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[Andy B]

Who's ever had a new compressor fitted to their car? I had my car re-gassed about a year ago. All fine till it ran out of gas 6 or 7 months later. I took it back and he topped it back up again, but unfortunately I never ever got a round to giving him the chance to look for the leak again.
So I got another fim to re-gas & add dye to it last Wed. My gas had gone again by Saturday. :-? So the firm turned up today to look for my gas/dye & he has condemned the compressor, leaking shaft seal. The replacemnt quote from this firm (via A N Other firm) is £240 +vat plus a couple of hour labour if I get him to get his spanners out - no further charge for gas whether he or I change it.
Opinions on cost would be most welcome.


I'm NOT going to go the 2nd hand route as you can never tell the state of what you're getting, as new as the donor car might be.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Who's ever had a new compressor fitted to their car? I had my car re-gassed about a year ago. All fine till it ran out of gas 6 or 7 months later. I took it back and he topped it back up again, but unfortunately I never ever got a round to giving him the chance to look for the leak again.
So I got another fim to re-gas & add dye to it last Wed. My gas had gone again by Saturday. :-? So the firm turned up today to look for my gas/dye & he has condemned the compressor, leaking shaft seal. The replacemnt quote from this firm (via A N Other firm) is £240 +vat plus a couple of hour labour if I get him to get his spanners out - no further charge for gas whether he or I change it.
Opinions on cost would be most welcome.


I'm NOT going to go the 2nd hand route as you can never tell the state of what you're getting, as new as the donor car might be.

Got one in the garage to fit to the facelift....it cost me 240 quid and not to bad a job to do.

[Andy B]

......

Got one in the garage to fit to the facelift....it cost me 240 quid and not to bad a job to do.

If it cost you £240, a man who is obviously 'in the know', then £240+vat to an oik like me doesn't seem too bad.  
It doesn't look to bad to fit, but I think I'll pay him to do it and that way there can be no argument if I run out of R134a again!      
Thanks

[Marks DTM Calib]

......

Got one in the garage to fit to the facelift....it cost me 240 quid and not to bad a job to do.

If it cost you £240, a man who is obviously 'in the know', then £240+vat to an oik like me doesn't seem too bad.  
It doesn't look to bad to fit, but I think I'll pay him to do it and that way there can be no argument if I run out of R134a again!      
Thanks

Hmmm....I got a genuine one, they can be got cheaper!

[Andy B]

......
Hmmm....I got a genuine one, they can be got cheaper!

This isn't genuine.  :-/ I've only had a very quick Google & found one near Oldham for similar money.
http://www.hypershop.org/products.php?cat=81309

The A/C bloke suggested that for some reason V6's tend to get through compressors faster that 4 pot cars, despite the fact they're the same compressor.  :-/

Where was yours from?

[Marks DTM Calib]

......
Hmmm....I got a genuine one, they can be got cheaper!

This isn't genuine.  :-/ I've only had a very quick Google & found one near Oldham for similar money.
http://www.hypershop.org/products.php?cat=81309

The A/C bloke suggested that for some reason V6's tend to get through compressors faster that 4 pot cars, despite the fact they're the same compressor.  :-/

Where was yours from?

Whch is 'dangle berries'.....and being a fitter he wont be allowing for the fact that there are more V6's than 4 pots!

www.coolcaraircon.co.uk

are good.....but thier shop is down at the moment

[Entwood]

I had the compressor fail on me in April ... took out a few other bits as well .. basically contaminated with metal filings ..

Parts exc VAT:

Compressor             £200.00
Filter/drier                £17.06
Expansion Valve       £47.00
Flushing Fluid            £46.74
Re-gas                     £39.99
Re-oil                         £5.47

Labour

10 hours, including diagnostics  (labour @ £42.95 an hour)

Total bill ... £923.31 inc VAT


This was from an air-con specalist

HTH

[Andy B]

......
The A/C bloke suggested that for some reason V6's tend to get through compressors faster that 4 pot cars, despite the fact they're the same compressor.  :-/

Where was yours from?

Whch is 'dangle berries'.....and being a fitter he wont be allowing for the fact that there are more V6's than 4 pots!

www.coolcaraircon.co.uk

are good.....but thier shop is down at the moment

Which is why I chose my words carefully.    
Thanks for that Mark, I'll look later ......

Why do plans for money to be spent on your car always end up going t1ts up. I'd wanted to paint the bonnet & grille sooner rather than later.

