93 accord, R134 refrigerant ?

What kind of refrigerant does the 93 Accord uses in the Air
conditioning? I can buy a 93 accord with an ac that needs work and I'd
like to know. IF it's the old refrigerant that is no longer made (is
it R12?) then I probably won't bother. When did Honda start using R134
?

thanks

Remove NO-SPAM from email address when replying

 

My daughter's '93 Accord LX uses R-134a. R12 is still available and I
believe it is still made in various countries that didn't sign on to the
Montreal Protocol (don't get me started on that!), but the taxes make it
*very* expensive. Most people convert the system to R134a if they still have
the old stuff in theirs.

Mike

 

Here in Canada, most if not all manufacturers used R143A 1994 onwards.

Stewart DIBBS

 

R12 may or may not be made still in other countries, but in the US it is
illegal to manufacture and import. It is perfectly legal to use existing
stock piles as well as R12 recovered from existing A/C systems. The high
price is not a result of taxes, just limited supply and high demand.

 

Honda started using R134a in 1993 on the Prelude, Legend, and NSX for sale
in the US. The other US cars got it in 1994.

 

My mistake - exorbitant taxes were the reason prior to the outright
manufacturing ban. I don't even remember getting so old 8^{

Mike

 

Either way, I wanted to mention that one of the AC techs where I work told
me some time ago that there is a new product which will work properly on
either type of system, at just slightly more than the cost of R134.
I haven't seen them using it yet in our fleet, but that's what he said.

 

There were a large number of R-12 substitutes introduced after the ban
on the proper R-12. None of them gained much momentum. One issue is that
the EPA requires a unique set of fittings for each refrigerant to reduce
the chance of inadvertent mixing of incompatible refrigerants. If you
Google a bit, you can find quite a bit of info on this.

When my brother's '87 VW sprung a refrigerant leak back in 2000, he had
the leak fixed and the system recharged with R-12 at a nasty price. 4
years later, the A/C is working as good as ever.

One could speculate that as it now is more than 10 years since R-12 was
phased out for new cars, the number of cars on the road requiring R-12
(and that people would spend money on for A/C repairs) should be in a
steep decline. Perhaps the R-12 prices won't go much higher.

 

I'm not sure what I'd Google on, being somewhat ignorant of the subject, but
I'll be certain to talk to the AC tech about it when I get the chance.

As to prices, there certainly could come a time when it's cheaper to replace
a system then to buy R12 for an old one. OTOH, in my (compny's) case, time
is also a factor, as certain vehicles MUST have functional AC, or cannot be
used.

Thanks for the input.