Air Conditioning - Retrofit

nice work ... hat off to you sir

talkingcars wrote: Nice one - people often rubbish the idea of aircon on a convertable but it was sold to me by a BMW M3 owner - the interior of a soft top is inevatably damper than a tintop, the heated air from a/c is drier so clears the screen much quicker.

Look foward to the finished results.

Thats always going to happen. The air is not heated its just circulates through an evaporator and removes all the moisture and aids clearing the screen. I dont rubbish the idea of aircon in a convertible i just dont see the point, I mean aircon is used primarily in the height of summer when really all you want to do is enjoy top down motoring and not just sit in an air conditioned bubble. As for retro fit why not buy one with A/C and save yourself a lot of hassle. But on the other hand top marks for having a go

There are very few 160's with air con! My choices were find a 115/135 with aircon and fit a 160 (and upgrade brakes if it didn't have 4-pots already) or find a 160 and fit the air con. It's made worse by the fact that most Mk2/TF's I've seen with aircon are autos as well.

It's also about the journey rather than the destination...

Aircon can heat as well as cool. Also you can have aircon on with the roof done. Cjj says its like a little bubble just like when you have the heaters on in the cold with the roof down.

It's all well and good saying go out buy one with ac. But I tried that. Went to see dozens. And they were all sheds. There also quite rare. Not many people opted for the ac so you limit the field even more.

very well done on fitting the air con,i have done a few myself and its a bit of a job.the reson air con was and still is fitted to open top cras,these cars get exported to very hot countries.in the heat of the sun without a roof the occupants would get burnt.so the air con is used,then at night the tops are put down

Brilliant guide! Destined for the how to section, after a great pictorial journey. Much obliged to you. :broon:

Very nice. I'd like to have a/c in my MGF. It's been so hot this summer (high 20's/low 30's) that I haven't been driving the car a lot, rather the VW with a/c.

Brilliant - I have had the front bits fitted to Meg for years now and never got round to the rear bits (which are in the shed).... now I will have a check to make sure it's all still there and finally give it a go! Although I am pretty sure I don't have that blanking plate so I'll have to make one up that had a drain hole in it!

Might be worth trying rimmer bros/xpart - part JQY100100. List price is under £10.

Switches fitted:

If you're using mk1 wiring, the AC switch fits with no modding. The Recirc switch has different keys, but is easy enough to doctor with a scalpel (note pinouts are identical for the switch sub-loom):


Wiring: John (Jack of Hearts) very kindly sent me his TF AC body loom which I've stripped back all the dross so here's what's left with labels. (Ignore the fog light parts - that's because he has a poverty spec 160!) It turns out the TF & Mk2 is entirely integrated with the body loom. The mk1 has a seperate front bay loom as pictured earlier (join is where the red line is)



1: Trinary Switch (on dryer)
2: Relay Pack
3: Fusebox connections (x2) - only one on my MGF loom which I need to investigate
4: Fan Connections (x2) - on MGF loom this has a separate connector to plug into the existing fan connection. For TF/mk2 F this replaces it. (John, just unplug your old one and tape it up)
5: Connector to Switch Sub-Loom - connects just above evaporator
6: To dashboard feed - I'll add pictures later showing which pin once I've done the rest of my car loom
7: To ECU/Engine Bay. 4 pins to go into small ECU connector, 2 to go into one of the other body/engine loom interface plugs.

There's also couple of earths up near the front fog wiring.

As you can see, it'll be significantly easier to add this to an existing car, rather than swap the whole body loom.

That's much easier to understand.

Your still going to have to do the masking tape thing again;)

In my wisdom I thought it'd be a good idea to renew the o-rings on the joints on the AC system.

MG/Rover in their wisdom didn't bother to list in the EPC how many of each size of o-ring you need, or the locations. This is especially annoying since the ones you need most of are priced at £2.23 + VAT each.

I'm going to try buying some tomorrow through Land Rover as they seem to be cheaper.

From what I can gather so far you require:
1x JYX100150 (£0.45 each - I bought 10x if anyone needs one!)
1x JYX100160 (£0.45 each - I bought 10x if anyone needs one!)
4x JUU100220 replaced by JUU000070SLP (£2.23 each) or try Land Rover JUU100220L
4x JUU000060 replaced by JUU100230L (£1.27 each - presume because it's a Land Rover part no)
4x JUU100240 (£2.23 each) or try Land Rover JUU100240L

I'll update tomorrow when I've got some feedback on Land Rover prices.