jwillman

I have to pull the 6E171 compressor agiain at some point as it is leaking oil at the joints.

Right now it is functional and system serviced with R134 and Ester oil. I have a vaccum pump but don't want to deliberately dump the system into the air

My questiions are;

1. If I have the system contents recovered by an AC professional will they pull all the oil as well?
2. If not how do I determine how much oil to add once pump is reinstalled? - it will be empty after break down for new seals. I was not planning on replacing dryer again as it is only a month old and I assume some oil will stay in the different system componenets as I am not planning on flushing the system.

Thanks

76FJ55

There are a couple possibilities. I belive the ESM give approximate proportions of the oil that will typically by in each component so this can be used to estimate the amount of oil need to be added to the compressor. Or the other option is to drain the oil from the compressor upon remove and values it. The measure the amount removed from the old cOmpressor and use it to estimate the amount necessary to be added.

One thing to keep in mind is that the desiccant in the drier will absorb moisture from the atmospher if left open for any amount of time. If you really want to save your exisinging receiver/drier you will need to cap the open ends of the system and draw and hold a vacuum on it while you do the compressor rebuild.

jwillman

Thanks Simon,

I was definitely planning to cap the lines when I pull the compressor!

WallyP

A shop will normally remove the refrigerant slowly enough that little of the oil will be carried out with the refrigerant, so Simon's two suggestions are right-on. It is more common to have too much oil rather than too little oil in an older system that has been serviced numerous times. That would cause me to add the smaller amount from the two methods, not the larger amount - provided that there is not a lot of difference in the two amounts, and provided that the oil leakage appears to be minimal.

Agree with capping the lines ASAP when the compressor is removed. You need to pull a really good vacuum for as long as possible on the system when it is recharged.

Bill Ball

Depending on the source, you will see somewhat different numbers for oil volume. At the factory a little over 9 ounces of oil was installed in the compressor, and that distributes out to the other components. If you are not flushing and just changing the compressor and receiver-drier, then put just shy of 4 ounces in the compressor and 1 ounce in the receiver-drier to cover the oil lost from the changeout. Close enough.