Sorry I put easter oil instead of ester.
Also I forgot to mention that Honda uses PAG for ALL R134a systems.

 

Nope your wrong...hehe , Ester oil is POE oil, mineral oil is something else. In any case, mineral is supposed to be used for lubing the o-rings and seals in any a/c system for installation, unless otherwise specified by the manufactor. Toyota's most often use POE oils in their a/c systems, even in some of the R-12 systems. Honda's is PAG as you said.

 

Damn my sheltered Honda life. I'm wrong! Okay well at least they are informed. I can accept it. It sucks working for one type of car cause you end up only knowing or in my case paying attention to one brand of cars. I tell myself Honda's are the best cars so of course I don't pay attention if It's not related to what Honda is doing.

 

Well, I'm biased too since I was remembering a R-12 to 134 conversion on an '89 Saab. So I did a little checking...

Mineral oil was original in that R-12 system.
Ester (also called POE) oil is used in the conversion kit.
Ester oil is also used in newer Saabs which have never had R-12 or mineral oil.
PAG oil isn't the same thing as POE...

By now Momobile is probably rolled up in a fetal position in the corner wondering what to do... So should he just get it evacuated & add the R-134a? Or does he really need to remove the compressor & drain it?

 

I tried to recharge my r12. I dont know how long it should take. i am not sure what im even doing. The dirictions had very little infomation. Any body know any thing that could help me. Im using this kit i bought off ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7909914156&catego ry=46094

 

Hi all, I have no idea what the year of the Prelude was but the compressor is identical to the Accord one so it is probably a R12 also. Locally I was suggested also to use the PAG. I seem to have everything, knowledge wise, that I need except how to drain the compressor with it on the car.

 

I just had mine recharged. You can tell if it needs recharging by looking at the dryer (front of the engine compartment). There is a little window you can look in. If you see foam swirling around..it usually needs a recharge. Happened to me about 2 weeks ago. Anyway, I could not find anyone to recharge my old R12 refrigerant except for Tires Plus. In some counties, it's actually illegal for a repair facility to recharge the old R12 due to EPA standards and such. I had a slight leak they fixed and recharged for $200. Blows hella cold now though!

 

The A/C is fixed, many thanks to everyone for the advice!

 

What did you end up doing? I wish I could have known for sure whether you REALLY needed to drain the compressor or not...

And for CJITTY... The sight-glass method doesn't work for R-134a. Newer cars that came with this don't have a sight-glass (at least mine don't). So if you've converted, you probably shouldn't trust it.

 

Really the PROPER method when retrofitting is to place a new compressor in, unless the old and new oil used are of the same type (i.e., a good amount of Toyota's old systems use POE oils and so do the newer systems, which also is compatible for the two types of refrigerants)

Newer systems DO actually have sight glasses, don't know why because it's point less, but they do.