Yep, that's why you replace the O-ring seals with less porous seals. They
used to also replace the rubber hoses for the same reason until the AC
community "discovered" that once the old hoses were soaked with refrigerant
oil they sealed themselves tight enough to hold R134a. But the front
compressor seal is never replaced & often they will leak enough R134a to
pass a can or more / month.

Thanks, Tom Hargrave
www.stir-plate.com
www.towercooler.com
www.kegkits.com
www.grow-sun.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf Of
kimbrennan@mac.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2013 9:15 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: AC 134a refrigerant leak down

If I remember correctly, R134 refrigerant is a smaller molecule, and hence
more easily gets past seals than R12.

On May 7, 2013, at 8:50 PM, Tom Hargrave wrote:

> Was it holding R12 fine? It could be the seal in the front of the
> compressor
> - that seal depends on a oil film to not leak. I've seen a lot of R12
> systems that barely leaked start leaking a lot when converted to R134
> just because the molecule size is smaller & the gas passed through the
> compressor front seal easier.
>
> Thanks, Tom Hargrave
> www.stir-plate.com
> www.towercooler.com
> www.kegkits.com
> www.grow-sun.com
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On
> Behalf Of JRodgers
> Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2013 3:50 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: AC 134a refrigerant leak down
>
> 18 months ago I had the AC system gone completely through - and
> converted to R134a. It got new seals and the whole nine yards. the
> system ran great through the hottest months but then began to show
> signs of 134a leakage by virtue of reduced cooling. That got
> progressively worse. Twice I added refrigerant, but the cooling has once
again dropped off.
>
> Givben this - obviously I have a leak.  I was wondering about the
> application of one of those sealers to the refrigerant? Do they really
> work??
>
> I dropped a bundle to get this fixed, and would hate to have to do it
> again.!!
>
> Recommendations?
>
> Thanks,
>
> John Rodgers
> Birmingham, AL
>
>
> -----
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> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
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> 05/07/13

-----
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Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
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