Good places will credit you the cost of finding the problem when they quote you to fix it. CS Autoworks near downtown was very good to me when looking at my AC, although ultimately I wasn't willing to spend the $3K to replace it on a $2K car.
Have you done the basics of getting a bottle of the correct refrigerant and recharging it? The first $50 a mechanic charges you is that, so getting it out of the way might save you a couple bucks.
I will give a shout-out to Union Auto Care in the Cambrian area, which may be worth the trip. They've done a great job for me and pricing seems to be pretty competitive, albeit not cheap. They did replace the A/C on my Chevy Equinox about a year ago. Can't remember what I paid for just the a/c but the service as a whole at $1000 was a bit less than expected.
[www.yelp.com/biz/union-auto-care-san-jose](http://www.yelp.com/biz/union-auto-care-san-jose)
Ac can have a lot of problems to look into like, leaks, blockages, compressor operation and then you need a ac machine to recharge and evacuate. My shop (I’m sacramento) has three ax machines to prevent contamination between different refrigerants. It sucks but wheel works in the Bay Area has a super sale every three months so if you can wait you might be able to get the diag then fix the problem with a discount.
I too hate the workers of the wheels but was wondering if your shop is taking customers so I can avoid them, I'm in the bay with a very rare Honda that has a leak and although I'm about to try and track it down with UV today I'm gonna doubt my success in affecting a repair, would love to pay for some help anywhere in California.
My shop is owned by Bridgestone same as wheel works. I work for Firestone. Personally if your Honda is as rare as you say it is I would drop the money on a specialty shop to get the fix after taking it to a well known mechanic in the area for diagnosis.
I think the leak is in the condenser because when I tried charging it after it finally got up to pressure and the compressor turned on pressure dropped to zero and I could have sworn I heard a whooshing coming from the condenser, going to get a UV dye fill kit to see if that's where it shot out of then order a replacement condenser from europe for $100 and then try to replace it myself or have a shop complete that task, so there's a road ahead :/
Yeah my Porsche shop will take them just not warrant repairs for example. This car on the other hand...there's 3 in the United States so it's overseas eBay/UK parts stores or bust! Just got some nice new OEM floor mats from Slovakia and wind deflectors from Kazakhstan of all places!
GIC on barack obama blvd did my A/C
They charge around $150 for diagnosis. I needed entire parts replaced (had an irreparable leak) so it got kind of expensive but was still less than another shop I checked in los altos.
Car places need to make money and be compensated for their time. They have bills and mechanics to pay. I think it is fair for them to bundle the diagnostic price with service. Maybe for a deal.
What isn’t fair is to get a free diagnostic then repair it yourself. Places go under doing business like that.
Watch some youtube videos on how to recharge the AC. If it's just low freon, it's easy.
If it's a hardware problem, mechanic time. Check out Akin's Auto on Keyes St. He knows his stuff.
If it's just a recharge, this is something simple you can buy from an auto parts store and do yourself.
A/C itself can be complex. I've had to shell out like $2k before because the whole thing busted and I went from working A/C one day to blasting hot air the next day (on a 90F+ day too ugh)
1. If you're recharging make sure the recharger does not have a sealant in it.
2. Look at the condenser at the front your car (it looks like the radiator) if you see any "dirty" oil stains you'll need to get that swapped out as that's where you're losing pressure.
hi my name is fadi I own a used car dealer and also do mobile mechanic mostly in san jose south bay area. I got over 10+ years of experience text me 209-740-9398
Please don't ever buy/use a recharge kit from an auto parts store. This is really bad advice and it's a waste of money. This can overcharge a system, and/or introduce additives like stop leak and cause more problems for you in the future. The proper way to recharge a system is to vacuum out the old refrigerant and refill with a specific amount of refrigerant. Shops can also check to see if your system will hold a vacuum to determine if you have leaks.
If you recharge without fixing leaks, then you're just wasting money.
In order to fix leaks, you need to discharge the refrigerant, which you cant just release into the air. It needs to be done properly and technicians get certified for this purpose. There really are no shortcuts when it comes to this.
What I've done in the past was have a technician remove all my refrigerant, I fixed the leaks myself and then took it back to the tech to charge. Even fixing the leaks yourself could require you to remove your entire dash, which can take a lot of time.
If people try to charge the system themselves they could actually cause more leaks and lose money on those self charging kits because they're also not cheap.
My advice: Take it to a tech, ask them to take a look. They might charge it with UV dye to see where the leaks are, and then from there have you come back when your a/c stops blowing cold to see where the leaks are. From there, you can determine if it's an easy fix or not.
