# $3,500 AC Compressor really?



## Porsche986S (Dec 10, 2017)

If you believe that I have some dry swamp land I'll sell you cheap :biggrin2: . Hey maybe on a Bugatti Veyron or some other uber exotic but if you own those cars generally your not concerned with maintenance .


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## MTN REMODEL LLC (Sep 11, 2010)

I just had to put a non OEM in the BMW......$599/autozone


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## Rough Rooster (Feb 7, 2015)

And I used to rebuild the old Harrison/Delco A6 for $20 in parts and $30 in labor. Yorks were about same. Then along came Dieselkiki and Nippondenso. 
Glad I don't do them any more.

The way some compressors are hidden and the amount of stuff to remove to get to them, the $3500 might not be too steep. :devil3:

Last one I put on my S10 was $229 and is still going 5 years later and spitting out 42* air. Must have got a good "scald" on that one. :wink2:

RR :smile::smile:


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## roughneck (Nov 28, 2014)

Non-manufacturer related extended warranties are about as worthless as home warranties. 
Just a legal scam. 
Although a contaminated system can in fact get very expensive, like what happens when a compressor grenades. 
And the new YF-1234 refrigerant is very expensive.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

Dave Ramsey talks about this often on his radio show. Extended warranties are one of the worst things you can waste your money on. I'm not sure where he found the stats, but I trust him, so when he says the extended warranty companies only use 12% of their premiums to pay claims, I will take his word on it. That means you have roughly an 88% chance of getting ripped off - even worse if you could do the repairs yourself, or you're at least willing to shop around for where to get the repair done. 

Dave Ramsey Q&A

The PennyHoarder seems to support Dave's assertion. Notice the numbers that are quoted are from a Consumer Reports survey of their readers, who are probably more savvy than the typical person.


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## ukrkoz (Dec 31, 2010)

If oil change on high end MB is $1200, and you can NOT DIY it, $3500 for AC comp sounds about right.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

> $3500 for AC comp sounds about right.



It could certainly go that high. Realize that for a professional job, not only do you have to replace the compressor, the entire system has to be flushed (to remove any chunks of metal that may have gotten into the system from the guts of the compressor shredding), the expansion valve(s) need to be replaced, the filter-drier, and the condenser core may also need to be replaced for the same reason. If it was you or I, we'd probably install an in-line filter and call it 'good enough', but a pro who's going to warranty their work won't do that. Trust me, I know from experience that the evaporator core in the back of a minivan is no picnic to get to to replace the expansion valve.


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

HotRodx10 said:


> Dave Ramsey talks about this often on his radio show. Extended warranties are one of the worst things you can waste your money on. I'm not sure where he found the stats, but I trust him, so when he says the extended warranty companies only use 12% of their premiums to pay claims, I will take his word on it. That means you have roughly an 88% chance of getting ripped off - even worse if you could do the repairs yourself, or you're at least willing to shop around for where to get the repair done.
> 
> Dave Ramsey Q&A
> 
> The PennyHoarder seems to support Dave's assertion. Notice the numbers that are quoted are from a Consumer Reports survey of their readers, who are probably more savvy than the typical person.


It's my own opinion, but I believe that any and all insurance programs are just legal PONZI scams. 


This includes medical, Life, Auto, Home, Flood, Business liability, and all other insurances.

They are eager to take your money, but when the time arrives that they should pay, for what is covered, they pull the run around, and pay as little as possible, and often nothing. 

I have been through a few battles to get my due out of them . 

I have seen a person have an extended warranty, and be told that it don't cover fuel injectors, those are "wear parts", and need replaced as a regular maintenance. 

ED


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

> It's my own opinion, but I believe that any and all insurance programs are just legal PONZI scams.



By definition, that what insurance is, except that most are required to keep a certain percentage of 'liquid equity' to pay claims.




> This includes medical, Life, Auto, Home, Flood, Business liability, and all other insurances.



Medical depends on where you get it. Life insurance is fairly well regulated, and they rarely get out of paying those claims (it's not like they can dispute whether someone's dead in most situations), and until your family is financially secure without the breadwinner's income, the breadwinner should have life insurance. Auto coverage you probably don't need, other than liability, as required by law, and full coverage required by your auto loan provider, to provide the security for the collateral for the loan (the car). Same with homeowners insurance, if you have a mortgage - the house is the collateral for the loan; although if you can't afford to buy a new house out-of-pocket if yours burns down, you better keep the insurance until you can. Flood insurance, meh. Business liability is usually required so that if your business financially harms someone, they don't get stiffed if you fold up your business and walk away.


