A/C - Replacement Refrigerants Damage System

REF.: HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING

NO.: AC94-001

DATE: MARCH 25, 1994

MODEL: ALL MODELS

ALTERNATIVE REFRIGERANTS

Beginning with the Montreal Protocol signed in April 1988, auto manufacturers world-wide committed to phase-out the use of ozone damaging Refrigerant R-12, also known as Freon. All automobile manufacturers are re-designing new production vehicles to use non ozone depleting R-134a which is the only universally approved replacement refrigerant for R-12. Toyota has completely converted to R-134a on all new vehicles built after February 1994.

Several independent companies have begun marketing alternative refrigerants which they claim can replace R-12 when servicing vehicles in the dealership. These R-12 replacements, commonly referred to as blends or hydrocarbon based refrigerants, have the potential to cause damage to Toyota AC systems and in some cases can cause personal injury to the service technician or the end-user. Toyota strongly discourages the use of these refrigerants in any Toyota vehicle.

Furthermore, dealer technicians should be cautious of vehicles that may be labeled or otherwise identified to contain such refrigerants. Servicing these vehicles can contaminate your AC refrigerant recovery equipment causing refrigerant stored in the recovery machine to be rendered unusable. Also, if the contaminated refrigerant equipment is then used on subsequent repairs, the dealership may unknowingly contaminate other owner's vehicles.

For all Toyota models and years that are designed to operate on R-12, continue to service with R-12 as long as it is available which is expected to be two or more years. When research is complete and R-12 becomes difficult to acquire, Toyota will provide parts and procedures to properly retrofit an R-12 vehicle to non-ozone depleting R-134a.