I've read that the P5's air conditioning is pretty hit or miss. I just bought an '02 and it was a miss, the a/c was pretty much just like blowing outside air. So after a little bit of discussion it was decided that I should try a recharge kit. So I took the old man down for a trip to Canadian Tire and picked up a "RED TEK 12a A/C Recharge & Retrofit Kit" - and at CAN$79 a possible steal compared to having a pro do it.
Like I said, my A/C was absolutely crap, basically blowing outside air, so we were pretty sure there was minimal refrigerant left in the system. The kit comes with 2 16oz 134a bottles and a 2oz leak stop - so one can and the leak stop would make 18 and hopefully anything left in the system would make up for the rest of the 21.2oz recommended in the Workshop Manual.
Following the instructions that came with the kit were quite easy and the whole thing may have taken 30 mins at the most. It does recommend you empty the system before you start so it may be a good idea to do that... Other snags included the LeakStop instructions not including the fact that the motor needed to be running, but that was pretty obvious. Then the handle on the valve broke off before we could even begin - the press fit was poorly done so a pair of vice grips replaced the handle early on. Other than those few things it was a simple fix.
And now for the important part - It actually worked! I was impressed by the whole system (well, except the valve handle). It was fast, low cost and it worked. After using the LeakStop can, only containing 2oz of refrigerant, there was a noticeable difference in the A/C performance. And after the using a whole refrigerant can it's blowing cold as ice! I would say it was $80 well spent!
Time will only tell if it was really worth it though, if the system was that low to begin with I could have a leak. But hopefully the LeakStop, which is pine scented, will take care of that. It also came with an 'A/C oil tester'. And that seemed to show everything was good.
Hope this helps if anyone else is thinking about an A/C recharge kit,
_matt
Like I said, my A/C was absolutely crap, basically blowing outside air, so we were pretty sure there was minimal refrigerant left in the system. The kit comes with 2 16oz 134a bottles and a 2oz leak stop - so one can and the leak stop would make 18 and hopefully anything left in the system would make up for the rest of the 21.2oz recommended in the Workshop Manual.
Following the instructions that came with the kit were quite easy and the whole thing may have taken 30 mins at the most. It does recommend you empty the system before you start so it may be a good idea to do that... Other snags included the LeakStop instructions not including the fact that the motor needed to be running, but that was pretty obvious. Then the handle on the valve broke off before we could even begin - the press fit was poorly done so a pair of vice grips replaced the handle early on. Other than those few things it was a simple fix.
And now for the important part - It actually worked! I was impressed by the whole system (well, except the valve handle). It was fast, low cost and it worked. After using the LeakStop can, only containing 2oz of refrigerant, there was a noticeable difference in the A/C performance. And after the using a whole refrigerant can it's blowing cold as ice! I would say it was $80 well spent!
Time will only tell if it was really worth it though, if the system was that low to begin with I could have a leak. But hopefully the LeakStop, which is pine scented, will take care of that. It also came with an 'A/C oil tester'. And that seemed to show everything was good.
Hope this helps if anyone else is thinking about an A/C recharge kit,
_matt