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## Mystriss (Dec 26, 2018)

I think insurance is all a rip off with the exception of auto... sort of. 

Like it's still a racket, but it's a necessary one cause if you plow into someone it's not right to leave the victim hanging with no transport cause of your driving. So, we have auto insurance, which will make the victim right - often times even if the driver of the other vehicle doesn't have insurance.


That said, if anyone has the mental acuity to do their own car maintenance, they /really/ should. I can't even add up all the savings we've gotten off doing our own work, min. $80 every year to switch over summer and studded tires, breaks run 300-600 to replace, it's somewhere north of 4k to get a new a transmission, just changing out a battery can cost ya 500. 

TONS of money saved if ya get some mechanical know-howz... and a compressor, love the compressor...


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

> $80 every year to switch over summer and studded tires



I have one vehicle where I do that, but since I have the tires from a local tire shop mounted on an extra set of rims, they balance them and swap them out for free. The other vehicles have to make do with all-seasons with the best ice & snow traction I could find (which is actually pretty good - not as good as studded, but the season where studded tires are allowed is fairly short here anyway).


Sorry for the diversion, folks; back to the subject.


Yes, car repairs can be expensive, especially for those who don't have the skills to DIY, or the willingness to ask/shop around, but they are also unlikely. Instead of wasting money on an extended warranty, a person would be much better with what Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard suggest - put the money in a savings account for repairs.


The bottom line is that we should have insurance (the voluntary kind) only for events that would be financially catastrophic if they were occur - death of the family's breadwinner(s) that the family counts on, destruction of the family's home, etc. For things you could afford to pay out-of-pocket or even on a credit card, it's similar to gambling at a casino, where the house always wins, but without the fun. Extended vehicle warranties are like gambling at a casino where all the games are rigged to take your money 88% of the time, instead of the normal 8% or 10% of the time.


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## Mystriss (Dec 26, 2018)

HotRodx10 said:


> I have one vehicle where I do that, but since I have the tires from a local tire shop mounted on an extra set of rims, they balance them and swap them out for free. The other vehicles have to make do with all-seasons with the best ice & snow traction I could find (which is actually pretty good - not as good as studded, but the season where studded tires are allowed is fairly short here anyway).
> 
> 
> Sorry for the diversion, folks; back to the subject.
> ...


Nice, we've got extra rims, but not even our buddies at Alaska Tire can give us free change-overs every 6ish months heh


True story, put your insurance money in the bank/Money Market and let it make money for YOU, instead of wasting it paying someone else to make money off your own money...


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## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

As mentioned, insurance by its nature is a gamble. I suppose if you can afford the risk without it, give it a go. I certainly could not afford to re-build my house if it burned down. I recently had my 2017 truck written-off and was quite happy with their settlement that allowed me to buy a virtual match replacement. No courts, no lawyers.
I threw to dice with a 3-year extended warrantee on my motorcycle and all if got me was front wheel bearings so, not so cost effective, and their renewal price was steep. My used 2017 truck came with the remains of a manufacturer's extended warrantee that covered new injectors (not considered 'power train'), just before it was written off as it turned out. I threw the dice with my replacement (used) truck. I didn't think it was all that expensive, relatively speaking. Parts cost aside, I can certainly image that labour costs to replace some underhood components are pretty high - everything is jam-packed in there and I am well past doing it myself.
I usually do my own tire/wheel swap. My problem is storage. I have a tire rack mounted high in the garage and every year it is getting harder. I'm going to have find alternative space down the road.


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## Brainbucket (Mar 30, 2015)

I deal with car warranties and most don't pay the whole ticket. No diagnostic. I charge $100.00 hr and regular vehicles and $125.00 hr on Mercedes Benz, BMW, Volvo, Mini, Lexus, Infinity, and all diesels. They might pay $75.00 and say I can't charge the customer the difference. Or they will use the warranty labor which is less than regular labor hrs. Then I tell them I'm not losing money because of your cheap policy. So I charge the customer the difference. They usually get mad at the insurance company and generally drop them. I hate dealing with auto insurance companies.:vs_cool:


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## Mystriss (Dec 26, 2018)

^^ True story. My husband has to hassle with "dealership insurance" on RV's all the time and they almost never pay for the fixes. Warranty on a new or "certified" purchase is a little better, but not as much as you'd assume. He basically warns them all that they're probs going to have to pay 80% of the bill out of pocket - which is typically in the 10s of thousands with RVs.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

