MACS Monthly Newsletter - 2022 - DEC2

The team at MACS expedited the survey to over
12,000 shops and technicians, and provided the results
to the task force in roughly two weeks. The response
was excellent. Over 5,000 A/C system repair
incidents were reported during the months of May
and June 2021. The task force was very appreciative
of the effort made by the MACS team to perform this
valuable survey.
At the end of July 2021, the task force concluded its
work and submitted final reports to the SAE membership
along with recommended solutions. The solutions
included recommendations for the design of
a new service port for future refrigerant launches,
and a call for permitting the new design for use as
a backward-compatible running change for production.
The task force also recommended that a workgroup
be formed to implement these recommendations,
similar to the SAE IMAC Cooperative Research
Program during the launch of R-134a systems which
significantly reduced major areas of system refrigerant
loss by implementing new designs. Industry exThe
following is a summary of the major items
identified in the MACS Field Survey which are
causing vehicles to be serviced due to issues
with service ports:
* Missing caps are common
o This allows debris, moisture, etc. to
enter service ports along with the onset of
corrosion creating A/C system refrigerant
leaks
o Almost no systems include a cap retention
feature
perts from the OEM, Supplier and Service Standards
Committees and others were invited to participate in
this effort. Work continues today acting on the findings
of the A/C service ports task force.
Summary of the June 2021 MACS Field Survey
Upon review of the responses from the survey, a
small percentage of the vehicles were R-1234yf systems
with low mileage. This is likely due to R-1234yf
vehicles being new to the market and the service
recorded is likely to be the first A/C service of the
vehicle's history.
The vast majority of the vehicles coming into
the service shops were R-134a systems. Of these
systems, 76% of vehicles had been in service for
>50,000 miles. It was also reported that greater than
50% of these vehicles had a missing service port
cap(s). A service port cap retention feature was essentially
non-existent. 92% of the vehicles with the
caps still attached to service ports had no retention
feature (tether strap) included with the cap.
* Inferior quick connect service port
coupler tools in the marketplace
o Coupler tools in the marketplace are
damaging valve cores creating refrigerant
leaks
* Accessibility
o Ports on some vehicles are difficult to
access - service port extenders now in the
marketplace
* Robustness of service port design(s)
o Ball type service valves have a high failure
rate
SAE Information Reports
As a direct result of the MACS survey performed
in June 2021, the SAE MAC Supplier Standards Committee
has published two new information reports:
SAE J3266, " Automotive Air-Conditioning Service
Ports Final Report, Recommendations " and SAE
J3267, " Automotive Air-Conditioning Service Ports
Task Force Field Survey Results. " Publishing the
survey results and recommendations from the task
force supporting the survey makes the survey information
part of SAE's permanent record. While
December 2022
2
the recommendations in J3266 and J3267 are not
requirements, they are now the launching point for
new and revised standards.
SAE J3267 Automotive Air-Conditioning
Service Ports Task Force Field Survey
Results
Some of the MACS survey data taken in June 2021
that is included in J3267 is included the following
figures:
MACS Service Reports
MACS Monthly Newsletter - 2022

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