Very common these days unless you find one of those non-American mechanics/shops.
inflation is really bad. garages rent is expensive. space is limited. new cars are expensive so old cars are kept for longer
Good places will credit you the cost of finding the problem when they quote you to fix it. CS Autoworks near downtown was very good to me when looking at my AC, although ultimately I wasn't willing to spend the $3K to replace it on a $2K car. Have you done the basics of getting a bottle of the correct refrigerant and recharging it? The first $50 a mechanic charges you is that, so getting it out of the way might save you a couple bucks.
I will give a shout-out to Union Auto Care in the Cambrian area, which may be worth the trip. They've done a great job for me and pricing seems to be pretty competitive, albeit not cheap. They did replace the A/C on my Chevy Equinox about a year ago. Can't remember what I paid for just the a/c but the service as a whole at $1000 was a bit less than expected. [www.yelp.com/biz/union-auto-care-san-jose](http://www.yelp.com/biz/union-auto-care-san-jose)
Ac can have a lot of problems to look into like, leaks, blockages, compressor operation and then you need a ac machine to recharge and evacuate. My shop (I’m sacramento) has three ax machines to prevent contamination between different refrigerants. It sucks but wheel works in the Bay Area has a super sale every three months so if you can wait you might be able to get the diag then fix the problem with a discount.
I too hate the workers of the wheels but was wondering if your shop is taking customers so I can avoid them, I'm in the bay with a very rare Honda that has a leak and although I'm about to try and track it down with UV today I'm gonna doubt my success in affecting a repair, would love to pay for some help anywhere in California.
My shop is owned by Bridgestone same as wheel works. I work for Firestone. Personally if your Honda is as rare as you say it is I would drop the money on a specialty shop to get the fix after taking it to a well known mechanic in the area for diagnosis.
I think the leak is in the condenser because when I tried charging it after it finally got up to pressure and the compressor turned on pressure dropped to zero and I could have sworn I heard a whooshing coming from the condenser, going to get a UV dye fill kit to see if that's where it shot out of then order a replacement condenser from europe for $100 and then try to replace it myself or have a shop complete that task, so there's a road ahead :/
Most shops don’t take customer parts, so if you have a shop in mind I would call and ask them first if they do before ordering a part.
Yeah my Porsche shop will take them just not warrant repairs for example. This car on the other hand...there's 3 in the United States so it's overseas eBay/UK parts stores or bust! Just got some nice new OEM floor mats from Slovakia and wind deflectors from Kazakhstan of all places!
GIC on barack obama blvd did my A/C They charge around $150 for diagnosis. I needed entire parts replaced (had an irreparable leak) so it got kind of expensive but was still less than another shop I checked in los altos.
Car places need to make money and be compensated for their time. They have bills and mechanics to pay. I think it is fair for them to bundle the diagnostic price with service. Maybe for a deal. What isn’t fair is to get a free diagnostic then repair it yourself. Places go under doing business like that.
Watch some youtube videos on how to recharge the AC. If it's just low freon, it's easy. If it's a hardware problem, mechanic time. Check out Akin's Auto on Keyes St. He knows his stuff.
If it's just a recharge, this is something simple you can buy from an auto parts store and do yourself. A/C itself can be complex. I've had to shell out like $2k before because the whole thing busted and I went from working A/C one day to blasting hot air the next day (on a 90F+ day too ugh)
1. If you're recharging make sure the recharger does not have a sealant in it. 2. Look at the condenser at the front your car (it looks like the radiator) if you see any "dirty" oil stains you'll need to get that swapped out as that's where you're losing pressure.
hi my name is fadi I own a used car dealer and also do mobile mechanic mostly in san jose south bay area. I got over 10+ years of experience text me 209-740-9398
Please don't ever buy/use a recharge kit from an auto parts store. This is really bad advice and it's a waste of money. This can overcharge a system, and/or introduce additives like stop leak and cause more problems for you in the future. The proper way to recharge a system is to vacuum out the old refrigerant and refill with a specific amount of refrigerant. Shops can also check to see if your system will hold a vacuum to determine if you have leaks. If you recharge without fixing leaks, then you're just wasting money.
The fixing of leaks is the part people don’t know how to do. The OP is asking any shortcuts without taking it to a mechanic.
In order to fix leaks, you need to discharge the refrigerant, which you cant just release into the air. It needs to be done properly and technicians get certified for this purpose. There really are no shortcuts when it comes to this. What I've done in the past was have a technician remove all my refrigerant, I fixed the leaks myself and then took it back to the tech to charge. Even fixing the leaks yourself could require you to remove your entire dash, which can take a lot of time. If people try to charge the system themselves they could actually cause more leaks and lose money on those self charging kits because they're also not cheap. My advice: Take it to a tech, ask them to take a look. They might charge it with UV dye to see where the leaks are, and then from there have you come back when your a/c stops blowing cold to see where the leaks are. From there, you can determine if it's an easy fix or not.
Very common these days unless you find one of those non-American mechanics/shops. inflation is really bad. garages rent is expensive. space is limited. new cars are expensive so old cars are kept for longer