Questions and Answers

Gas Or Liquid? Q. Hello Mr. Vincent Ciulla, Recently, a friend and I converted my A/C system (Ford Thunderbird) to R-134a. While recharging the system, Blair - my friend, would shake the refrigerant can upside down. I was always told that this is a big no-no because it may damage the valves in the compressor by allowing liquid refrigerant to enter.

Blair said it wouldn't make any difference and besides the compressor comes fully loaded with A/C oil and that is not compressible so it should ruin the compressor even quicker. He does have a point - should I concede and pay up (we have a small wager on this).

Thanks,
Doug

A. Well Doug, don't concede anything, you win. It is not recommended to charge any A/C system with liquid due to the potential damage to the compressor. Sometimes you get lucky and the compressor pumps out the liquid faster than it comes in, but do you really want to roll the dice on an expensive component like an A/C compressor?

While it is true compressors come with some oil in them (about 7 ounces), it is not enough to lock up the compressor. Most of the oil circulates in the system with the refrigerant. In the old days when there were piston type compressors, they had a small crankcase similar to an engine that supplied oil to the compressor. On some you checked the oil level with a makeshift dipstick. Since all A/C compressors in use today are rotary, the oil has to flow with the refrigerant.

And you don't need to be so formal, Vince will do just fine.

Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA