Costs to service A/C

[Marshall]

Hi:

We have a '97 Outback. Last Sunday we went for a five hour drive,
(round-trip) from Southeastern Michigan to Indiana. The weather
was quite hot. For the first couple hours the A/C worke great.
But after a while it stopped blowing cold. It barely gave ANY relief
from the heat. So early Monday I made an apointment to have it looked
at at the dealer (on Wednesday.) Guess what? later that day it was
working fine again. What gives? I thought that is may have been running
low and needed a charge. Now I don't know what to think. Ideas? Thanks.

 

[Rick Courtright]

working fine again. What gives? I thought that is may have been running
low and needed a charge. Now I don't know what to think. Ideas? Thanks.

Hi,

I'm with the others: low charge, combined with any noticeable humidity,
will ice up your evaporator coils. No airflow goes thru the iced up
coils, so the A/C "doesn't work." When they thawed, the A/C worked
again. Shouldn't be hard to diagnose or expensive (assuming it's an
H-134 system) to top off the refrigerant charge.

Good luck,

Rick

 

[Marshall]

Hi:

We have a '97 Outback. Last Sunday we went for a five hour drive,
(round-trip) from Southeastern Michigan to Indiana. The weather
was quite hot. For the first couple hours the A/C worke great.
But after a while it stopped blowing cold. It barely gave ANY relief
from the heat. So early Monday I made an apointment to have it looked
at at the dealer (on Wednesday.) Guess what? later that day it was
working fine again. What gives? I thought that is may have been running
low and needed a charge. Now I don't know what to think. Ideas? Thanks.

--Update--
Two things I forgot to mention in my original post is that during the trip
at one point we noticed what looked like smoke coming out of the vent for
a few seconds (no odor) and there was a noticeable decrease in the air flow
pressure.
The car was serviced yesterday. They determined the pressure was low. The
reading was 13oz, and should have been 23oz. The total bill came to $163.10
This includes an oil change (using "PK13" Legacy oil.) Labor rate of$80hr.
Does that sound about right? Or is that a rip-off?

 

[Tom H]

Have you actually used their a.c. service to find out if that's just a
come-on
with other charges justified by "additional labor" and parts. For example
- I am almost certain that they add cost for any refrigerant added to the
system.

<snip>

No,
I went to Walmart and bought a kit for ~$15 that had a can of freon/oil mix
and a gauge.

Tom