I wonder if there is some vehicle out there where the compressor is so buried that labor could drive the job costs through the roof. Maybe they cherry picked that to justify the advertisement. My old 1994 Z28 Camaro was tough... it was like an 8 hour book job IIRC requiring a lot of disassembly to get at it. I did the job once myself in a non-standard way, somehow getting the old one out and the new one in without all that work. But I looked at it again years later whilst doing an oil change or something and couldn't figure out how the hell I had done that.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

> 1994 Z28 Camaro was tough... it was like an 8 hour book job IIRC requiring a lot of disassembly to get at it.



I hadn't thought of that, but I'm sure there are a few like that. Add that to the parts, the labor to replace other hard-to-get-to components, specialized equipment, etc., and I'm sure they found one shop somewhere that would quote them $3500. That's all they really need for the advertisement. They wouldn't be the first to use the extreme case to sell their product.



I have a 2002 Kia Sedona where replacing the alternator is about a 4 hour job, even though it's right on the front towards the top. There's not enough room between the frame and the engine, though, so it has to slide across to behind the engine, requiring a dozen other parts to be removed. The spark plugs are similar - 3 hour book time.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

Yeah, some of the maintenance is just crazy... the book rate on spark plugs and wires on the Camaro was 8 hours. The #2 plug on that car took me 2 hours alone. And the y-pipe had to come off to get the rears. And the others weren't easy either. They give you a 100,000 mile service interval and then make you pay dearly for it.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

> The #2 plug on that car took me 2 hours alone. And the y-pipe had to come off to get the rears.



Ouch! Even my Sedona isn't that bad. The air plenum has to be removed to get to the back 3 plugs, but I found a shortcut with a flex head ratchet that lets me complete the job in about 2 hours.


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## LS-6 (Nov 26, 2019)

de-nagorg said:


> I keep seeing an ad on TV selling extended vehicle warranty.
> 
> One of their selling points states that AC compressors cost $3,500.
> 
> ...


Is that the "car shield" commercial? It's amazing how these people lie to get your money.
If it was such a good deal for us they wouldn't be offering it if they weren't making $$$ from it.
Read the fine print, it's mush like insurance there's deductibles ect and different forms of coverage too.
In short it's a rip off. :wink2:


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## de-nagorg (Feb 23, 2014)

LS-6 said:


> Is that the "car shield" commercial? It's amazing how these people lie to get your money.
> If it was such a good deal for us they wouldn't be offering it if they weren't making $$$ from it.
> Read the fine print, it's mush like insurance there's deductibles ect and different forms of coverage too.
> In short it's a rip off. :wink2:


Yes, that is the one.

And I already knew, the story, " anything too good to be true, is a scam".

ED


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## RST (Jul 19, 2009)

I had an early 2000s Honda CRV. A defect with the compressor would cause it to "blow up" and send shards of metal through the A/C system. (You can search online for more information.) Anyway, the official recommendation was to replace all affected parts and the compressor for a cost of around $3500. 



I called 5 dealers and received quotes from $1500 to $5000. Three wanted to replace everything for $2500-$5000. The other two were around $1500 and they planned to just replace the compressor and flush everything else thoroughly. I went with one of the lower quotes and never had a problem again, though I don't know if I was lucky or that fix was sufficient.



This may be the example they are citing. And insurance for this does make sense -- a rare but expensive problem to fix. That said in most cases I think the extended warranties are ripoffs.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

That may have been happening more often in the CR/V than it should have statistically but certainly not exclusive to that car. The auto air conditioning industry calls that "the black death" because of what all the components and lines look like inside after the compressor grenades and shoots the debris throughout.

I had this happen to my 1994 Chevy S10 pickup. I was able to repair it without replacing everything, just the compressor and condenser. I was able to flush and reuse the evaporator and the lines. I suspect a shop might not want to take that chance if they have a warranty they would need to honor if the repair failed.



RST said:


> I had an early 2000s Honda CRV. A defect with the compressor would cause it to "blow up" and send shards of metal through the A/C system. (You can search online for more information.) Anyway, the official recommendation was to replace all affected parts and the compressor for a cost of around $3500.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## A Squared (Dec 19, 2005)

lenaitch said:


> As mentioned, insurance by its nature is a gamble. I suppose if you can afford the risk without it, give it a go.


