With pressure to prevent climate change, the focus on the impact of refrigerants on the environment demanded a solution for a gas that could provide effective cooling but with a considerably lower global warming impact.

As a result a new refrigerant has been developed called R1234yf which has a GWP of only 4. This new gas is completely non toxic and were it ever to escape into the atmosphere it would break down in a matter of hours. The only downside to this is that it is considerably more expensive to produce and new specialist equipment is required to dispense it.

Here at K Motors we have invested in the latest automotive air conditioning equipment for both the R134a and R1234yf refrigerants enabling us to service and refill the air con systems of Land Rover vehicles all the way back to 1994.

When servicing a Land Rovers air conditioning system, we start by removing all existing refrigerant from the vehicle. We then pressure test the system to make sure that when filled with new gas it does not escape through any obvious holes (please be aware that even if the system passes the pressure test it does not guarantee 100% that the system is air tight, for example if there is a tiny pin hole in a pipe somewhere then the gas can still escape over a period of time).

Once the system has been tested a special oil is forced into the system to keep all moving parts lubricated. Then the refrigerant that was taken out is filtered and all the impurities are removed making it as good as new, it is then put back into the system and topped up with fresh gas to capacity.