Solstice Advanced Materials has launched its Direct to YF (DTYF) R134a retrofit kit for motor vehicle air conditioning systems.
The aftermarket solution is designed to enable the conversion of existing R-134a vehicle air conditioning systems to Solstice YF (R-1234yf).
Introduced at Automechanika Frankfurt 2026, the kit is for professional workshops servicing the large installed base of vehicles that continue to operate with R-134a air conditioning systems.
The retrofit is designed to enable professional workshops to accommodate R-1234yf without needing to replace or modify existing 134a air conditioning system components.
The process consists of three steps: (1) recover the remaining R-134a refrigerant from the vehicle system and repair the leak, (2) fit a pair of newly designed snap-on 134a to R-1234yf adapters to the vehicle and (3) inject a small amount of a specially developed oil additive designed to optimize oil return to the compressor before recharging the vehicle system with R-1234yf.
The new R-1234yf refrigerant identification label is then applied under the hood.
Solstice Advanced Materials vice president & general manager of automotive refrigerants, Rick Winick, said the European aftermarket is currently servicing a vehicle fleet that includes more than 100 million R-134a systems alongside newer vehicles operating with R-1234yf.
“The Direct-to-YF retrofit concept has been developed over the last three years to help address the need for a more widely available refrigerant option for older R-134a vehicles,” he said.
“We have made this retrofit option easy for technicians to adopt. Independent technical evaluations and risk assessments have concluded that retrofit use is acceptable within the same assessment framework applied to new vehicle air conditioning systems.
“These conclusions are based on independent reports assessing retrofit performance and the use of R-1234yf in retrofit-suitable vehicle air conditioning systems.”
The launch comes as implementation of the European Union's F-Gas Regulation (2024/573) continues to drive the phasedown of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants through a quota-based system.
R-1234yf is fully compliant with the mobile air conditioning systems (MAC) Directive (2006/40/EC) for new passenger vehicle air conditioning systems and is supported by an established service infrastructure across the automotive aftermarket.
Solstice has an established aftermarket ecosystem across Europe that will make the required retrofit components available across its existing automotive aftermarket channels.
Workshops across Europe have been servicing both R-134a and R-1234yf vehicles for years and are already equipped with the necessary recovery, recycling and recharging (RRR) equipment for both refrigerants used in this process.
The retrofit process builds on these existing service capabilities and established workshop practices.
Additional technical information on the retrofit concept and implementation process will be presented during a technical session at Automechanika Frankfurt 2026 later today.