This. Only get insurance for those things which would be a fiancial catastrophe for you. You'll save money in the long run. I don't generally carry collision insurance on my vehicles. I've never financed a vehicle, and I don't drive crazy expensive vehicles. I also have a pretty good reserve of savings. It I were to total one out, it wouldn't be a financial catastrophe. 

For medical insurance, I'm covered by my employer, but if I had to buy my own coverage, I'd get coverage for catastrophic medical events. Getting "insurance" that pays for your routine medical care is more expensive than paying for it yourself.


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## mitchleeanderso (Jul 23, 2018)

I think I've seen those same ads. They're just using scare tactics to drum up business. Catastrophic failures happen, but for most of us they're rare. I bought my first car in 1980. I've yet to have an engine seize up, or a transmission fail.

These would have been expensive repairs, if they were needed. On the other hand, if I had been paying the premiums for the advertised coverage for 40 years, I probably could have replaced several engines and transmissions.

I don't recall, but I don't think that the advertisements quote any kind of a price for the coverage. It seems like a red flag to me.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

> I've yet to have an engine seize up, or a transmission fail.



Doing the required maintenance in a timely manner brings alot of 'luck' when it comes to the necessity for car repairs.


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## raylo32 (Nov 25, 2006)

It's all statistics... but I had a lemon 1987 Camaro Z28 that blew the engine and transmission (at different times) and had a ton of other major problems (I posted the crazy list in another thread here once if you want to search for it), luckily mostly within the 50,000 mile power train warranty. Car Shield would have gone broke on that car.

I usually do all my own work but for my 2016 Vette I finally broke down and bought one of these maintenance policies from a GM dealer who sells them at a discount. $1500 for 8 years is not so bad. I did it for 3 reasons. 1. This car has many many potential repairs, even small issues, that any one of them will be more than I paid for the entire policy due to the difficult R&R, like removing bumpers, dropping engine cradles, etc. that I don't want to take on. 2. I plan to keep the car for a long time with fairly low miles but if I sell it, it'll be an asset. and 3. This will keep me from modifying the darned thing when I get that itch. I think. Because that would invalidate the policy.



mitchleeanderso said:


> I bought my first car in 1980. I've yet to have an engine seize up, or a transmission fail.


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## 660catman (Aug 25, 2019)

My nephew has a 2016 Civic with the LED strip in the headlamp. The LED strip failed but extended warranty did not cover it as it was a lamp. They would cover a failed assembly like a leak but not this. She fought with dealer who sold the warranty until they broke down and agreed to replace it. That is until they found out it was an aftermarket headlamp replaced in previous accident. Supplier replaced it at no charge. 


Retired guy from Southern Manitoba, Canada.


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## HotRodx10 (Aug 24, 2017)

> Car Shield would have gone broke on that car.



I bet they acquire repair histories for every vehicle they cover, and set their rates accordingly. As we discussed earlier, on average, those companies only spend 12% of the money they collect to pay claims. That's a alot of margin to work with.


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## MTN REMODEL LLC (Sep 11, 2010)

I don't believe in maintainence contracts.....matter of fact I used to tell a salesman trying to sell a contract with a product, "Oh gosh, if this TV is likely to fail in three years, guess I don't want to buy this TV.

But I did buy *one *in sort of a peculiar instance....from Lowes.

We were moving into a small town without my beloved Jensen Appliance in Denver. I had plenty of work to do on our new-old home. And appliances basically have a terrible service rateing today. (SAMSUNG SUCKS)

Basically, given my location and timing, I did not want to be bothered for a few years with appliance problems.

When my dryer failed, they did not have a repair service available, and returned my full price and taxes on the dryer. $600 or so.

(I went ahead and fixed it myself for a $5 temp control on the heater.)

I guess my point would be that if you ever have to buy a service contract, buy it from the retailer....third party contractors really don't care about your repeat business....but seems to me a retailer seeking your further purchases, has a vested interest in treating you fairly.

(PS. I only bought a 3 year contract, and sure enough, under very light use, my SAMSUNG micro failed at 3.5 yearrs, and I had repeat work on my dryer and my refrigerator....SAMSUNG SUCKS)


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## A Squared (Dec 19, 2005)

MTN REMODEL LLC said:


> I used to tell a salesman trying to sell a contract with a product, "Oh gosh, if this TV is likely to fail in three years, guess I don't want to buy this TV.


I like it. 

So, tell us, what is your opinion of Samsung?


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