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

__________________
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

laconic1

How is he checking for the leak? When he refilled the system did he add dye to the system? R-134a leaks can be hard to detect, the old sniffers that worked well with R-12 aren't nearly as effective with R-134a, so what they do now is add a fluorescent dye to the refrigerant, so that the leak can be found by shining an UV light on it. The evaporator does sound like a possible culprit since it really isn't in a spot that can be seen without taking the dash apart. For that much refrigerant to leak in ten days he should have been able to spot the leak if it was anywhere else but the evaporator.
The whining noise is strange though, do you have any more info on that? How loud is it, is it constantly whining when the ac is on, or does it whine just when when the vehicle is stopped and then go away while the vehicle is moving?

As for the trade in value of the car, I'm sure not fixing it would hurt some, but not $600 worth. I'm sure you'd be ahead moneywise not getting it fixed, but I can't put a value on your comfort.

VitaminH

Yes, he did use a fluorescent dye and a blacklight to look for the leak. It's been done twice now, as he tried again when I bought it back the second time once it gave out again, all to no avail.

The whining sound is only present when the ac is on, as soon as I shut it off it quits as well. It is fairly quiet, almost a low whistle type sound, that IIRC gets slightly more intense when I hit the accelerator, but it's pretty quiet in general, and can't be heard unless the radio is turned down fairly low.

__________________
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

laconic1

If he is using dye then it almost certainly would be the evaporator then, since everything else should be readily visible.

VitaminH

Ok, thanks very much for the advice sir!

__________________
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

iamnormal

Could the dye be seen in the condensation driping from the evaporator?

lt1s10

It's how we try and confirm that it is the evaporator core leaking. We jack the car up and usually there's a drain hose going to the evap core housing. Look at the drain hose for the dye. Also some cars have an expansion valve in the evap core housing and when it leaks it looks like the evap core is leaking because the are in the same housing. Cheaper parts but labor is still the same as you still need access to the same place.

Some evaporator cores are easier to get to then others. But it can vary from an hour to all day depending on the dashboard design and location of the core. If your sunfire interior is similar to a saturn sedan interior it should be fairly easy and straightforward to do. I don't really know what the interior of a sunfire looks like.

VitaminH

Well one way or another I'm having the work done. I made the choice to shell out the cash and do it, as my comfort is probably worth it, especially since most of my driving will be to work stuff in slacks and a tie, etc. Hopefully this solves the problem.

__________________
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte

VitaminH

After 3 days in the shop I got my car back late friday afternoon. The air coming out of the vents was icy cool and I was overjoyed.


Today (Monday) it's crapped out completely again.


I am NOT in a very good mood considering I've now given this shop over $1000 over the course of several months and gotten NO results. Anyone have any other ideas? Anyone think I have any chance of getting some of the money back? Perhaps I'll just take it to a dealer and see what they say...


Edit: I found this online, perhaps I should print it out and bring it to them.

__________________
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napoleon Bonaparte