I recently bought an older (1990) F150 that was in excellent condition for my teenage son to drive. AC was dead and I paid a shop to convert to R134 and recharge. They charged me $200 for the conversion and recharge. The charge lasted about 3 hours before the AC was blowing hot air again. Brought it back to them and they said the condenser had a hole. The said they'd need about $500 to replace the condenser and recharge.
Question - shouldn't they have caught the hole in the condenser (or at least that the system was leaking) when they put a vacuume on the system to purge the R12? I thought the $200 was a bit high - but thought it was worth it to have it done right - up until I found out it was wasted. Seems almost like I could have bought the conversion kit from Wal-Mart and charged it for all the good they did.
The condenser is $74 and looks not to difficult to install. Do it my self and have a better shop evacuate the system and charge?
Question - shouldn't they have caught the hole in the condenser (or at least that the system was leaking) when they put a vacuume on the system to purge the R12? I thought the $200 was a bit high - but thought it was worth it to have it done right - up until I found out it was wasted. Seems almost like I could have bought the conversion kit from Wal-Mart and charged it for all the good they did.
The condenser is $74 and looks not to difficult to install. Do it my self and have a better shop evacuate the system and charge?