Air Conditioning Additives

[Spartan1-6]

Hi has anybody used this stuff in their car? It gets very good reviews online and YouTube videos..

 

Thing is.. I'm in the UK and over here when you take your car to the garage to get the aircon recharged, they use a premix system that puts in the refrigerant and the pag oil to the correct quantity. It's a big machine that they plug onto your AC system and you can't intervene to add anything. 

 

So I'd like to look at using this Cool Ox.. but the internet is saying for a 987.1, the correct amount of oil should be 195 ml. So currently my car is charged up with the refrigerant and presumably the right amount of oil. 

 

I've purchased an oil/dye injector that you can connect to the low pressure valve.. but I read that it's not a good idea to put too much oil in your AC system. 

 

So let me see if I can explain what I'm asking here... What would be the way to go about this.. would You just put the additive in as well as the 195ml of PAG (.. meaning the Cool Ox would not actually count towards the amount of oil already in there, presumably because it will go to work and be used up coating the metal surfaces), or do you add it INSTEAD of the PAG oil, or would you makeup the 195 ml from both the PAG oil AND Cool Ox..?

 

I hope I've explained that ok... Thanks very much in advance.

[JFP in PA]

I always remain circumspect of "magic bullet" additives, especially those touted on the internet, and particularly when used in very expensive and sensitive systems like air conditioning. The ac systems in these cars have proven to be both effective and long lived as designed, I don't really see any advantageous reason to do this as a well maintained and functioning system doesn't need any help.

[Spartan1-6]

1 hour ago, JFP in PA said:

I always remain circumspect of "magic bullet" additives, especially those touted on the internet, and particularly when used in very expensive and sensitive systems like air conditioning. The ac systems in these cars have proven to be both effective and long lived as designed, I don't really see any advantageous reason to do this as a well maintained and functioning system doesn't need any help.

Hi thanks for your response. 

While I appreciate your opinion regards these kind of products and the systems they are put into in terms of whether you feel they need them or not, with respect that wasn't my question...

 

I've researched these products in depth and know that they do work and have decided that I would like to use them. My question was around if anyone else had used them and how they had gone about that in terms of ratios of product to oil. 

 

Once again thank you for your response.

Edited 10 hours ago by Spartan1-6

[JFP in PA]

At the end of the day, it is your car and your money.  Just be aware that there always has been a limit as to how cold an automotive AC can be allowed to get; some manufacturers actually set a minimum permissible temperature for their system in order to prevent some rather strange problems. 

 

We actually had a customer that complained his system seemed to be cooling fine and then would just shut off for no apparent reason during a rather warm and humid period.  After some intense diagnostics, we discovered that his system was getting so cold (very low 30F air temps), that under some humidity conditions, the car was actually freezing over the inside heat exchanger, blocking air low until it defrosted, giving the appearance that the AC had quit.  We traced the problem to an AC compressor replacement prior to his purchase of the vehicle, where the wrong part number compressor was installed that had a higher capacity rating than the factory unit.  We evacuated the system, replace the compressor with the correct part number, recharged the system and found the air temps inside the car's ductwork now stayed at around 41F, one degree above the manufacture's minimum allowable internal air temp.  The car never froze up again.

 

While getting you system's AC temps as low as possible seems like a worth goal, sometimes the law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head............