NC01TA

Just curious. I'm jinxing myself for sure but I don't care after 20 years and 77,000 miles of ice cold air. Am I just lucky or are there other Camaros and Firebirds with similar success?? Before I left on my 5,000+ miles trip out west last month I asked my mechanic to check my a/c because I certainly would need it. He told me not to touch it at all if it's working properly, even after all these years. He was right, but 20 years?? Did GM hit a home run here? I wish they made the door panels with the same quality.

Kawboom

Children, this is what we call TEMPTING FATE. It is now guaranteed to blow up in the next week because you made this post.

In seriousness, I've had a car or two have the AC last for at least 10-15 years. Seals and such don't last forever, though. And it wasn't just Chevy that made poor door panels, my mustangs leather door panel accents fell off when the car was 13 years old, both sides within a week of each other, at least they were consistent!

Che70velle

iTrader: (6)

I have a 92’ Camaro 305 RS in the basement with 62kish miles. My mom bought it new and parked it in 97’ in her basement. She put over 30k of those miles on it, in 96-97, as she had a nursing job at the time that required her to travel a lot. Car has been garaged it’s entire life. It’s exceptionally nice and is a 100% all original survivor type deal. When I got It from her last summer...finally...long story...I had to go through all the fluids obviously, put tires on it, belt, hoses, etc...The A/C will freeze you out of the car. It’s an R12 refrigerant system, and it’s cold. Like...I wish my new stuff worked like that cars A/C does. Dash is perfect. Door panels are perfect. Shoot, the stupid thing is so nice I rarely drive it because I’m afraid some idiot will hurt it. Stays in the basement with a cover on it. Insert “rolls eyes” emoji here...

B52bombardier1

Some years ago, GM decided to kick on the AC compressor when using defrost mode - typically, we all do this in winter. This allows compressor oil to circulate virtually year-round to keep the seals and o-rings lubricated rather than dry and cracked.

Thus, longer life for air conditioning systems.

Rick

myk

iTrader: (4)

All of my 4th gen cars have fully functioning, completely non-maintained AC except for my '99 T/A. At least GM got one thing right on these cars...

RevGTO

iTrader: (12)

^^ This. The common complaint with the GM compressors is that their seals dry out and leak and then the compressor is toast. My car is 21 years old and I've been daily driving it for almost 18, now at 185k, and my A/C still blows frigid cold. So that would lend credibility to the theory above.

I did have a hose to the accumulator blow up about 7-8 years ago, replaced it and the system has worked normally ever since.

Yet there are the examples above where garage queens have been sitting and yet still blow cold. Go figure. Now, as the OP stated, I'm sure I've jinxed myself ...

RPM WS6

iTrader: (3)

I haven't used the A/C in mine since the super hot summer of 2012. Then again, I've also only driven it about 3,000 miles since then. I like A/C in my daily drivers, but don't need or desire it for a garage queen since I usually only drive them on temperate days or later in the evening if it's really hot. My '71 is a non-A/C car with black vinyl seats and a black top. It can get really warm in that car even on pretty mild days, but it would help a ton if I would just install a manual shut-off valve for coolant flow to the heater core. Regardless, I could certainly see how it would absolutely suck to cruise around somewhere in the deep south on a sunny July day at 2pm without A/C.

R12 was mentioned above....boy that stuff worked great. It always seemed to get super cold super quick, even at idle speeds when the dash and whole interior was hot. 134a seems to need higher rpms and much more time to get to a similarly cold point.

RevGTO

iTrader: (12)

I had a 69 LeMans daily driver in the early 90's that I later passed to my daughter and then my son. That old R12 system was the best A/C I've ever had on a car. On a hot summer day, the black vinyl upholstery would literally scald your legs if you were wearing shorts and weren't careful. That system would turn it into a rolling freezer in a few minutes.

TA_Freak

Man ... that's awesome. When mine went out (compressor leaked then died) I had over 300k on the clock.

NC01TA

^^^ I'd certainly be happy with that result too. I'll never see those miles in my lifetime though as I'm averaging less than 4,000 miles per year.

Spink

iTrader: (1)

On my 02 the compressor died 3 years ago, so they said, I have my doubts about that shop after the fact, with 140 on the clock. I'm now on my 3rd compressor with 165 on the clock and that one has now developed a squeak at first when the car hasn't been driven in awhile.

NC01TA

^^^ Are they GM after market parts or mongrel?? I know most everyone has trouble with generic (mostly Chinese poor quality).

Finkledbody

I find it odd that your mechanic is treating your A/C system as if it were a 90's automatic transmission "don't ever change the fluid" sort of thing.

I recently charged the A/C system in a 02' fbody with 20k miles. I have a fancy charging system that is accurate to the thousandths of lbs. I evacuated the system to see how much was left, it was 51% full. I added 4 oz of PAG 150 to it and recharged the system to 1.495 lbs.

Not doing anything is asking for a failure.

Spink

iTrader: (1)

I'm not sure what it was but I feel like they told be it was a maybe a delphi, possibly denso. I'll have to check next time I'm under there and see if there's some identification I can see.

Carkhz

​​​​​​
While this is a nice added benefit, it's not the reason for doing it. The AC compressor is engaged when defrost and defog are selected to dehumidify the air to keep the windows from fogging or frosting over, for safety. You'll also note that recirculate is unavailable during those modes to keep the humid air exhaled from occupants from compounding the fogging issue.

Y2KFirehawk

iTrader: (12)

Great information in this thread; thank you. My AC compressor started squeaking about two years ago and dripping oil. (I then removed the belt) If there is one thing I have learned, it is to run the AC regularly on my vehicles, even if not needed, to maintain the seals. After reviewing https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...ompressor.html I am assessing my options to replace.

ghardester

150,000 miles on mine so far and the AC still works like new. Except for a couple days each winter when it snows, the car really is driven each and every day. I keep thinking that I should get something else to use as a daily driver and keep this in the garage, but I cannot come up with a good enough reason to not drive it. Work and back is only a 22 mile round trip 4 days a week.

NC01TA

^^ Wonderful reply. Thanks! I'm not the only one for sure. it's been almost another year since I started this thread, and also after a trip to FL a few months ago, Still going strong. This will be fun to see how long it lasts. Might die tomorrow but what a great ride it's been.

MplSS

Apropos to my situation, my '98 SS A/C had been perfect up until this spring, when it started dripping compressor oil. I just ordered parts for it last night.

JC316

iTrader: (1)

Meanwhile, I've had two different high pressure lines on two different Firebirds explode in the same spot of the same McDonalds drive through, scaring the **** out of me both times. My 89 IROC did still have the factory R12 freon in it, 30 years later, still cold as a meat locker.