Find It, Filter It, Flush It!

This time of year we get many calls asking how to handle sealant that has been installed in vehicle AC systems.  While there is no “One Size Fits All” solution, there are some basic steps that should be taken to minimize the risk and maximize any rewards.

To better understand the problem, let’s walk through the process of getting sealant into a system.

The process starts when Mr. Joe “Backyard” Mechanic comes home from a hard day’s work only to find his wife waiting at the door to tell him the AC in the car was not working.  Joe promises to get it taken care of over the weekend and offers to swap cars with her until it is fixed.  The weekend arrives and Joe jumps in her car to go and wait at the door of his local auto parts store until they open.  The young man behind the counter, let’s call him Sparky, listens to Joe’s description of the problem, grabs a gauge set from the drawer and checks the refrigerant pressure in the system.  Alas the gauge reads “0” and Sparky relays both the bad news and the good news to Joe.  The bad news is the refrigerant leaked out.  The good news is that the store is having a sale on “AC Magic in a Can” and Joe can have his wife’s beloved car blowing ice cold air in no time.  Sparky explains that “AC Magic in a Can” is the leading brand of DIY refrigerant and comes with a handy gauge so Joe can tell when the system is fully charged.  As a bonus, this product includes sealants capable of sealing small leaks in both metal and rubber parts as well as dye and oil.  Joe purchases two cans and drives home to get the problem fixed.

After arriving home, Joe meticulously reads the directions and before he knows it, the AC is blowing cold again.  Until Monday when Joe returns from work only to find his wife again waiting at the door after driving home with no AC.  Joe had bought two cans at the store so he jumps into action.  He reviews the directions again, installs the new can of AC Magic and gets the AC blowing cold again……Until Tuesday, when the AC in the wife’s car once again fails to provide cold air.  At this point, Joe decides the time has come to make an appointment with his trusted mechanic to get the problem fixed once and for all.

So now that this vehicle has a double dose of sealant inside that has not been able to seal the leaking system what next?  It is important to realize that DIY customers will not always tell you everything you may need to know.  Even if you ask the right questions, many DIYers will be too proud or embarrassed to tell you what they tried in their driveway.

Find It!

The first step to deal with sealant is to find it.  Using a sealant detector is an important step because it will tell you if there is any active sealant in the system that is capable of sealing a very small leak.  It is important to note that there are some sealants that just do not work or at least, do not work very well.

Filter It!

If sealant is found in the system, it is very important to have good filtration between the vehicle and the AC Service Machine.  Airsept Filters are designed to prevent sealant from getting to your AC Service Machine allowing safe recovery of any refrigerant remaining in the system.

Flush It!

After the refrigerant has been recovered, it is critical that all of the oil be flushed from the system.  This may require the individual components to be flushed independently.  Hecat specializes in flushing solutions and offers a range of products designed for the most demanding applications.

In the end, all systems with sealant can be successfully repaired.  Some will need almost all new parts while others will need only a leak repaired and a complete and thorough flush.  Knowing what you are dealing with is the first and most important step in the whole process. 

When “Standards” are not so standard, the result is often confusion, high cost, and chaos.

Just the other day, I looked at the back of a power supply we use and found no less than eleven, yes, eleven certification marks printed in tiny little letters on the back.  Confused, I looked up a few of them only to find out they were certifying the same thing, just for different countries.  Who would ever have known that a 12 VDC, 1.5A output power supply could be so different to so many different people?  “PSE” for Japan, “UL” for the USA, “CUL” for Canada, “TUV” for Europe and the list goes on and on, and on again.

It is not just Power Supplies, my lawn mower clearly says not for use in California or Australia presumably because the certification requirements there are different.  Try buying a car in Europe and importing it to the USA.  You will need waivers and approvals and exemptions because their safety rules are different from ours.  Perhaps their asphalt is different or the sun is brighter or, the available steel to make guard rails is a little more brittle, but who knows, why something required in one country is not good enough for another.

In 2011 I was invited to Germany to discuss new standards for R-1234yf.  I came loaded with previous experience, examples, data and informed opinions.  I left there bewildered at the response to my presentation and wondering what the group I met with was thinking.  Was it a language barrier?  Was it my attitude?  How about an outside influence that presented before me, could that be it?  To this day, I can only surmise that I was viewed as the pompous American before I had even walked in the door and if I said the grass was green and the sky blue they would insist it was the opposite.  But I digress.  After multiple visits to Europe and numerous prototypes designed to meet the letter of their requirements, we had our European certification despite the flaws in the specification and the challenges posed by it in the real world.  Then came the SAE where I was in more familiar territory and a significantly more receptive audience to the same previous experience, examples, data and informed opinions.  In this group, a standard was formed that required the development of a practical tool for use in the real world.  So today we sit with different standards for AC Service Machines, Refrigerant Analysis and Leak Detection between Europe and the USA.  Different components, different software, different servicing and maintenance and last but certainly not least, higher cost for all.

CO2 Refrigerant May Be Coming But Don't Hold Your Breath

Peter Coll, Neutronics Inc.

Daimler (Mercedes Benz) says to expect CO2 Air Conditioning Systems to begin arriving in their vehicles by January 2017, if that’s going to happen; they have a long way to go.

The story has been told many times.  A 2006 Law in Europe banning future cars from using R134a leads to the selection of R-1234yf by all car makers.  A lack of supply of the chosen refrigerant gives the car makers a one year reprieve during 2012 and then the shocking Daimler announcement in late September of 2012 that they would not use R-1234yf for safety reasons.  Creative videos, misleading claims, lawsuits, patent challenges, loopholes in the Type Approval process, a French ban on sales of Daimler cars, test after test after test and now the European Court of Justice; it has been a roller coaster ride at best and on some days, a Hollywood horror movie.

So here we are nearly 2 years removed from the Daimler announcement and at the surface, the entire situation has calmed significantly.  The European Commission is preparing their infringement case against Germany for allowing R-1234yf type approved cars to be filled and sold with R-134a.  The R-1234yf implementation by others continues to progress albeit at a far slower pace than was first thought and both the supply and price of R-1234yf remain high.  A few million cars on the road and no reports of spontaneous combustion due to R-1234yf although there have been a boatload of R-134a car fires caused by those other flammable substances under the hood.  I digress….  As Chrysler, GM, Honda, BMW and others introduce their R1234yf cars, Daimler stands hard and fast in the CO2 camp.  Please don’t get me wrong, CO2 is a fine refrigerant, for the Alps, where it never gets over 81⁰F (27⁰C), on a bus, with excess horsepower and lots of space to put in the system.  But CO2 is a real challenge for the global passenger car market where operation in the 100% Humidity of Miami or the 120⁰F (49⁰C) temperatures of Arizona is needed on a daily basis.  You see, cooling capacity is a problem for CO2 that will take years to overcome if it can even be done without breaking the bank.

At the moment, there are no published standards for CO2 systems to be used in passenger cars although some are in process.  From experience, I can tell you that these types of standards are tedious, require the participation of numerous groups and seemingly take forever to get done.  Even then, our industry often ends up with multiple standards based on geographical location, often with subtle but costly differences.  That’s a whole new story that we’ll explore next time.

#1234yf #Daimler #DuPont #Honeywell