Hey all. Just wanted to share this little tidbit with you.

The summer after I bought my car I realized the A/C wasn't working. I thought it just needed a charge, but the dealership wanted $120.00 for the charge alone! They said it would be another $180.00 to see if it was leaking / malfunctioning. I told em where to stuff that estimate.

I was at Autozone Wednesday night getting oil and filters for the 2 cars in my family. I bought a R-134A recharge kit (comes with 3 cans, gauge, and adapters to swap out R-12) for $40.00.

In the process of trying to charge the system we saw the compressor clutch wasn't engaging. We took out the relay and hot-wired it. The relay was in fact bad. The system took 2 cans of refrigerant, and I replaced the relay today at a cost of $22.00.

I just can't believe how bad the dealership almost ripped me off. I spent a grand total of $66.00 and an hour of my time for the same result as $300.00 +. Unbelievable!

Now my A/C is ICE cold, and I am quite happy. I sometimes get nervous about doing work on my own car, but I think I'll be a bit more willing to do it from now on.

 

Wow, what a cost savings.... Dealers are notorious for charging too much and guessing half the time. If it's something major I will do it myself or farm it out to my mechanic. Mostly the latter of those two btw..

 

I am fortunate enough to have found a garage I can trust. I also have a friend who is a mechanic, as well as my sister. The garage will get the car if I don't have the time/tools/space to do something. Other than that it will be myself, my friend, and/or my sister.

I think the whole thing with having the car dealer serviced came with being financed. It's just not worth it, though. They told me that my tensioner "broke" when they changed out my belt last spring, costing me $80.00. Then when I put in that cheap short-throw filter I found a cigarette cellophane under my stock air filter. That's when I decided never to have the dealership work on my car. I should have came to that conclusion after they backed the Trail Blazer over my front end.

 

Well, I seem to have unlocked a hidden problem with my A/C repair: my altenator quit. The "volts" light came on yesterday, and she died halfway to work this morning. A cop pulled up and told me to have it towed, which I did at a cost of $60.00.

I'm pretty sure it's the original altenator. Almost 100k miles with 1 altenator seems like a good life for one. I ripped it out earlier and will visit Autozone tomorrow. I will also be replacing the belt and dropping in a K&N filter.

I just gotta know one thing...who was the genius that thought placing the battery underneath the windshield washer fluid tank was a good idea? I broke my ratchet trying to unbolt the cross-beam. That'll teach me to get the $14.99 "special" socket set...