This past spring, the A/C in my wife's van quit working. No A/C in the summer makes the van useless to us because it's mainly used to transport dogs to race meets and such, which you simply cannot do safely in 90+ temps.
We took the van to a shop that had been recommended to us and they told us that we needed to replace the entire system, compressor, condenser and some other major part to the tune of $1800. We couldn't afford the $1800 as we're retired folks on a limited income so we took the van home and hardly used it all summer.
The shop told me that they had a used condenser and tried hooking it up to our car and it still didn't worked so we need new system. Now I'm not a stupid man and I have been an auto mechanic and a heavy equipment mechanic for 6 years in a past life, so I do know a little something about cars. That did not sound like a proper diagnosis to me since they didn't seem like they had checked for loose wires, fuses, relays, etc. and there was evidence of rodent activity under the hood, so a chewed through wire seemed like a real possibility.
After losing the practical use of the van for the entire summer, we got the $1800 together but I took it to a different shop, one that my Uber passengers recommended as good mechanics and honest. (J&H Automotive in Lacey. Whenever I would pick up a passenger at an auto shop I would ask them about the shop and if they recommended it.)
They did a proper diagnosis and found that the relay had been removed and was unhooked and upside down. They replaced the relay in it's socket and bingo. A/C! The Schrader valve was leaking and they replaced it when they recharged the system.
Total cost including charging the system: $120. Charge for the BS diagnosis from the other shop was $290. That's right, they diagnosed it AND fixed it for less than half what we were charged by the lying bastards that pulled the relay.
I've found an honest mechanic and I will be a loyal J&H customer from now on.
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We took the van to a shop that had been recommended to us and they told us that we needed to replace the entire system, compressor, condenser and some other major part to the tune of $1800. We couldn't afford the $1800 as we're retired folks on a limited income so we took the van home and hardly used it all summer.
The shop told me that they had a used condenser and tried hooking it up to our car and it still didn't worked so we need new system. Now I'm not a stupid man and I have been an auto mechanic and a heavy equipment mechanic for 6 years in a past life, so I do know a little something about cars. That did not sound like a proper diagnosis to me since they didn't seem like they had checked for loose wires, fuses, relays, etc. and there was evidence of rodent activity under the hood, so a chewed through wire seemed like a real possibility.
After losing the practical use of the van for the entire summer, we got the $1800 together but I took it to a different shop, one that my Uber passengers recommended as good mechanics and honest. (J&H Automotive in Lacey. Whenever I would pick up a passenger at an auto shop I would ask them about the shop and if they recommended it.)
They did a proper diagnosis and found that the relay had been removed and was unhooked and upside down. They replaced the relay in it's socket and bingo. A/C! The Schrader valve was leaking and they replaced it when they recharged the system.
Total cost including charging the system: $120. Charge for the BS diagnosis from the other shop was $290. That's right, they diagnosed it AND fixed it for less than half what we were charged by the lying bastards that pulled the relay.
I've found an honest mechanic and I will be a loyal J&H customer from now on.