What is needed amount of coolant for conditioner?

[valdisvi]

Can anybody tell, what is needed amount of coolant for conditioner?
I suspect my car doesn't have enough, because it is 8 years old I hear bubbling sounds, when it is working (and any cavitation means, there is not enough pressure in liquid). I could add coolant at my local car service, but they don't know, how much is needed, and I couldn't find any information in car repair manual.

 

[kiev]

There should be a little yellow tag along the upper edge of the hood opening that lists the A/C specs. Mine has this info:

Charge HFC-134a 11.5 oz (0.325kg)
Lubricant MA68EV

There is also some instructions molded into the plastic of the air duct to the left of the battery that says to access the charge port, to remove the battery cover and the duct in that order.

i can post some pictures if necessary.

 

[Don]

When you add refrigerant to an existing A/C system (or even a brand new one for that matter) you don't do it by measuring the amount - You add refrigerant until the pressures are correct. If you take it to any A/C shop who knows what they're doing, they can A.) Check to see if the refrigerant is low and B.) Add refrigerant if needed to bring the charge up to the correct amount - They won't need to know the total capacity of the system. There is some amount already in there, so you only need to add the amount that's missing . . . . not the full amount of the system capacity

Don

 

[ed5000]

Most ice cars today have compressors with mechanical shaft seals that leak refrigerant all the time and most mechanics can do a good job at guessing how much refrigerant to add with a little experience. But with our hermetic or semi-hermetic compressors which are completely sealed, weighing in the charge with the factory recommended amount is usually the best and most efficient. That's one of the beauties of our electric cars.

An ev usually has over 300 volts available to drive the compressor, where as, the ice car only has 12 vdc available, thus the need for a rotating shaft seal, magnetic clutch, belts, etc. to drive the power hungry compressor. Can you imagine if they put an ice style compressor on an ev? It would never get to turn at stops or when sitting in traffic, etc.

My wife still occasionally drives her 2003 Explorer dinosaur and I have to add refrigerant about every two years. I don't care how accurate the charges is because the refrigerant is always slowly leaking out so it's never going to have the most optimal charge anyway. The whole vehicle is so hugely inefficient plus it has all that glass; most cars are a rolling greenhouse on wheels anyway.

 

[Don]

Most ice cars today have compressors with mechanical shaft seals that leak refrigerant all the time and most mechanics can do a good job at guessing how much refrigerant to add with a little experience. But with our hermetic or semi-hermetic compressors which are completely sealed, weighing in the charge with the factory recommended amount is usually the best and most efficient. That's one of the beauties of our electric cars.

Weighing the charge can work, of course, but that would mean evacuating the system completely so you know there's no refrigerant already in the system and that would seem to be less efficient and wasteful of any refrigerant already in the system - Adding just enough to top it off would seem more efficient to me

The fact that an iMiEV with it's sealed compressor is low on refrigerant pretty much means that something other than the compressor is leaking refrigerant, so just evacuating and recharging the system probably isn't going to solve the problem for very long - The leak would continue and the new refrigerant would eventually be lost

Don

 

[ed5000]

I guess I was missing the point. If there's a leak, then it's like an ice car anyway. :lol:

 

[stoatwblr]

I'm just going through the same issue with my machine (peugoet ion) as it's not running as cold as it should (fast charge cuts out at 50% when cold or very quickly after road running for a while)

It's a 2 way thing on these beasties: You need to check the refrigerant AND the hot water side

On my MY2012, it's 100g MA68EV oil, 325g(+-20) R134a and 1.7l(LHD)/1.9l(RHD) coolant

NB: IMPORTANT: The oil type is critical for electrical insulation integrity and can't be mixed with other types or you'll develop leaks

The water coolant is the same specified for the motor: "Mitsubishi genuine Dia-queen Super long life coolant premium" (pale blue. 50:50)
There's a bunch of technical detail in Wikipedia's Antifreeze article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifreeze

I believe a HOAT or good quality OAT antifreeze should do the job as long as it's low silicate

The stuff in my loops (Cabin heater and motor cooling) appears to have never been changed - it's pretty manky so I'm planning to flush it a few times before refilling

 

[GregFordyce]

Weighing the charge can work, of course, but that would mean evacuating the system completely so you know there's no refrigerant already in the system and that would seem to be less efficient and wasteful of any refrigerant already in the system - Adding just enough to top it off would seem more efficient to me

Modern AC recharging machines will evacuate the system without releasing any R134a into the atmosphere (which is illegal in most areas). The refrigerant get captured, weighed and filtered by the machine to be reused back in the car. I just had mine done and my local garage has a hook-up charge for the machine and then charges per gram for any additional R134a required. They also flushed out any oil and refilled with new oil to the correct amount.

 

[stoatwblr]

. If you take it to any A/C shop who knows what they're doing, they can A.) Check to see if the refrigerant is low and B.) Add refrigerant if needed to bring the charge up to the correct amount - They won't need to know the total capacity of the system.

Most reputable shops will pull down the entire system to verify it can hold a vacuum and usually change out the schrader valves (these have a tendency to leak with age). They end up measuring the amount recovered as part of that process