chance AC condenser getting damaged during engine rebuild?
 

2013 frs

Dealer was replacing short block after J02 recall, and i got a call today, they found a crack/hole in my AC condenser and wants to charge $450+$800 for parts and 5 hr labor. I said hell no.

How card is it to replace ac condenser? i didn't see a DIY. And does ac condenser get removed by any chance during engine rebuild?

Was the AC working before you dropped it off? If yes, they broke it.


No need to remove it. Maybe they tweaked one of the hard lines.

You can simply unbolt it and set it to the side while pulling out the motor. I've done it. Simple. If it was working when you dropped it off. Make that very apparent to the service advisor.

Yea it was working fine during summer, didn't really use it during winter. I was speaking to the GM and he told me the tech told him looked like a rock hit it and it wasn't holding freon. He told me, their guys didn't touch it and trying to charge 5 hrs of labor smh.

I had foreign object damage to my ac condenser. I removed my front bumper when replacing it. It sits in front of the radiator, if they damaged it from the engine bay side I'd expect your radiator to be toast as well... I put some gutter guard mesh in front of the condenser to avoid future damage.

Haven't done ac condenser, but radiator is pretty easy, i am sure ac condenser is about the same.

Have you seen the damage yet? Where on the condenser is the damage? what side? If it was a rock it would be front side on the lower half. if they did something, they could have maybe hit a line? or they would of had to remove the radiator but not ac condenser and hit the top of the backside.

Haven't seen it yet, its still at the dealership. I told them i'll replace it and bring it back so they can fill it up with refrigerant, but they're like we're gonna have to charge you for that. :iono:

Why would they not charge you for that? The recall doesn't pay for any r134, you recover the refrigerant, you put it back in. Your car has no refrigerant to recover, you should be paying for it.

curious how they even found it? testing to see if ac works after recall work? Did they mention removing front bumper and or removing radiator?

You were using it all winter to defrost/defog the windshield. Did that work?

The recall calls for recovery of the system, I believe one of the hoses at the compressor is removed so it can swing out of the way? You would know as soon as you hook the machine up and show 0 (or low) psi, then recover 0 lb of r134.

If anything they did him a favor by diagnosing the leak for free.

I mean its not like i had 0 refrigerant in my car. They were rebuilding my engine, and they were going refill it with refrigerant but found a leak. My logic is since they were going to fill it up without charging me in the first place, why charge me if i fix the leak.

PLUS this is way after the recall. Recall blew my engine and they were replacing short block.

Yea they worked. But i thought ac only works if i use cool air. I'm not sure if i had the AC button pressed or not.

Can't turn it off in defrost mode. It secretly dehumidifies the incoming air.