Air conditioning in a roadster? How practical is that? Is it worth considering when buying an MX-5, or should you have it added later?
Air conditioning definitely adds value to a roadster like the MX-5; otherwise, it would never have been developed and offered as an option. It’s not just on very hot days that it’s nice to have some cool air flowing over your arms and legs—it’s also ideal in the rain to prevent condensation from forming on the inside of the windows.
A complete new set of air conditioning parts for the NBFL is quite expensive, and then it still needs to be installed, tested, and charged. All in all, it’s a significant investment.
That’s why it’s worth looking for a used set of parts. You’ll need a bit of luck with that, though, because a leak in the condenser or compressor—which would need to be replaced with a new one—can drive up the costs considerably.
Installing this air conditioning system yourself is doable for an amateur mechanic. Ultimately, however, you’ll need some help from a specialized company to test and charge the system, unless you feel confident that you can and are allowed to do this yourself. Allowing the refrigerant to escape is harmful to the environment, so it must be recovered using specialized equipment.
To gain some experience and share it with others, I had bought a used system and wanted to install it in Project Oberhausen. However, it never got that far. Since I didn’t know the quality of the kit, I later bought a second one. That way, I’d have a better chance of ending up with at least one working system. At least, that was the theory.
In the end, I offered to install the kit in someone else’s NBFL; my 1.8 S-VT Sportive had already come with factory-installed air conditioning. The successor to Project Oberhausen became Project Schömberg, but that car has nearly 200k km on the odometer, and I’ll be selling it at some point.
To document the entire process and make it available to DIYers, I created a series of videos and posted them on my YouTube channel. I’ll also include links to those videos on this page.
If you want to install this yourself, you’ll need some torque wrenches, and it’s also helpful to have a vacuum pump with the appropriate hoses and gauges. You’ll easily recoup that investment by saving on the labor costs of a professional mechanic.
In the first video, I provide an overview of all the components that make up the air conditioning system for the MX-5 NBFL. Generally speaking, these types of systems are quite similar, but the components are specifically tailored to a particular car model.
The next step in the process is to understand how each of the components works and to be able to test them. The second video explains how to do that.
Next, it’s time to start installing parts on the car. It’s a good idea to start with the parts that will go inside the car. That’s also the focus of the third video.
Next, the focus shifts to the engine compartment, where the rest of the parts will be installed. Before we get to that, however, we’ll first need to make some room. Some parts need to be moved out of the way; otherwise, we won’t have access to the areas we need to reach.
In hindsight, I should have removed the radiator fan before I started working on the power steering, but you learn as you go.
You can see how that works in the fourth video.
In the fifth video, I install all the remaining air conditioning components needed to create a closed system. All the pipes, hoses, the condenser, and the compressor are used in this process.
After that, it’s just a matter of adding a few more parts, such as a drive belt and some relays, and testing whether the system leaks when checked with a vacuum pump. After that, the parts that had to be removed earlier can be put back in place. The final steps in the process are carried out by an air conditioning specialist. Only then will we know if the mission was a success. You can see it in the sixth and final video.
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