Rev up your engines!
today I'm going to talk about the new bad change that's occurring in modern car air
conditioning system, by law in the United States, the are changing
the refrigerant from r134a to r1234yf a new type of refrigerant,
now years ago the change was made from r12 which was called freon, to r134a
and that was a big enough pain, now it's all based on laws to not deplete
the ozone layer, the 134a is less ozone depleting than the
r12, and this new one is much less ozone depleting,
but if you ask me, the tiny amount of refrigerant that's in cars that sometimes leaks out it's
that big of a deal really, when you consider how much gasoline we burn
and pollute the atmosphere with that stuff, this whole changing refrigerant scene that
they've been doing lately, hey it's kind of like closing the barn door after the horses
have already ran away, now the first thing with this new refrigerant
is the cost, here's a 134a canister,
it's 30 pounds and it costs me about $95 last year,
and here's a 10 pound container of the new R1234yf it costs $1,000 for 10 pounds so that
would be $3,000 for 30 pounds, so right away you can see, they're ripping
everybody off, they're charging $3,000 for something that
I use to pay $90 for and there's no way it costs that kind of money to make this stuff,
it's just total nonsense, and not only are you paying a lot more for
the refrigerant, as a mechanic I have to go out and buy a new
recycling machine, because by law I have to use a recycling machine for each type of refrigerant,
now I already have one for the 134a, but to work on the new r1234yf system, I got
to buy another machine, so as you can already guess, having these
new AC systems worked on if going to cost you a whole lot more money,
but perhaps the worst aspect of this new r1234yf refrigerant is this,
the old 134a it's virtually inflammable, it's not going to start on fire, if you get in
a wreck and it leaks out or if it has a leak in the dash and gets inside and you're smoking
a cigarette, it's pretty much nonflammable under any condition you're going to meet in
a car, but this new r1234yf refrigerant is actually
flammable, now you would think the scientists with all
their intelligence could come up with a better system than replacing a nonflammable gas with
a flammable gas in cars that people drive, let's say you get in a wreck, the ac system
starts gassing out, that could start on fire, or if it starts leaking inside the evaporator,
that could start a fire inside your car, especially if you're a smoker,
this flammability is such a big deal to some manufacturers,
listen to this, German manufacturers Daimler, Volkswagen and
others don't want to use r1234yf in their vehicles but will do so for the near future
to meet U.S. refrigerant regulatory actions, they tested then in cars and said when the
compressor ruptured it could start fires inside the engine and they found something even worse,
that burning r1234yf emits toxic hydrogen fluoride gas,
you really don't want to be breathing that stuff in if something happens,
instead the Germans are working on something called r744 which is CO2, carbon dioxide,
now of course we breath out carbon dioxide so it's not flammable, it's a very cheap gas,
but in itself it has a big problem, r134a and the new r1234yf, they have the highest
operating pressure at a high point of 300-400 PSI,
but the carbon dioxide system, it can operate at 1,400 PSI so there's a lot
more pressure, and guess what, the higher the pressure, you have to build them stronger,
they have to be made better, they cost a lot more to make,
and with that extra pressure, of course they're going to break faster,
and of course that much pressure in itself can be dangerous,
if you've got 1,400 PSI pressure in your dash and it blows up, it could send shrapnel all
over the place, so of course now they're working on even more
complex systems where the CO2 system is all under the hood of the car, and then there's
another cooling system that takes the cool air from that system under the hood and moves
it inside the dash, I mean these things are getting more and more
insanely complex for a system that worked fine in the first place,
but as it stands now, here's a list of cars that presently use it, from BMW, Cadillac,
Chrysler, all the way down to Toyota, but as I see it hey, why are they switching
from a gas that works perfectly fine, is nonflammable, and switching it to a flammable gasm
to me it just does not make sense, so they really need to charge $3,000 for a
can of something that use to me $90, holding people hostage that want to be cool
in their cars, that's just not right, but of course it gives you even more reasons
to hang on to your old car, that's a 94 Celica, it came with r134a, it
still blows really cold, it's got the original compressor on it,
but at least now you know what going on with this new refrigerant and you can make an intelligent
choice, maybe even complain to some of your legislature
about it and they might end up giving up with this stuff,
so if you never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring
that bell!