VitaminH

So my car's AC has gone bad. It all began several months ago when I noticed a whine when I turned it on, within a week it wasn't cooling air anymore. I eventually got it to my mechanic, who said it was out of freon, but it didn't appear to be leaking anywhere so he refilled it and sent me on my way.

It worked for about a week.

So I took it back, said it had quit again, going out with the same whining. He checked again for leaks, couldn't find any, said he'd replace some seals and valves anyway and refill it again (this time for free thankfully).

It worked for about 3 days. Same whine, crapped out a day or two later.

So I've spoke with him again, and he says the only thing he knows that's left to do is rip out the dashboard and replace something I think he called the "evap", as that was the only likely culprit left. Asking for a ballpark figure he said it'd be about $600, $200 for the part and since it was an all day task roughly $400 for labor.

A few questions: Based on my (admittly breif) description of what's gone down, is this "evap" the likely problem? I'd hate to throw down 600+ and have it still crap out in a week.

Also, I plan on getting a new car in a little over a year (once I graduate college and get myself established with steady income), if I opt NOT to get this fixed, will this significantly hurt the trade in value of my car? I don't expect to get much for it (96 Pontic Sunfire, should have roughly 105,000 miles on it by trade in time, maybe 110, hard to estimate), but if this is going to cost me a decent chunk then, I'd rather shell out the money and have AC for the rest of this summer and next, since it will likely be Sept or Oct before I've got a steady cashflow capable of making car payments.

Thanks

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