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Am i being ripped off ?


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Took my soop down to local garage to get the air con regassed as it was struggling to keep up with the heat on tuesday (still blows some cold air just not what it should be) the bloke at the garage phoned me back to say the car still had 400 in it and when recharged to 700 they found that the expansion valve had a leak.

 

They after charging me just over £300 for fitting a new expansion valve and drier, (they wanted to take all of the dash off but I found on here that its behind the glovebox so saved some hassle of having them rip my dash apart and charge accordingly) So my questions are :

 

1. Wouldn't a leak bleed my system dry completely ?

2. Am i being charged the right amount ? as 3 hrs labour to take glovebox off and undo a few screws etc sounds excessive

3. Is it a common fault on old air con systems

 

Little help please for an air con noob ! :blink:

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They after charging me just over £300 for fitting a new expansion valve and drier,

2. Am i being charged the right amount ? as 3 hrs labour to take glovebox off and undo a few screws etc sounds excessive

 

They charge 100quid an hour???:blink:

 

I'd say yes usually a recharge is around 70quid, its not that old of a design, very similar to modern cars, who was the garage?

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Simple answer is yes, you are being ripped off.

 

I think its Kwik-Fit that are doing the deal just now.. £45 to check and re-gas aircon systems. If they find a leak or a fault they simply don't charge you anything, its up to you to then get it fixed.

 

Sounds like you paid for their christmas night out! Make sure you get an invoice as that sounds like £80 an hour lol.

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I'm just going off the info in this thread: http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=83806&highlight=expansion+valve

 

which I passed onto them over the phone so they wouldn't rip my dash off ! decided to go ahead with the work just not too happy about the cost especially if i'm being blagged about needing the valve etc when it just needed a regassing and they after finding some work for themselves if you know what i mean :(

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Okay,

 

so...

 

£50 - valve

£50 - drier

£70 - regas

 

= £170, and then £130 on labour...

 

Doesn't seem too unreasonable really....

 

Yeah that doesn't sound half as bad as it first did. Of course thats only true if the work actually needed done. A risk free trip to kwik-fit would have told you what you needed to know. No way to tell now, however ask for the old parts.

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Yeah that doesn't sound half as bad as it first did. Of course thats only true if the work actually needed done. A risk free trip to kwik-fit would have told you what you needed to know. No way to tell now, however ask for the old parts.

 

hahaha, you would trust kwik-fit??? rather you than me... in my experience, they simply plug it in, check the gas level and chuck in some more. They aren't exactly brilliant (IMHO)

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Thanks for the input guys, by sounds of it they're charging the right amount so i'll quit my whingeing on that one :) the thing I found wierd was the having a leak and still had gas in it (not had any strange smells etc in cockpit ) is it a bit like getting a v slow puncture in a tyre or something ?

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hahaha, you would trust kwik-fit??? rather you than me... in my experience, they simply plug it in, check the gas level and chuck in some more. They aren't exactly brilliant (IMHO)

 

Wouldn't trust them as far as i could throw them mate. The only reason i would be taking my car there would be to check my system was OK (almost for free). If they plugged it in and got an error i would pay nothing and take my car elsewhere to get sorted, if it was ok i would pay £45 and have ice cold aircon. The whole time i would be leaning over them making sure they touched nothing.

 

Thanks for the input guys, by sounds of it they're charging the right amount so i'll quit my whingeing on that one :) the thing I found wierd was the having a leak and still had gas in it (not had any strange smells etc in cockpit ) is it a bit like getting a v slow puncture in a tyre or something ?

 

Exactly, the only things you have to worry about now are whether the work was required or not and if they actually changed anything. Thats the reason i suggested asking for the parts that were replaced and getting a proper invoice.

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Thanks for the input guys, by sounds of it they're charging the right amount so i'll quit my whingeing on that one :) the thing I found wierd was the having a leak and still had gas in it (not had any strange smells etc in cockpit ) is it a bit like getting a v slow puncture in a tyre or something ?

 

Yes, most leaks start slow. At the age the cars are just finding and fixing the leak is rarely the end of it.

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