What refrigerant is 2013 MS?

[Sanderpman12]

Hey all, it’s summertime and I feel like my 2013 tesla AC could be cooler. Sometimes I have to set it all the way to 11 and it’s still not enough.

What refrigerant is used in 2013 model s? Has anyone done this before? Is it like doing any other car? Any help or insight is appreciated

 

[Sanderpman12]

Bump

 

[ucmndd]

It’s R134a. Do you have gauges and tools for checking pressure and actually diagnosing the problem? Might not be low refrigerant at all.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

It should be like any other car, which means to do it right, you shouldn't just add R134a, you should have the existing charge recovered and weighed to see if it was low or high on refrigerant by weight, and then recharged with the exact weight specified by Tesla. That's the right way to do it. Most good shops have the machine to do that job, and it's not very expensive.

 

[Sanderpman12]

It should be like any other car, which means to do it right, you shouldn't just add R134a, you should have the existing charge recovered and weighed to see if it was low or high on refrigerant by weight, and then recharged with the exact weight specified by Tesla. That's the right way to do it. Most good shops have the machine to do that job, and it's not very expensive.

Is there any chain brand shop that I can go to? I live in Philadelphia area

 

[Sanderpman12]

It’s R134a. Do you have gauges and tools for checking pressure and actually diagnosing the problem? Might not be low refrigerant at all.

I do not have all that, it’s not blowing as cold as I would like it, so I thought all you do is add that refrigerant to the low line and the refrigerant can comes with the gauges to check what it’s at and stuff. Is that correct or do I need to do more?

 

[Hamen]

It depends on your region.
EU: R1234yf
USA: R134a

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I do not have all that, it’s not blowing as cold as I would like it, so I thought all you do is add that refrigerant to the low line and the refrigerant can comes with the gauges to check what it’s at and stuff. Is that correct or do I need to do more?

It’s what I said. Anything else is a hack job. There’s a reason every car manufacturer specifies the amount of refrigerant by weight for each of their cars.

 

[No CO2]

I have a 2013 MS also.
Two years ago, it was easy to figure out that the A/C system in this car had never been serviced.
I had Tesla service replace the desiccant bag. This way, I also got the refrigerant done on the same job.
Two years ago, it was $330 total, $11 of that was parts.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

Is there any chain brand shop that I can go to? I live in Philadelphia area

Tesla SC is an option. But any shop in your area that works on AC's absolutely should have an A/C machine that looks similar to the one in this picture.

They are required to recover old refrigerant because it's illegal to vent it to the atmosphere, so if they don't have one of these machines, they are breaking the law if they are working on AC's.

Normally, you pay for the difference of the amount that was removed vs. what was added. That's why they are able to weigh what was in the system, and knowing what was in the system is a very good indicator if you have a leak or if someone overfilled, which can be worse for R143A systems than underfilling.

 

[Gumball]

And make sure if you go to an independent shop, that they replace the desiccant bag. Lot of those simply never do that or don’t have the parts.

 

[KalJoMoS]

According to Tesla it’s 1.7lb for R134a and 730g for R1234yf, oli is separate. Chart added:

 

[Sanderpman12]

Thanks all this info is very helpful