V 70 A/C

Nope... A/Cs are suppose to be the most sealed for life system in your car... The gases inside them are pretty nasty for the environment too... so you don't want them to get out (even the newer stuff that's not too bad for the environment isn't the best for it either, according to the HVAC guys i've talked to).

That being said the gases do eventually leak out - give it 10-12 years and it probably wont work anymore... sometimes less, sometimes more. At this point you will have to add more refrigerant, and probably replace pipes/fittings maybe even the compressor or evaporator.

The sealed part of the A/C is maintenance free, it's very high pressure so be careful with the hoses and fittings, don't mess with it unless it stops working. The only thing requring regular maintenance is the belt that drives it. Also it's possible to get mold growing on the evaporator which requires disinfecting but there's ways to prevent this,

The old rule about running the A/C at least once a week in the winter - usually in the form of running the defroster - still applies. The idea is to keep the O-rings oiled.

The A/C guys' info is out of date. NASA and NOAA teamed up for a mission in

1997 to determine the exact cause of seasonal ozone depletion. The mission was called POLARIS, for Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in Arctic Regions In Summer. (When we hear about Antarctic ozone loss in winter, it refers to northern hemisphere winter - Antarctic summer.) U2 flights in the affected region carried an instrumentation package aloft to avoid the contamination problems that led to the scare in the first place. Their conclusions, summarized in the end-of-mission statement identify extended hours of sunlight as the primary cause of the depletion that caused the uproar. Too late for R12, though, the manufacture of which was banned under the Montreal Protocol ten years earlier. Mike

Mostly all A/c-ed cars will need a topup of gas after abotu 3-4 years due to natural loss on a system in good order.

The most important thing to remember is to exercise the a/c once a week all year around for 10mins or so to keep the seals moist via the lube oil circulating. This can be abit tricky in the winter as it is disabled below around 4 deg C, but you can get it to run if you heat the cabin with the heater first, then switch to recirc and let the heater suck in warm air.

Tim..