1990 BMW M3 Evo 111 - air con question.
Discussion
I've now owned my fabulous 2 owner Evo 111 for 23 years and 280k joyous miles. I bought her back in 2000 as an import from Germany purely for trackdays, as a result the factory fitted air con which squeaked and rumbled was removed from the car along with all the plumbing (etc back to the bulkhead and stored in a box) to reduce weight. It's trackday duties ended in 2005 after many track outings and she has continued to provide excellent road duties thereafter being wonderfully nippy around London.
Over the years she has been restored as and when conditions demanded, the underside, upholstery, engine bay, etc and the final work to return her to factory specification (apart from the AC Schnitzer suspension) is to the air conditioning system. I dragged out all the components and finally after 3 years of step by faltering step! have managed to either purchase new items (OE from BMW) and found the seal repair kit. I could bore anyone to explain the number of dead ends, detours, internet searches, lack of information and dead enquiries (including a repair man in the USA) on how to restore the compressor.
Most of the BMW's from the 80's used the same system known as Bosch/Behr (in fact it was a Japanese system). And have been most suprised by the singular lack of information/knowledge available within the UK with this sytem.
There are new kits available but it has always been my goal to keep the car completely standard OE and didn't want to take what could unquestionably be the easier route. I'm now at the point where I have every thing to hand, all the components are now restored and set out in order to reassemble. But I have a few questions that I would like to find a few answers to and finally get the system refitted and working.
In short I'm looking for answers to the question of refilling the oil chamber (where the vanes are housed) and which gas would best suit the system which was originally gassed with R12. (I can now go to R134a) I could really do with speaking to someone who would be familiar with the installation and be willing to discuss/help - surely must be someone?
Over the years she has been restored as and when conditions demanded, the underside, upholstery, engine bay, etc and the final work to return her to factory specification (apart from the AC Schnitzer suspension) is to the air conditioning system. I dragged out all the components and finally after 3 years of step by faltering step! have managed to either purchase new items (OE from BMW) and found the seal repair kit. I could bore anyone to explain the number of dead ends, detours, internet searches, lack of information and dead enquiries (including a repair man in the USA) on how to restore the compressor.
Most of the BMW's from the 80's used the same system known as Bosch/Behr (in fact it was a Japanese system). And have been most suprised by the singular lack of information/knowledge available within the UK with this sytem.
There are new kits available but it has always been my goal to keep the car completely standard OE and didn't want to take what could unquestionably be the easier route. I'm now at the point where I have every thing to hand, all the components are now restored and set out in order to reassemble. But I have a few questions that I would like to find a few answers to and finally get the system refitted and working.
In short I'm looking for answers to the question of refilling the oil chamber (where the vanes are housed) and which gas would best suit the system which was originally gassed with R12. (I can now go to R134a) I could really do with speaking to someone who would be familiar with the installation and be willing to discuss/help - surely must be someone?
Edited by Richard-onrou on Friday 16th June 10:13
Edited by Richard-onrou on Friday 16th June 10:32
Edited by Richard-onrou on Friday 16th June 10:32
Edited by Richard-onrou on Friday 16th June 10:52
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