How to Fix your Car A/C on a Budget?

I didn’t want to fix my car’s air condition system since it stopped blowing cold air close to 2 years ago now. I was delaying it because the initial quote I received was for $1200 after having spent about $200 for a failed compressor recharge at Vancouver Transmission Ltd. The pressure was not stable, so they said there was a leak and after running a diagnostic, they concluded it was compressor itself. They quoted about $1200 for the repair and that’s where I left it at because I couldn’t justify spending that much on a 2006 Accord with over 400K mileage.

I realized how important air condition system was these past summer seasons when we were stuck in traffic headed to Seattle/Portland in 30 C heat. My family suffered through that trip and wife almost had a heat stroke. I decided to call my mobile mechanic to quote on the compressor replacement and recharge. It was much better at $550 and $175 to get it recharged at VAP Auto. Total would have been cheaper than taking it back to Vancouver Transmission Ltd, so I had my mobile mechanic get to work. I paid in cash and then called VAP Auto to get it recharged with an appointment for the following day. I was excited to get cold air blowing again as the weather was still unbearable in July.

First sign of trouble was seeing smoke/vapors and hissing from the front of the car while they were recharging with freon. The mechanic quickly shut things down and while smoke was still coming out everywhere, was able to pinpoint where the whole in the AC line was. It looked like a blade cut through the thin AC line and caused this leak to spring during the recharge.

I asked for a quote for parts and was told to come back in three days. We had a trip to Sunshine coast on Monday and wanted to have air conditioning for that trip. I can back three days later and was told there was no part ordered for my AC line. Front desk said someone would call me that night to explain next steps but that call never came. I decided to look elsewhere.

I called Midas in South Surrey and took my car in to get them to quote on that part. The mechanic said he had to take the AC line out to be able to read the part number. Instead of doing that, I called Surrey Honda service and was able to get the part needed was an A/C Suction and Liquid Line Hose Assembly, part number 80320SDAA01. The service technician at Surrey Honda said that the replacement would take 1.3 hours, but the part would cost $600 as it is getting shipped from Ontario. The recharge costs are also expensive at $299 compared to $175 at other shops. I told Midas the part number needed, and they quoted me $1300+. I called Vancouver Transmission Ltd and told them what to replace and they quoted me $1400.

I called my mobile mechanic again to tell him about this part and he said he doesn't do this type of replacement and repair. I decided to source out this part on Amazon.ca and couldn't find one. I did find the other part number 80320SDAA02 on Ebay which is an alternative replacement part number for 80320SDAA01. The cost was only US$51.63 and with delivery charges, my total was $165.24. I ordered it. I then checked YouTube videos for steps on replacing the part. It looked fairly easy to remove counting 4-5 screws to undo but I wasn't confident about recharging the freon myself. Canadian Tire sells the recharge kit, but they recommend not mixing the chemicals with anything left in the line. Since the A/C line and compressor are new, I believed it to be safe was if my mobile mechanic shied away from this work, it was enough for me to look at another shop to do the work.

I waited 2-3 weeks and received the shipment last week of August. I was happy to wait it out but the weather outside was till terribly hot and my family made sure to let me know. While at Willowbrook Mall in early September, I decided to go get my oil changed so I drove around the Langley area looking for Midas or Jiffy Lube. I found Take 5 Oil Change on Fraser and saw that they were a full mechanic shop. They had a sign saying they also service car A/C. I asked them to quote on A/C line assembly replacement and told them that Surrey Honda already established it's 1.3 hours of labor and said that I had the part ordered already. I was quoted $354.94 which included the $179 recharge. It was less expensive than Surrey Honda's quote, so I booked them. I crossed my fingers that there were no more leaks or other issues. The Take 5 mechanic did say that the part I ordered from eBay was low quality, setting expectations in advance. After about 2 hours, I called to check and was told those magic words - "your car is ready for pickup". I was told there was some leak at the evaporator end of the line assembly which they fixed with a $2 nut or washer.

Total cost was $165.24 (part) + $397 (replacement labor with recharge) + $550 (compressor replacement) = $1112.