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The AC in my '93 MX-3 (4 cyl) went out a few weeks ago. A friend of mine and I located a leak in the high pressure line, running off of the compressor. It looks like simply replacing the XXXX line (which is where the leak is) will take care of it. <p>But, this brings up the question of R12 refrigerent, and the advisability of converting to R134. I found some discussion on this on the Yahoo MX-3 list, and am particularly interested in whether or not anyone has used a conversion kit, draining the oil in the compressor but not doing much else, refilling with R134. Any experience with this sort of conversion?

you have to be kinda careful. i had my mechanic friend do it. took about half an hour. you need to have the whole system drained completely of r12. and all of the oil in the compressor also i think. i definitely had a leak in my system so when he was recharging my system with r134a we just added some stop leak into the system along with the charge and it worked GREAT. it's NOT supposed to be the best idea because r134a more of a high pressure system, but if you dont have the money to spend on fixing that line...go for it. just be careful.

Retrofiting to R-134a is no big deal if the shop does two things: (1) removes ALL the R-12 and the old compressor oil out of the system prior to recharging using R-134a and the new compressor oil and (2) charge the system with the correct amount of R-134a. If the system is properly purged of the "old stuff" and the correct amount of R-134a is used your system will work great. My 92 MX-3 with a retrofitted system blows cold air at 42 degrees in hot southern California.