Hi, all. Well, my sister's '92 940GL has undergone a transmission transplant. I wrote a few weeks ago for advice about this. It DID turn out to be the tranny (non-turbo auto with only 108K miles on it). She had a used tranny (from a turbo with 70K miles) installed and the car runs great now. This is just the update, my real question, as the subject indicates is about A/C on pre-1993 Volvos. My sister's A/C needed to be cahrged and I asked the mechanic to look into it while he was under the hood doing the tranny. He recommended converting the fittings on the existing R-12 system to be able to charge it with R-134. He said that it works and R-134 is cheaper and, more importantly, more readily available. So, my sister agreed and he went ahead and did the conversion after making sure the system held vaccuum. I picked up the car from him for my sister and it was pretty warm out and A/C seemed to work like a champ (it was in the mid 70's, so the jury is still out on when it's in the high 90s). This conversion did not cost very much, so I am thinking of doing the same to my wife's '91 240. Does anyone have any more experience than I with this? Is it ok to just put R-134 into the R-12 system? I understand that some efficiency may be lost, but other than that are there issues?

Thanks in advance!

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Vladimir. '98 S70 base, 5-speed manual (his), '91 240 sedan automatic (hers).

Thaks everyone for the responses. I am very glad that the system is upgradable. I am not sure if my wife's A/C is not leaking (just got the car this past winter). If it is not, I will go ahead with the conversion. I will scope out the proces on the Volvo kit. I need to order some maintanace parts for my S70 (40K service), so I'll be calling volvoparts.com (very nice place for a dealer mail order genuine Volvo stuff).

Thanks a lot again.

P.S. If anyone has a part number for the Volvo A/C retrofit kit I would appreciate it.

Cheers!
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Vladimir. '98 S70 base, 5-speed manual (his), '91 240 sedan automatic (hers).

You have to replace certain parts, of course.

Dryer
fixed orifice tube
O-rings
flush mineral oil and replace with ester oil

Other than that, if you vacuum it out well, it should be an excellent system. It was designed exactly the same as the later 240 A/C systems that ran on 134a from the factory. There are condenser fan upgrades (free, take a few minutes) that help a lot.
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Chris Herbst, near Chicago.

Vlad,
I just had the 1985 245 A/C renovated by my indy mechanic. He used 12a but tolsd me that the conversion to 134 is dead simple. A couple of very inexpensive fittings and a new drier/receiver and you are done. I replace the expansion valve (due to it being plugged) and the drier/receiver (incidentally, the part can be used for either type of freon) for a whopping $144 CDN. Labour/freon took the entire tab to $294 CDN. Now it is icy cold in the wagoon.

Get the retrofit kit from Volvo , it includes all kinds of goodies you won't get in and aftermarket kit ( like a new evaporator, expansion valve a hose etc.). It's costy but wort it ( Borton Volvo has a good price and I understand that FCP groton is carrying it for a little less now)