Took my da to the shop and the man told me I had to retrofit my ac system to get ac this summer. Since the r12 is bad the air or whatever and it’s hard to find now days he said the best thing to do is retrofit my system. But it’s gonna cost me 180+ and I was thinking can I just use a system from a DC Integra?
Just buy a R12 to R134 kit and convert yourself. No need to try and swap in DC parts.
Even if you could go that route i doubt that it would be any cheaper. not to mention not everything is going to be compatible.
There’s a lot of steps involved in truly converting your a/c system over to r134a so if hes just charging you 180 that would be a steal compared to most places…
now if he’s just using the same old stuff currently on the car right now and just installing the r134a ports and recharging the system then no that would be a rip-off.
To do a proper conversion you should (1) change your receiver/drier with a new one. The dessicants used in the receiver/drier is different.
(2) change the o-rings in the system to HBNR (Neoprene)
(3) you need to clean/flush the system out too so some a/c flushing solvent is needed
(4) once the systems flushed you’re also going to need PAG oil which is for the r134 system… completely incompatible with the mineral oil used in R12 systems so you need to flush the system good.
(4) you’ll of course need the high and low service ports too. make sure they’re good quality ones with their own schrader valves built in. most of the kits in stores only have the port itself and utilize the schrader valve already on the lines.
(5) you’ll also need an a/c manifold gauge and a vacuum pump (now this is the thing most people dont have) to properly recharge the system all air should be evacuated and a vacuum should be placed on the system… and going forth (6) is pretty much to put in the new refrigerant.
so thats the r134a route. i may have missed some steps but as you can see its involved. more than just a diy kit. and if there is a leak in the system you need to have that repaired before anything else.
now if its not leaking there are also alternatives to r12. environmentally safe r12… aka ES-12
http://autorefrigerants.com/co00033.htm
never used it so cant vouch it.
Just completed my HRAI exam up here in BC Canada and the poster above definitely knows what he’s talking about. You guys in the states have many blends available to you, here we are required to only recharge with r134a. If you were closer I would let you have all my 134a stuff out of my da. If you’re going to do it retrofitting is probably cheaper than buying an entire ac system out of a DC. Not even entirely sure the evaporator and condersor will fit a DA.
More then what i thought the steps would be. If I do have the shop do it I’ll make sure he has those answers for me. But then again I saw on Acura there selling the retrofit kit for 90ish plus a new receiver/drier for 17 bucks now I need to find a place that is willing to flush out my old r12 with new r134a yes? Remember he said 180+ that’s a lot too, he Also didn’t even metion labor -_-
Took my car to the shop so they could do the retro fit, they charge me 230 and still no ac cause my ac compresser is done!
They showed me that it makes noises and it locks up if I rev the motor so i need another one 
Bascily for 230 they change the hi and low, flushed out my old r12 and checked it for leaks but the ac lines are all still the same old ones, they also changed the o rings .35 dollar per pound of r134 so idk anybody else think I got rip?
I’m not familiar with pricing for what they did so I couldn’t say for sure.
they didn’t change the drier?
could have made sure the compressor was in good working order before doing any of that at least… but if you took it to the shop and said “do a retrofit” and they did what you asked and charged what they said they would… then no.
pretty sure my car had a cheap retrofit done before i got it, it’s likely that the o-rings/drier were never swapped and probably not flushed out. I’ve had to recharge the system twice in the last 5 years after not being driven over the winter but otherwise its been great, and COLD.
At first he said you don’t have to get a drier becuase he’s going to flush the system out but when i came back and asked he told me i had to get a new dier because the old dier filter wouldn’t work with the new r134. At that point I thought to myself and said why he didn’t just told me that in the first place.I’m starting to think for 230 just to flush an change the fittings and 0 rings and checked for leaks is a rip
It’s sad cause shops can pretty much do whatever they want to when it comes to AC cause hardly anyone has tools or knowledge to do it themselves. Do as much as you can yourself before you need to take it to a shop. Driers are fairly inexpensive, lines are easy to replace along with the o-rings. At that point you can add the cheap can freon from autozone to at least see if your system will work at all, hell you can even leak test it yourself so you have an idea where it’s leaking from, if at all. Then take it to a shop for evac/recharge from there (ask about price matching and look for good coupons for evac/recharge). The more you know ahead of time, the less chance your going to get ripped off. Shops know that no one knows shit about how AC works, and they bank on it. Especially in places like AZ, people just want it fixed ASAP and shops love $$$$$$.
think i jinxed myself, mines not being consistent now. blew cold for the trip to the store, left it running, came back out and it was warm.
drove a while and it got warmer. turned it off while driving for a while, turned it back on and it was cold again.
something screwy for sure. maybe moisture in the lines freezing and causing blockage or it still needs more r134a.
probably best to pull a put new a drier in and pull a vacuum before refilling it.
but i will more than likely just drive without a/c because i don’t feel like screwing with it.
edit: schrader valve on the low side was leaking, probably caused the slow coolant loss.
which highly likely let moisture into my system over the cold winter, ruining the effectiveness of the accumulator drier that probably wasn’t swapped during the original retrofit.
easy enough fix, but im in the same boat as you now.
system full of r134a and need to replace a part, vac and refill. 
just make sure you check everything before you refill it so you don’t have to do this shit a third time.
Will do,the shop told me I most likely don’t have a leak cause they vac tested the lines, just need a dyer and ac compressor and I should be good to go. I’ll check in and let you guys know next week
how do i know if my car has already been converted?? cuz on my friends DA his hard lines the loop around by the radiator just loop around, and mine loop around and have some valve on there like a schrader valve…
should have a sticker that says if it was converted or not. but not everyone will put the sticker on like they should.
r12 and r134a have different valves on the high and low lines, think r12 is threaded and r134a is just snap on type.
should be 2 valves on the lines near the battery and distributor.
the low line should be smaller and close to the cam plug.
the high line should be between the battery and air intake hose.
provided all the hoses are in the same places anyway… no clue if mine are stock or not.
It works! ahah 
one problem down many more to take on LOL