95 Escort A/C...

HI all, nice forum...

Don't do this much, but I am trying to get the parts ready for dad to fix my car, or prepare it for a small trip anyway, I've ordered front rotors and pads, I know it at least needs those, but the a/c doesn't quite work right...

Well, to make a long story short, when I bought the car the whole dash was ripped apart, it had front end damage, so we fixed it and now it's great, love my escorts, anyway, I think the switch for the A/C, vent, panel & defrost has a little problem. You almost have to force it to go all the way over to the Max A/C slot. I suppose I could have put the whole "box" for the heat and ac back in wrong, but we can just get the old one out of my spare escort if that's the problem.

But my real question is, what do I have to do to have the freon refilled (r134a??) Does my car need to be retrofitted?? I'm sorry I don't know much about these things, but I hate to take up dads time by asking him, so I'd rather have as much as I can ready for him...

Anyway, would one of the small cans of r134a work (with the hose/fitting attached), or do I need to do bunches of stuff to the car to get them to work?? Dad has the "big" setup for a/c flush and refill, but he is out of freon and isn't going to buy another tank anytime soon, and I really dont' want to spend the $242 for the whole tank so...What's my best bet? I don't know if this is relavent information but, when I attempt to turn the a/c on, it blows air fine, but it's hot...the a/c condenser was replaced due to the front end damage, as were the lines, but they were off my old "parts" escort...don't know if that's any help.

Appreciate you reading this, sorry for the long post... :confused:

If your car was originally equipped with R-12 (Freon) then you will need a retrofit kit. I think '93 was the last year for R-12 in the Escort. It will tell you under the hood on the label. The kit is just a matter of changing the fitting that you charge the system with and putting some different oil in the compressor. You will not be able to use your dad's machine if it has R-12 in it. I think my Escort holds about 2 pounds of refrigerant. So you can use those cans of R134a from Wal-Mart but don't put too much in. I did and it doesn't cool that way. If you currently have R-12 in your system then your dad can use his machine to suck the old stuff out but he can't refill it.

Just noticed you have a '95. Should be R134a already. Look at label under hood.

Hi, label under hood is gone...the front end was rebuilt/repainted...so all parts are new. We went through the same problem with the paint color, the ford dealership told us the code would be under the hood but alas it wasn't! ;)

Thanks, I will go buy some of the cans from wal-mart, and have dad put them in. I thnk dad has both systems for a/c because one of my other cars had to be retrofitted (was a 1990) and he had me call on prices for large tanks fo r134a...I don't know anything about this stuff so I call everything freon...lol sorry...

Lol, it's kind of sad because I worked at a parts store for almost a year!! I still don't understand all the "car stuff" but it was definitely an interesting job!

R12 equipment will not connect to an R134a system and vice versa. That's why you change the fittings when you retrofit it. Get some R134a at Wal-Mart and your dad can hook you up. You'll need about two pounds. Look at the label on the can because they are not 16 oz (1 pound) cans.

Great, thanks for your help!!