AC compressor replacement, OEM or aftermarket?

Last year I replaced my compressor with OEM. I have a couple thoughts on why OEM is seemingly failing so soon.

First thing is I did a little research on refrigerants and oils when mine failed. Most notable thing I learned is that R1234y-f doesn't carry oil that well, especially when it's "hot" think compressor discharge temperatures for hot.

Second thing is when I was driving to the shop to recover my charge I had he A/C running the whole 20 min drive to the shop plus an additional 5 mins chatting the guys up at the shop and even started recovering while the truck was still running. Allegedly that should collect all the oil in the compressor. When I pulled the old compressor and tried to dump it to balance the new one, I got the smallest skiff out after spinning it by hand for a while and nothing at all collected by the recovery machine.

My suspicion is either they were a bit little on oil at the factory or R1234y-f is not carrying the oil sufficiently through the system and it's just pooling somewhere.

I added an extra 3oz. of oil when I recharged my system. But I also switched to running an "alternative" refrigerant (a R290/R600A blend) so either way I would have added more oil since PAG isn't that good with hydrocarbon refrigerants. I added PAO oil

 

I wish we could go back to something consistent that we know works, like R134a.

 

R12, that was the real good stuff

 

I’d go back to that if I could!

 

I've had failures on my 1st and 2nd gens for decades now. Must be a weak point of the Tacoma

 

My 2nd gen blew the AC after bad traffic. I went OEM & the dealership was cheaper then all the AC shops here in Denver. Compressor clutch & tensioner all replaced $1,700 bucks for OEM & labor

 

OUCH! I feel ya!

After a few summers without AC, I just went and bought myself a MR2 Convertible for $3200...been driving it for 5 years now as a my summer daily (Ironically, the AC in the convertible works lol)
Sometimes you gotta pick your battles!

(This isn't a flex, but just how I chose to spend my AC repair money lol)

 

Nice. I want a convertible again. When my AC shit the bed, my wife was 7 months pregnant & we sat in traffic for hours. It was worth it for her & the dog.

About a week later my AC started to squeal like a banshee & made a nasty stinky cloud & I knew it was blown. All the AC shops want over $2k & probably was aftermarket parts. That said, my 2013 only had 70k miles on it at the time but was 8/9 years old. I see tons of AC problems on this forum & they tend to have the same symptoms everytime