Loyale 2.7 Turbo

Dear Friend, Please do not hesitate to let me know if I made a mistake and if I should hurry to change the gas + oil on the A/C system, to avoid future costly repairs; I am not an expert on A/C systems... In fact, I'm not expert on mechanics (you can read further, ~► here); I am self taught even on english language, so please let me Know if I'm wrong. Now, answering your question: The A/C system has been working since I repaired it, in the last week of the month of may, and my wife, who really can't live without the air conditioning, says it is performing perfectly. The only difference that we've noticed on the overall vehicle's behaviour, is that the A/C tend to rob a little more Horsepower from the engine, than before; like if it is now around 25% more heavy to spin... Besides that, it still is working flawlessly, blowing icy cold air without leaks. By the way, Ester and Daphne, are women names... interesting that they're used to name compressor lubricants. Kind Regards.

I'm not expert on mechanics, I graduated from the university in year 2000 but as Lawyer... however my favourite activity / Hobby is mechanics; I started with my father, doing basic maintenance on our family cars since young child, decades ago; and besides of basic maintenance, and repairs, now I love to improve cars as long as I can, with low budget; I don't build pocket rockets nor have much money; but I always try to learn and to dare to do something new, hoping to not screw things up... with the kind help of God, and the awesome fellowship on these automotive forums, I've went farther than I ever thought, even in my wildest dreams... so Thank you for your amazing help and friendship, you're awesome. I've not posted very much about my beloved Subaru " BumbleBeast " because it is simply working wonderfully, without a single fail nor repair since years ago, which is Amazing; however, I'll update this thread as necessary. Kind Regards.

Firstly: Sorry for the delay in answering... Yes... the Compressor states that it must use Daphne Hermetic Oil number FD46GX and according to the internet searching I did, it is considered as a "High Viscosity" Lubricant, while having a Nº 46 viscosity. Then I also searched about the Ester oil viscosity number, and I found that it is considered a "Medium Viscosity" Lubricant, while having a Nº 100 viscosity. This is pretty confusing, especially for a newbie on A/C systems like me; and sounded like I just screwed up my compressor by going twice as thick on lubricant, until I read even more information, and I found this website: ~► Compressor oils [SubsTech] on which I found information regarding the subject, written in easy understanding words; and I found two things, one is that Ester oil is semi-synthetic, while Daphne is Mineral; the other thing I found, is that there is an ISO viscosity index that measures low temperature and high temperature flowing behaviour of the lubricant; which you can see in the following comparison tables: Daphne 46 Ester 100 And if you read them, the Viscosity index of the Daphne oil, ends being ~ 108, while the viscosity index of the Ester oil, ends being ~ 110 so, the difference is minimum, as far as I understand. I hope I didn't screw things by using Ester oil instead of Daphne oil... Kind Regards.

Welcome! / ¡Bienvenido! Nice Subarus! / ¡Bonitos Subarus! Greetings from the Caribbean / Saludos desde el Caribe.

I must confess that I am not an expert on A/C systems, so due to the lack of the Daphne oil, prior to purchase the Ester oil, I asked to the salesman at the store, regarding the differences between the Daphne and the Ester oils; and basically talking, I understood that there are two types of Ester lubricating oils, the old type which is simple; and the new type, which is composite with an special additive, known as: "Ice 32" which is alleged to work better in old, higher mileage compressors than the Daphne oil... Here are the Specs from the Ester Lubricating oil, also found online: Here is some information regarding the "Ice 32" Additive:

Regarding the Lubricant used on the A/C Compressor, the answer to your Question is No. The A/C Compressor found on this "KiaStein" states that it should be filled with a Mixture of r134a refrigerant Gas and Daphne lubricating oil, as you can see in the following photo from said compressor's sticker: This is an example of a Daphne oil can: And these are the Daphne Oil Specs, found online: The problem was the availability, I couldn't find it in this small town where I live, so I had to travel to another, bigger city (but still small), to search among their stores, and the only A/C compressor's Lubricant that I found on all of them, was the Ester oil:

That setup continues working flawlessly, But the way the Glovebox closes, lets too much space for free play; and besides of occasional rattle noises while driving on unpaved roads, sometimes a little glare from the LED illumination, escapes from the Opening, and the Glovebox didn't have a way to adjust how far or how near it closes from the dashboard's body. So, I removed the Metal hook for the Glovebox latch, and noticed that the only way to let the Glovebox to be closer to the Dashboard, was to weld shut the two tiny holes for the screws on said metal hook, and then re-open them in a little different position, in order to let the glove box, to seal closer to the Dashboard. Let me show ya: Another problem, Solved Now the glovebox Closes as it should, an no more rattling noises, nor glare escapes from the glove box at all. Kind Regards.

Long ago, I retrofitted LED illumination on the Glove Box of the "KiaStein" ... I took the Power wirings from the A/C Panel's Background illumination, and placed a 6 Led Lights' flat Panel up on the Glovebox, held in place by a small zip tie... That setup has been working flawlessly since years ago. You can do similar setup on your car, it is couple of hours job...

I forgot to mention that I cleansed everything and sprayed anti-rust paint on everything before assembly; then I took the "KiaStein" to an alignment shop, so the front wheels got perfectly Straight as they should be. To prevent premature wear on the tyres and ensure safety by keeping driveability at the best possible. Kind Regards.

Final issue: the power steering's Rack: I found that the leakage wasn't coming from the rack's seals themselves; the leakage came from the O-Ring at the base where the universal joint meets the rack; so it is Fixable. What I plan to do, is to fix the leakage on the old steering rack and save it as a spare part for a probable future use. I installed the new Steering Rack that came from the Spectra 2004, and something pretty interesting happened, besides of solving the leakage problem completely: The Steering wheel became super Soft to steer, as never before. Now it feels as soft as the one on my Subaru. I bet that the newer part has a different inner design, because the change is way more dramatic than fixing a simple pressure loss from a leakage; the new Spectra parts are improved over the old Sephia parts. My Wife is happy with the new, Solid sensation and soft control of her "KiaStein" and I assure you that this thing, really feels and drives like a brand new Car, despite that is about to reach its twenty anniversary, soon. Kind Regards.

So, what I did, was to install the immaculate control arms from the Spectra, onto the engine's crossmember of the Sephia; also I had to cut the small metal plates from the old Sephia's control arms, and weld 'em to the new Spectra's control arms; in order to use the Sephia's Stabilizer bar. That resolved the issue of the worn bushings from the control arms.

But it was not easy as I thought... I found three Differences, between the second gen Kia Sephia and the first gen Kia Spectra models, which despite of being almost the same car, they: Firstly, the base for the rear Support of the transmission, that came on the Spectra's engine crossmember, is 50% wider than the one on the Sephia's engine crossmember. So the Spectra uses a bigger transmission's support. Second: each side of the Stabilizer Bar on the Sephia, goes to a metal plate welded on each control arm; while in the Spectra, said bar has a completely different design and each side goes directly attached to the mere Strut; specifically to a metal plate welded on the shock absorbers' body. And finally, the Spectra's crossmember, uses longer bolts with thicker clamps to hold the power steering's Rack, against the engine's Crossmember, than the ones on the Sephia.

Well, as the problems on the exhaust and on the air conditioner systems, were resolved; I only needed to install the complete set of control arms (plus the engine's crossmember), and the power steering's rack, from the Spectra 2004... ...on our "KiaStein" which is a 2000 (built in 1999) Kia Sephia... ...in which I already had removed the whole set, to do the Swap.

Finally, I Had to purchase three cans of r134a gas and one can of the appropriated lubricant oil for the air conditioner system on the "KiaStein" and... ...Voilá! another problem, Solved.

Interesting is that they placed a sticker with the Engine model of the car, T8D, on the Compressor. In the following photo, you can see both seals together: The Photo below, shows the Seal Kit, along the old worn seal: Seal Kit Nº SS-0731 Found on a professional air conditioners & supplies' store