AC Woes

[Vashthestanbeto]

Sorry, just have to vent...what exactly is wrong with the 90-93 compressors? my original one went out by pretty much bypassing the pressure internally. I would watch the high side pressure equalizing with the low side on the gauge manifold and eventually voila! it's not making pressure anymore. ac clutch still kick in just fine, system still holding charge, but bye bye coldness.

Put on a junkyard one monday and was hoping to enjoy the AC for several days before heading for a busines trip- nope, first the new oring that goes on the compressor discharge side blew out while charging @ a mere high side 120 psi- wasted a can worth of R134a and 4oz of ACPRO PAG100 oil, turned out the o ring was defective.Fine-I said to myself while unbolting the line to change o ring again-at least it did begin to blow slightly cold before it shot PAG oil all over my engine bay, so that indicated a good compressor right? Nope! Took it out to a friend's shop to hook up their Robinair machine, charged up fine, clutch kicked on and guess what, equal high/low side pressure readings! YAY! The compressor lasted for a whooping 5 minutes after it was properly flushed, charged with correct amount of oil, and overall treated like some bloated dictator during install-before going out in the same fashion as my old one!

Well, at least the owner of the JY was very kind and is making it right for me, but I do have to wonder what makes those compressors so fragile? Is there something I can do myself to ensure that this replacement I am getting from JY will not be so short lived?( other than following the proper AC service procedure- I am doing that already and had no mishaps when handling the compressor or any other AC parts) I will appreciate any comments from those of you with experiences fixing up the miata's ac system.

[jrj512]

If I have to replace mine again, then I will likely just get a new one from Mazda Motorsports for $325. That one should last a while. I have only needed to replace mine once with a used one. The car had over 150,000 miles when the original died, so I really cannot complain. I have no idea how many miles were on the used one, so I really can't complain if it goes out, either.