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2010 Prius Freon Type

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by phartin, Jun 17, 2010.

  1. phartin

    phartin Cookie Monster

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    Quiz question of the day: What type of freon does the 2010 Prius use?

    Last August I had a huge wreck in my car and the shop that repaired it did a lousy job all around. Now that it has gotten hot, I discovered that the A/C doesn't work. I took it to a different shop and they got it at least partially working, but they think the previous shop may have used the wrong type of freon in here, because the 2010 apparently takes a different type from other years and/or models.

    I looked at my repair invoice and it says it was refilled with R-12. Is that the correct freon?
     
    #1 phartin, Jun 17, 2010
  2. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    R-12 was banned for new use in 1994. [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichlorodifluoromethane]Dichlorodifluoromethane - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

    There is no chance it was the correct refridgerant for any 2010 car in the US.
     
    #2 JimboPalmer, Jun 17, 2010
  3. RRxing

    RRxing Senior Member

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    Refrigerant Type HFC 134a
    Charge Volume 470 +/- 30g
     
    #3 RRxing, Jun 17, 2010
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  4. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    The term "freon" refers to the DuPont-brandname for R-12. This has been banned for a long time

    The correct refrigerant is R-134a. The unique thing about the Prius is the oil used. You MUST use the special ND-oil-11 in the Prius, as it has an electric compressor and the oil is specially designed to insulate it

    If the wrong oil was used to recharge the system, the compressor is probably damaged
     
    #4 jayman, Jun 17, 2010
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  5. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    So that Mazola corn oil that I used probably won't work?

    Tom
     
    #5 qbee42, Jun 17, 2010
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  6. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    It might work
     
    #6 jayman, Jun 17, 2010
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  7. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    Damn impress with knowledgeable people of Priuschat.
     
    #7 usbseawolf2000, Jun 17, 2010
  8. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    You'd be surprised what you can do with Mazola Corn Oil

    I don't even use it for cooking
     
    #8 jayman, Jun 17, 2010
  9. phartin

    phartin Cookie Monster

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    That sounds like it very well could be the culprit. The air it was putting out was only slightly cooler than outside air, and if you try to put it on outside air, every 15 seconds or so it would automatically switch between outside air and recirculated air. The Toyota techs had never seen anything like that.

    They replaced the compressor and one other piece and it fixed that problem, but they said that when the car is stopped or idle or something like that the air temperature goes up by a few degrees, which is what makes them think it's the wrong type of freon, or I guess to be more accurate, the wrong oil.

    Thanks to all for the info. I knew I could count on the Priuschat folks to point me in the right direction.
     
    #9 phartin, Jun 18, 2010
  10. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    Thanks for this information. Where did you find this ?
     
    #10 jdcollins5, Jun 18, 2010
  11. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    There is usually a label under the hood, that has that information. You can do a daily subscription to Toyota TechInfo and get the factory-source data
     
    #11 jayman, Jun 18, 2010
  12. RRxing

    RRxing Senior Member

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    Like Jayman said, Toyota Technical Information Service, under New Car Features. $15 for two days access, and start downloading everything of interest. I plan on taking another two days in July to get as much of the Service Manual as I can.

    If I remember correctly, if you sign up early in the day, you actually get access through the following two days.

    https://techinfo.toyota.com
     
    #12 RRxing, Jun 18, 2010
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