking of doing an air conditioning service. As I am staying in Hoedspruit, the facilities are not so high-tech.
That means, the local a/c-company only checks and changes / fills the refrigerant, not the lubricant.

Does anybody have a clue how to check wether there is enough lubricant in the system? Did you ever refill the lubricant or did you also only refill refrigerant? Is i both filled through the same connectors?

Thanks for your advice!

I have never heard that you must use anything extra for the aircon service.

Are your aircon not cooling properly or do you want to just do preventative maintenance?
Just check the one before the radiator for grass and seeds that can make the system suffer

No, it would just be preventative maintenance.
It even sees xxx kg refrigerant and yyy (I think 300) ml lubricant on the sticker in the engine bay.
But maybe that is something you don't need to do often - to change the lubricant?

Your air-conditioning system is a closed system thus the oil does not escape from it; not like the gas that escapes through the rubber hoses, so you never need to add oil except if you got a broken hose, condenser or evaporator. I believe your system is charged with R134a gas so the oil is polyalkylene glycol (PAG)
or polyester at R244.00 a litre and you must flush the system with a special R141b flushing agent at R508.00 per litre then you need to replace the receiver drier. The oil and refrigerant mix in the system and runs through the whole air-conditioning system so it not a matter of topping up , it must be filled as per manufactures specifications before recharged with refrigerant so don't fix it if not broken, the oil is supposed to last the life of the vehicle same as with your fridge at home.
Johan

Hi Johan,
that is what I thought respectively hoped of, but I wasn't sure.

Thank you very much for your post, so I can only refill the refrigerant without bad feelings.

Best regards,


Florian

Hi Johan

Interesting post you made and very helpful.

Where can I purchase the refrigerant oil? I am in Pretoria area

Michael

Hi Michael.
You can get the oil from Macs spares in Krugersdorp http://www.macspares.co.za/refrigeratio ... 20a&page=2
You can also get these oils and consumables at Tecsa Raco , I am sure they may have a branch in Pretoria But make sure you get the right oil for your application these oils are not interchangeable ,The Poly oils are synthetic and the oils for home air conditioning that uses R22 gas as well as older automotive air conditioners and fridges using R12 gas uses mineral based oils . remember these synthetic oils do not store well so once open use it since it draws water .

Florian The only maintenance that you can do on your air conditioner is to periodically say every 14 days is to switch the unit on and run it for about 10 minutes while driving, the reason for that is I mentioned in previous posting is that the gas and oil is a mixture in your system and by circulating that the oil covers the inside of the hoses thus preventing the gas from escaping through the rubber (The same as a tyre getting flat over time).
Johan

Thanks Johan!