May 2021

MAY 2021 AFTERMARKET 35 I n the world of A/C, change has been a constant for the last few years. For the most part the sector is settling down. Simon Ravenscroft, Northern Regional Sales Manager at National Refrigerants, commented: “As we all know by now, R-134a was banned in all new vehicles produced in Europe from January 2017, with the replacement needing to have a GWP of 150. Step forward HFO R- 1234yf, which at the end of 2020, was contained in over 120 million cars worldwide, with 65 million cars on the road in Europe using this fluid. All worldwide vehicle manufacturers have now adopted R-1234yf as their refrigerant of choice and is the standard fluid across their vehicle platforms.” There are new wrinkles however. “R-744 (C02) is available in a few German-made vehicles if you are willing to pay an optional charge when buying the car,” Simon observed. “More recently, VW has announced on its electric vehicle platform, the new ID3 and ID4 will be fitted with standard R-1234yf as usual. However, if you select the option to include a heat pump, then the fluid fitted is R- 744. A heat pump acts as an A/C unit in reverse – as an air conditioner uses refrigerant to trap heat inside an area and cool it off before moving it outside, the heat pump has a reversing valve that reverses the refrigerant flow, thus the heat pump disperses heat instead of cold air. The heat pump will provide both heat and A/C and is said to consume approximately a third less power than the standard electric strip heater and thus offer an increased driving range from the battery life. Heat pump technology is common now in EVs, including TESLA and Jaguar, however only VW are offering it fitted with R-744.” Simon added: “It’s clear that R-1234yf is the chosen fluid for all manufacturers in A/C systems now. R-744 is currently very niche and with very limited use. However, rest assured, National Refrigerants can meet all your Find out what’s new in the world of air-con gas, and what you need to do to be ready ALL CHANGE FOR A/C? cooling requirements via your local supplier; R-134a to service older vehicles, and both R-1234yf and R-744 for newer cars.” R-744 is not the only new gas hitting the market. Jonathan Walker, Managing Director of MAHLE Aftermarket commented: “Refrigerant manufacturers have just created another new gas called R-513a, which can be expected to enter the market in the near future as a replacement for R-134a when supply becomes unavailable. MAHLE A/C service stations are ready for this gas when it appears. Its new R-134a stations, from ACX 20 series and above, are R-1234yf and R-513a ready and can be converted over by an engineer when needed, future- proofing the purchase. MAHLE encourages operators not to buy an A/C service station on price, but instead on features, to avoid inadvertently limiting the number of vehicles the new machine can effectively service.” On how to work on differing A/C system types, Jonathan said: “New EV, PHEV and HEV vehicles have multi chamber thermal management systems. While separated by valves from each other in normal use, they require interaction with advanced diagnostic equipment when in service mode to allow refrigerant gases in and out of these sections. This can also be the case on larger vehicles with multi-zone A/C systems. Trying to service such a vehicle without advanced diagnostics means only a small area of the system may be accessible. The diagnostic equipment is required to open and close these valves to allow full servicing, which in turn effects full recovery and re- charging. It is therefore all too easy to leave contaminants and moisture inside a vehicle’s system - or worse, overcharge during refill from being unable to access areas of the system.” Jonathan concluded: “MAHLE has the solution in its range of medium and top-end A/C service stations, as the machines have the ability to interact via Bluetooth with a diagnostic interface inside the car, providing an advanced automatic A/C system service.” MAHLE ACX 480 in use in the workshop