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Air conditioning systems with refrigerant R1234yf - General information - Edition 07.2017
♦ These chemical substances (leak stop additives) react mostly
with the ambient air or the humidity to stop leaks in the refrig‐
erant circuit. They cause deposits to build up in the refrigerant
circuit (and your air conditioner service station ), cause valves
to malfunction and defects in other components with which
they come into contact. These deposits cannot be completely
removed from the components (not even by flushing).
♦ There are often no external signs to suggest that chemical
substances (leak stop additives) have been used to seal leaks
in a refrigerant circuit. Often, the stickers that are meant to be
used to mark such systems are missing. Therefore, exercise
caution on vehicles for which you have no service or repair
record.
♦ Containers or tanks with integrated filters are offered as ac‐
cessories on the open market that are designed to separate
these chemical substances (leak stop additives for sealing
leaks). Since Volkswagen/Audi is unaware of the composition
and the physical and chemical properties of these substances,
no statement can be made at this point as to the effectiveness
lk
and the filtering capability of these filters.
If repair work needs to be carried out on the refrigerant circuit of
the air conditioning system on a vehicle whose refrigerant circuit
has been filled with chemical substances (leak stop additives) to
seal leaking components (or there is good reason to believe that
this has been the case), bring the client's (the vehicle owner's)
attention to the following situation:
♦ The refrigerant of the air conditioning system cannot be ex‐
tracted owing to the substances (leak stop additives) that it
contains, which can damage your air conditioner service sta‐
tion . To extract the refrigerant, it can be filled in a recycling
cylinder in the way described for contaminated refrigerant
⇒ “2.13 Filling contaminated refrigerant in a recycling cylinder
for analysis, processing or disposal”, page 161 . Should this
not be possible, it may be necessary e.g. for a company to be
entrusted with extraction of the contaminated refrigerant using
a suitable device. This should then be processed (or disposed
of) e.g. by a local disposal company well versed in the proce‐
dures relating to the disposal of refrigerants.
♦ For proper repair of the air conditioning system, it is necessary
to renew all components of the refrigerant circuit that have
come into contact with the leak stop additive. The leak stop
additive could already have damaged some components of
the refrigerant circuit (e.g. the air conditioner compressor reg‐
ulating valve - N280- ) or subsequently cause damage when
the system is brought back into operation and, after a short
time, failure of said components. Furthermore, deposits of leak
stop additive in the components of the refrigerant circuit may
work loose at a later stage, leading to renewed failure of the
air conditioning system (completely cleaning these compo‐
nents using workshop equipment is currently not possible).
♦ Contaminated refrigerant can render the whole filling in your
air conditioner service station unusable.
♦ Before extracting with a suitable tester, check the composition
of the refrigerant in the refrigerant circuit
⇒ “2.3 Performing gas analysis of refrigerant”, page 134 .
♦ Extract contaminated refrigerant into a recycling cylinder and
send this in to your gas supplier for analysis, processing or
disposal
⇒ “6.2.17 Returning contaminated R1234yf refrigerant for
analysis, processing or disposal”, page 25 .
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Rep. gr.87 - Air conditioning system
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