Air conditioning repair tip... 'Tis the season

[M. Sage]

For the love of God and all that is holy, don't put anything with "stop leak" into your AC system!!! You're only going to destroy the entire system if you do it!

I've seen it a hundred times. "Durr, my AC don't work. I guess I'll go to Vato Zone and get some o' that freon with stop leak in it." Wrong! A week later, when your AC still doesn't work, you bring it to someone like me.

If you're lucky, the stop-leak garbage has plugged the service port you put it in through. If you're not, it gets into my machine and we hit you with a bill to replace or repair our AC cabinet because you were too fucking stupid to tell us you put that shit into your system.

Don't be stupid. Don't put that shit into your system. O-rings aren't that expensive.

That is all.

 

[ghostscout]

my a/c went out in my ranger. want to fix it? i have no stop leak crap in it. just old and crapped out. haha

 

[Mikewood]

I have been using stop leak in the minivans AC for two years now and its one of the few products that really seem to work. During the summer it needs a charge or two and then it's good for the next three seasons. A total of $60 is better than the $1600 to replace the AC on a car not worth $1600.

Sorry about your broken equipment.

 

[TexasRedneck]

hmmmm.....okay - ah ain't the brightest bulb in the string, but -

You say the stopleak "really works" - because you only have to add it a "couple of times" for 3 seasons??? Then you go on to say that you've done it for two years..... To me, an a/c season is one year - so 3 seasons would be 3 years.....but you've been doing this for 2 years. Ah'm confusilated....

But Sage is right - that crap is ultimately gonna toast everything. Dunno who gave you the $1600 quote, but you had "screw me" on yer forehead when they did!

 

[kyletxria1911a1]

now see ya got brutha nervous its hotttttttttt

 

[TexasRedneck]

now see ya got brutha nervous its hotttttttttt

Hey, wait....ah thought all the brutha's wuz cool?!?!????

 

[kyletxria1911a1]

Hey, wait....ah thought all the brutha's wuz cool?!?!????

we are but the texas sun will beat it outta ya

 

[TexasRedneck]

we are but the texas sun will beat it outta ya

Ah hell....another theory shot down.....

 

[TexMex247]

Hey Ghostscout, I have my own freon recovery equipment(R134a machine). Dye, O-rings, leak detectors, vaccum pumps, etc. If your truck uses R134a I can help you out and probably save you a buck or two. We also rebuild hoses at the shop I work at. PM me sometime and maybe I can meet you out in Cedar Park somewhere. I tend to trade my work for gun stuff in very generous proportions. As far as stop leak...I haven't had an issue with it...ever. Just my luck I guess.

 

[M. Sage]

I've seen stop leak clog stuff up. My experiences with it so far are pulling the caps off the service ports and finding them filled with what looks like plastic, which is what that stop leak stuff turns into when it hits moisture in air. Get any moisture into your AC system (Air? In a leaking AC system? Nevah!) and it happens internally.

The only leak I can think of that would be horribly expensive to fix would be if your evaporator has a hole in it and you have to pull the dash to replace it. Otherwise, most leaks are usually a matter of new o-rings. Unless you own a GM with the V5 compressor... then it's usually the compressor leaking between the front and back halves. And even those aren't too expensive.

my a/c went out in my ranger. want to fix it? i have no stop leak crap in it. just old and crapped out. haha

I could take a look at it, yeah. I'm kind of loaded up for the next couple of weeks, though...

 

[lalonguecarabine]

Hmmm. I have what's referred to around here as "Mexican air conditioning": Roll down that window!

 

[fnmedallion]

redneck a/c 460 4 windows down 60 mph

 

[MR Redneck]

redneck a/c 460 4 windows down 60 mph

Say's you.
My AC has to work, or my dog wont rid with me.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

Hmmm. I have what's referred to around here as "Mexican air conditioning": Roll down that window!

Ha, I resemble that comment!!!

I drove daily for 5 years in Texas without A/C, in slacks and a button up to business meetings. It sucked balls but I did it cause I had to. I didn't have Johnny Taxpayer fronting my cell phone, feeding my family, or other such bullchit. Man, just thinking about it again sucks.

 

[rlw454]

i wont even put it in a tire

 

[PMG2010]

No offense to those on this forum who do A/C repair for a living...(my brother is one too). But the A/C guys that I've used up here in DFW are a bit on the shady side.

When my heater went out last month, I did all the testing and determined it was the ignitor. Called in a tech & figured it would be cheap. He wanted to charge my $150 in labor and $255 for the part. I told him NO F@*&# way - sent him packin. That part is $15 online and $45 locally. I bought it myself and put it in myself in 5 seconds flat. (He did back-flips trying to tell me how hard it was to install & that only he should do it). It was easy. (PS - no touchy the element - finger oils can make hot spots & cause it to burn out quickly)

When my A/C went out this past week, I did all the testing and determined it was the unit fan - a 1/8 hp GE fan. Called in a tech & figured it would be cheap. He wanted to charge my $100 in labor and $225 for the part. That fan is a $100 online.

I fully understand the cost of the trip fees and cost of the labor in both cases, but as much as 1000% markup on materials? Sheesh! I know y'all have to pay for those way too expensive and completely BS state licensing fees* to be an A/C repairman, but DANG. *Sounds like a CHL fee huh?

