Auto and Truck Repair and Maintenance in Oneida, NY and surrounding areas
Few things in life are constant. Death, taxes and … change. That’s right, everything changes like the seasons, your kids and especially your car; specifically, your car's air conditioning refrigerant. Yes, there is a new refrigerant on the block. It’s called R-1234yf (I know, it sounds like a Star Wars droid, but I didn’t name it).
Why the change? Well before we talk about the future let’s talk briefly about the past. In the 1930s through the early ‘90s FREON, also known as R12, was used in all vehicle air conditioning systems. However, R12 was found to be an ozone depleting greenhouse gas and has the ability to stay in the atmosphere for 100 years or more. By the mid 90’s R12 was phased out and replaced by R134a refrigerant. R134a may take up to 10 years to break down into a non-greenhouse gas. Twenty-five years ago, this was seen as considerable improvement over the 100-year-plus lifespan of R12. But R1234yf is a further advancement over R134a, as it takes only three to four years to break down in the upper atmosphere.
With the goal of reducing greenhouse gasses, the European Union required all vehicle manufacturers to replace the traditional R-123A with R-1234YF in January 2017. Soon thereafter, the EPA here in the United States followed suit. General Motors began introducing vehicles to the market utilizing this new system in 2013 with full conversion in 2018. Chrysler, Honda, and Subaru models followed in 2017. It is mandated that by 2022 all vehicles will contain 1234YF.
One of the compelling reasons R-1234yf was overwhelmingly chosen to replace R-134a in automotive air conditioning systems is because there are not really many differences between the way the systems are designed and work. This new refrigerant is also said to help improve fuel efficiency while greatly reducing the harmful effects placed on the environment by outdated refrigerants.
Because we at Oneida Service Center care greatly about our customers and the environment, we have invested in the most modern state-of-the-art R-1234yf service equipment and training. We proudly and safely service both R-134a and R-1234yf systems. If your vehicle’s A/C system isn’t up to par, give us a call and our expert technicians will diagnose and repair your system today.
