Picture of r-1234yf air conditioning machine

AC Recharging, Service, & Repair for R-1234YF Cars in Berkeley

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R-1234YF – Good for the environment, bad for the wallet

Art’s Automotive is now offering AC recharging, service, and repair services for cars with R-1234YF air conditioning systems for customers in Berkeley and the surrounding East Bay Area. However, we service only Toyota, Subaru, Honda, and Mazda vehicles.

As of this writing (2018) R-1234 is fairly new, at least in the Japanese vehicle repair market. Very few cars older than 2016 use this new type of refrigerant, so most of the cars will be under warranty still. However, we’ve been getting a lot of calls from body shops with cars in need of AC repair, and issues like rocks hitting the condenser aren’t covered by warranty, so we’ve seen enough interest in customer-pay repairs to make it worth investing $6000 in a new machine.

Also, 77% of Honda’s fleet is now R-1234YF, and we repair a lot of Honda cars here. 

Environmentally Friendly Car AC Repair

R-1234YF is a desirable refrigerant because it does less environmental damage than most other types of refrigerant.

As seen in the chart, the environmental impact of R-1234YF is considerably lower the the current refrigerant R-134a. The only “better” refrigerant is CO2, but currently Mercedes is the only manufacturer to use CO2, and we don’t repair Mercedes.

Chart showing that HFO-1234yf is less environmentally damaging that HFC-134a and CFC-12

Servicing a R-1234YF system is pretty much the same as servicing a R-134a system. Here are a few of the differences:

  • Some R-134a systems have an in-line heat exchanger (ILX), but all R-1234YF seem to have an ILX.
  • R-1234YF is mildly flammable.
  • R-1234YF is super-expensive. Catching leaks ASAP is very important to keeping your costs low.
  • Because R-1234YF is so expensive, some people are illegally charging systems with R134a
  • All R-1234YF machines have an on-board refrigerant identifier and won’t recover contaminated refrigerant.
  • The high side pressures are a lot higher than on the R-134a systems.

MACs 609 Air Conditioning Certified Technicians

MACS (Mobile Air Climate Systems association) offers training and certification for technicians working on mobile air conditioning systems such as those in cars. Our technicians have both trained and certified with this organization. We also have ASE certified technicians on staff. If your car needs AC repair, charging, or service, you can be confident that we’ll service it properly.

Set up an appointment here R1234YF R-1234-YF YF-1234 YF1234 HFO-1234-YF HFO-1234 HFO1234YF