1988 300ZX A/C conversion or different type of coolant?

[tsalad]

My 300ZX A/C is barely running cold. Just moved to a very hot climate; otherwise, never used it much.

I've been getting horrendous estimates. What are my options?Convert or just find a compatible, but not as cold coolant?

Any help would be appreciated; i'm completely uneducated when speaking with mechanics!

Thanks!

[evildky]

well to start off it's called "refrigerant" and if the system works but just isn't cold enoguth it likely just needs more referigerant, any decnet shop even most oil change shops can check and add referigerant, if you have a leak or the ysstem is empty then it can get sxpensive lets hope you only need a charge

[Perrenial Badass]

Judging by the title, I am guessing you are running R12 (stock system)? If so, it can be hard to find that refrigerant anymore. So I'd make sure that you don't have any leaks before recharging it. Converting to R134a means that you will have better access to refrigerant, but it's a lot more labor. It also seems to be a less effective refrigerant, as it doesn't seem to cool as well as an R12 system. So barring any failures in the system, I'd go for a recharge. Well... in that situation I actually converted, but my advice to less anal people would be recharge.

I don't think your system is empty, otherwise it would be blowing uncooled outside temp air. But don't put R134a into an R12 system and vice versa. Their oils aren't compatable. I'm no AC tech so I can't tell you what exactly happens in the system, but when I was dumber about AC I recharged my stock AC system (R12) with R134a and ended up needing a new compressor.