Air Conditioning - Retrofit

quick_spider wrote: A litte more on the wiring:
There's a Green/Slate wire which is the feed for the controls. This goes to the fusebox (connector is behind so you'll have to unbolt it to get at it properly). You'll probably find there's already a wire there, so just join onto it.

Once this is wired in, the recirc will work - press the button and you'll hear the motor moving the flap inside the evaporator.

This green/slate wire goes to the yellow radiator fan relay next to the outer fuse box.
In the AC cars it goes to the relay pack and then to the internal AC wiring the by evaporator.

The other wires from the yellow relay also go to the AC relay pack.

I've been reading this with interest as I'd like to have A/C in my SAIC 2011 TF135. (new to the forum btw)
I can see that its 'best' to buy a car with A/C (an LE500), but I found a less than 5,000 miles car in showroom condition in rare colour I like, so A/C fell off the list....
However, its something I would like to add for long term use (in 2002-5 I had a TF 160 with A/C and it was really useful) and this article has generated a list of questions.
1. SAIC cars v MGR.. I see all the new parts are listed separately for SAIC cars, presumably this means they are somehow different? Has anyone any idea if ANY MGR parts can be substituted as a search suggests some things are not available new (wiring loom extensions, glove box variant, Steering column blank with bracket).
2. So options look to be putting together a SAIC kit new or obtaining a complete late TF MGR kit used from a breakers. Can I fit the complete MGR kit in my SAIC car?
3. Fitting. I don't have the time of the space to do this. It looks like it needs to be done by someone who has some knowledge of the car (if only to prevent something being messed up in my otherwise pristine car). Any suggestions - I'm in NW London.
4. The link to the 'guide' is dead. Is this still available?
Thanks!
Brendan
PS - here's my car.

Hi and :welcome: to the forum . Well this is a tricky one ( especially for me ) :nonod: but I believe a forum member has retro fitted A/C to his car but its not a SIAC one as far as I recall . Its a nice looking car even without A/C :broon: A member of my club Leeds MG and classic car club told me that they had bought an MOT fail SIAC MG TF in burnt orange for ..........£250 ! ! ! Just had to put new discs and pads all round and it's a runner . Mad or what ?

John

Thanks
£250!!!!!!! good grief.

brendanD wrote: Thanks
£250!!!!!!! good grief.

:welcome: aboard Brendan. Keep us posted on your project's progress please. A few new pics would be nice. :broon:

I've installed a/c in 5 MGFs: 4 of the systems have come from an MGF and the last one came out of a LE500. All the systems are the same with the following exceptions:
- The compressor on SAIC cars is different and has different pipe connections.
- The compressor end connections on the underfloor pipes are different. The pipes are made up of 3 pieces: one pipe and a flexible hose at either end. You just need to change the hose at the compressor end on both pipes if you use early hoses.
- The early MGFs had a separate under bonnet a/c wiring harness, but on later cars, probably when they went to MEMS3, the main harness incorporated in the under bonnet a/c wiring.

Thanks, That's really helpful.
I can source a complete LE500 system, but I've been advised that fitting it requires stripping out the interior including the dash to replace the entire loom with an A/C one and dropping the front sub frame to feed in the evaporator pipes.
That sounds like simply enormous job.......

You don't need to drop the entire front subframe, only one side about 10cm.

Yeah, it would be a big job to replace the entire main wiring loom. I've been told another difference is that the a/c relay pack is incorporated into the main fuse panel, so changing the wiring loom is probably the necessary. But, you could do some routing around under the bonnet and behind the glovebox to see if the required a/c wires are there. It could be that they only made one wiring loom and that the required wires are tucked up and coiled out of sight. I put a/c into a Germany-export car and it's main loom had the wires and connectors already for the underbonnet a/c wiring loom to plug into.

It should be possible to build an A/C sub loom based on the design from the mk1, it has very few actual connections into the main loom. Use the wiring diagram in the community section above.

It is possible to build the a/c subloom; that's what I did for the last install I did. The trick is finding all the correct connectors for plugging into things like the high pressure switch at the dryer, the 2 plugs for the relay pack, plugs for the 2 radiator fans and plugging the original radiator fan plug into an equivalent female plug. Then plugging into the evaporator unit under the dash and running 6 wires (if memory serves me correctly) to the ECU and the compressor.

You can get all the correct colour-coded wires from Autosparks. I got most of the connectors from Cycle Terminal. The biggest trick for me was figuring out the correct name for all the different connectors used such as Econoseal 070, Junior Power Timer. The ones used at the radiator fans are Delphi Metripack 280.

Some of the plugs can be recycled from scrap yard cars, most MGR cars use the same ones.

talkingcars wrote: Some of the plugs can be recycled from scrap yard cars, most MGR cars use the same ones.

Very true, all could be obtained from a scrapped car. I, unfortunately, don't have access to a scrapped car.