Trust an expert?

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Mon 16 Oct 2006 13:14
Trust an expert? - Ruperts Trooper
Going round a roundabout we heard a very loud clunk underneath, but assumed it was road debris and thought nothing more. Shortly afterwards the air-con stopped working but we didn't make the connection at the time.

Assuming the air-con needed re-gassing I phoned the nearest air-con specialist to get an estimate and make a booking. The specialist's response, over the phone without having seen the car, was staggering - "It'll be the condenser, mate, it always is".

Wary of the use of ESP to diagnose car faults, I took the car the the second nearest air-con specialist. He quickly diagnosed, correctly, that the air-con compressor clutch had come unscrewed and fallen off. He promised to investigate parts availability and/or cost of new replacement but failed to get back to me despite daily requests for information.

Having found that one "expert" is an idiot and the other can't be bothered with customers just re-inforced my reluctance to pay any professional to look after my car. There are no doubt good professionals out there but I can never find them!

My own research on the net soon showed that compressor components aren't available, just new compressors from £300 upwards.

A bit of lateral thinking got me a compressor from a scrap yard for £58, remove the clutch driven plate, oil seal and securing bolt and fit them onto my car with plenty of Threadlock to prevent a re-occurrence, hopefully. I'm aware of the need to keep air-con gas components scrupously clean so the rest of the compressor went in the bin.
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Mon 16 Oct 2006 17:26
Trust an expert? - elekie&a/c doctor
and the car is ? VW?
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Mon 16 Oct 2006 17:38
Trust an expert? - pmh
Is that an ESP inspired deduction?
--

pmh (was peter)


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Mon 16 Oct 2006 19:04
Trust an expert? - Altea Ego
"It'll be the condenser, mate, it always is".

It was on mine
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Mon 16 Oct 2006 20:54
Trust an expert? - caesar
Dont think the condenser on my focus is long for this world either.
I had a rattle from the plastic guard at the bottom of the condenser and when having a look saw the bottom inch of the condenser had rotten away and was laying on the guard, some of the fins are also hanging loose aswell.
After talking to a chap about getting it replaced all he said was its gonna cost ya so if it still works dont try fixing it.
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