[Andy B]

I had the compressor fail on me in April ... took out a few other bits as well .. basically contaminated with metal filings ..

Parts exc VAT:

Compressor             £200.00
Filter/drier                £17.06
Expansion Valve       £47.00
Flushing Fluid            £46.74
Re-gas                     £39.99
Re-oil                         £5.47

Labour

10 hours, including diagnostics  (labour @ £42.95 an hour)

Total bill ... £923.31 inc VAT


This was from an air-con specalist

HTH

10 hours?? Did he not open the  bonnet?  
        I'd change my 'fan belt' for a non a/c car's & wind the window down first!      

[Andy B]

http://www.a-aironline.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=-1&KeyWords=GM2020SW%20ARD3915%20ACN40109&All=False

It's probably cheaper, despite the £ vs $ exchange rate, from the good ol' US of A   I wonder what shipping would be?  

[Lizzie_Zoom]

I had the compressor fail on me in April ... took out a few other bits as well .. basically contaminated with metal filings ..

Parts exc VAT:

Compressor             £200.00
Filter/drier                £17.06
Expansion Valve       £47.00
Flushing Fluid            £46.74
Re-gas                     £39.99
Re-oil                         £5.47

Labour

10 hours, including diagnostics  (labour @ £42.95 an hour)

Total bill ... £923.31 inc VAT


This was from an air-con specalist

HTH

I had a compressor cease right up in Manchester on my 3.0 V6 Elite (1996) in 2001 and it cost me £1,000+ for a very good reputable local garage to do using all genuine Vx parts.

[Entwood]

I had the compressor fail on me in April ... took out a few other bits as well .. basically contaminated with metal filings ..

Parts exc VAT:

Compressor             £200.00
Filter/drier                £17.06
Expansion Valve       £47.00
Flushing Fluid            £46.74
Re-gas                     £39.99
Re-oil                         £5.47

Labour

10 hours, including diagnostics  (labour @ £42.95 an hour)

Total bill ... £923.31 inc VAT


This was from an air-con specalist

HTH

10 hours?? Did he not open the  bonnet?  
        I'd change my 'fan belt' for a non a/c car's & wind the window down first!      

Apparently some 5 hours of the labour was the flushing of the system. I don't know if I was "done" or not, but he did say BEFORE the job was started that this would be the case, and he was not prepared to do the job without said flush.

I can't argue with his logical statement which was along the lines of "The compressor has shed bits throughout the system, if we don't flush it properly those bits will just contaminate the new compressor and expansion valve again and you'll come back within 6 months blaming me - I'm not prepared to accept that"

He was upfront so I assume honest ??  

[Andy B]

......
I had a compressor cease right up in Manchester on my 3.0 V6 Elite (1996) in 2001 and it cost me £1,000+ for a very good reputable local garage to do using all genuine Vx parts.

I've far better things to spend a grand on than the a/c of my Omega. Some how I don't think I'd double its value if I did!          

[Entwood]

......
I had a compressor cease right up in Manchester on my 3.0 V6 Elite (1996) in 2001 and it cost me £1,000+ for a very good reputable local garage to do using all genuine Vx parts.

I've far better things to spend a grand on than the a/c of my Omega. Some how I don't think I'd double its value if I did!          

While I accept your viewpoint utterly ... you have to bear in mind that I bought this car in January - for an awful lot more than it would fetch now - with the intention of keeping it for, hopefully, 10 years.

We therefore made the decision that we wanted the A/C working properly, for our benefit, not as any investment toward resale value.

If the car is only intended to be in your possesion for a short time, I agree the work is probably not economically viable

 

[Lizzie_Zoom]

......
I had a compressor cease right up in Manchester on my 3.0 V6 Elite (1996) in 2001 and it cost me £1,000+ for a very good reputable local garage to do using all genuine Vx parts.

I've far better things to spend a grand on than the a/c of my Omega. Some how I don't think I'd double its value if I did!          

While I accept your viewpoint utterly ... you have to bear in mind that I bought this car in January - for an awful lot more than it would fetch now - with the intention of keeping it for, hopefully, 10 years.

We therefore made the decision that we wanted the A/C working properly, for our benefit, not as any investment toward resale value.

If the car is only intended to be in your possesion for a short time, I agree the work is probably not economically viable

 

Indeed Entwood that was the situation in my case as I had bought the car for £11,000 only two years before so it was a natural thing to do and replace the compressor to maintain the cars comfort levels and re-saleability.