I need a reference for a real reliable, good, honest A/C repair guy in the DFW area. My brother lives too far away to come up at the drop of a hat. Too bad you're in San Antonio M.Sage!

 

[Dcav]

No offense to those on this forum who do A/C repair for a living...(my brother is one too). But the A/C guys that I've used up here in DFW are a bit on the shady side.

When my heater went out last month, I did all the testing and determined it was the ignitor. Called in a tech & figured it would be cheap. He wanted to charge my $150 in labor and $255 for the part. I told him NO F@*&# way - sent him packin. That part is $15 online and $45 locally. I bought it myself and put it in myself in 5 seconds flat. (He did back-flips trying to tell me how hard it was to install & that only he should do it). It was easy. (PS - no touchy the element - finger oils can make hot spots & cause it to burn out quickly)

When my A/C went out this past week, I did all the testing and determined it was the unit fan - a 1/8 hp GE fan. Called in a tech & figured it would be cheap. He wanted to charge my $100 in labor and $225 for the part. That fan is a $100 online.

I fully understand the cost of the trip fees and cost of the labor in both cases, but as much as 1000% markup on materials? Sheesh! I know y'all have to pay for those way too expensive and completely BS state licensing fees* to be an A/C repairman, but DANG. *Sounds like a CHL fee huh?

I need a reference for a real reliable, good, honest A/C repair guy in the DFW area. My brother lives too far away to come up at the drop of a hat. Too bad you're in San Antonio M.Sage!

your talking HVAC, M. Sage is a vehicle mechanic lol

 

[TexMex247]

Hey PMG, I would be willing to bet you actually have a bad start-up capacitor and not a bad fan unit. Have you actually checked for power at the fan(it's actually pretty dangerous) ? Do you hear the compressor turn on. If neither operate, you should check to see if your contactor is "pulling in". That is a sign that the control panel is trying to energize the outdoor components. It uses a 24V system and you can see it and hear it click when someone turns it on inside. If your system actually runs w/out a fan, it will toast the compressor in no time flat. Start a new thread or PM me and we'll talk about it - texmex

 

[TexasRedneck]

Hmmm...here we go again. Guys, do any of you have any idea as to cost of running a business? I just got back from servicing an account about 70 miles away - 11 mpg on an F450 SuperDuty diesel w/a Koenig utility bed on it and a lift gate. About $20,000+ worth of tools on it. Takes 2 men to do the job, and because of where it is actual drive time is about 1.5 hours each way. You do NOT wanna know what my insurance costs me - both for the truck and the business, nor what it costs just to open the doors each month. If I fix something and it doesn't work, I go back and fix it again at n/c. That has a cost. I've got 30+ years experience - I can do more in 30 minutes than many can in several hours. My labor rate is $80/hour, portal to portal. Ain't bashful 'bout it, neither.
My customer? He thanks us for coming (he's had years of not being able to get the folks that SOLD the equipment to him to even show up), makes sure we've got anything we want/need (he fed us a helluva lunch today, etc.) - and pays me within 48 hours of billing. Now, let's look at your average home service call....30 minutes drive to get there, 45 minutes to diagnose and another 30 minutes to repair...and $150 is "too high". Did he have the part on the truck, or was he going to have to make yet another trip to install the part?
With all due respect, I don't know your technical capability from Adam's Off-Ox, but if you think I'm gonna rely on your diagnosis without doing one of my own, I got a bridge to sell ya. Because if YOUR diagnosis is wrong, yer gonna expect ME to cover the "be-back" call to make it right. It ain't personal - it's business, and I don't trust anyone enough to be on their analysis. I'll sure take it into account, but I gotta check it for myself.
I have NO issue w/a customer that wants to do the job himself and save the labor - but you call me out and give me crap 'bout my labor/parts costs, I can promise you that you WILL be on my "do not answer" list - and yeah, many more companies have them now. You can't afford to go out and do free calls and stay in business long....

 

[M. Sage]

Add in the warranty. At work, our warranty is 18/18,000. Of course, we charge almost $100/hour with labor times out of a book. But sometimes it says an hour when it should be two. Sometimes it says an hour when I can do it in half that.

On the side, I charge $50 an hour, labor times come from the same source. Mostly because I don't have a couple million wrapped up in overhead like my boss does. But that's before I get into the skills I've invested most of my adult life to gathering.

So yes, it's expensive to have a professional do it. But having it done right is going to be less expensive in the long run.

One other thing to take into account - if you try to do a Bubba job with your channel locks and some duct tape, guess how much I'm going to charge you to un-**** what you just did? I'm going to tell my service writer to double the labor time to cover me having to deal with crossed/broken/stripped fasteners, cutting tape/glue/epoxy off stuff, and generally figuring out exactly what was wrong before you made it worse so that I can get stuff working properly this go-round. And that's before we get into additional parts. Also, that's assuming that it's not like some cars I've seen where the end result is so fucked up that we flat refuse to touch it. None of this is an uncommon practice at auto shops.

So if you've got the right tools and know what you're doing, go for it. If you don't, you might want to at least have someone hold your hand for the first time to make sure you don't wind up having to pay extra to get your mess sorted out.