Hello! A brief history.......my '02 Mountaineer (v8 AWD) was in for a cooling (lack of AC) problem in April, '07. Was told it was a loose fitting, fitting was tightened and system was recharged. Fine! August of '07 no cooling on one side inside cabin (has auto cooling/heating with dual feature) but cooling on the other. At that time some AC lines were replaced, the system evacuated and recharged and it was covered under my extended factory warranty.
Fast forward to today when I was out and the AC is inop again. Naturally now my extended warranty has expired. There are 86K miles on it. I took it back to the dealer I have used for all repairs and maintenance for the past 5 years. Now I'm told the accumulator is leaking and needs to be replaced. The price quoted to drive it out the door repaired, originally was $802.39. I balked at that reminding them they have repaired my AC twice before. They called back and lowered the price to $715.00. I told him that they should wait till I call back to authorize the repair because that was an awful big pill to swallow, especially considering they have worked on it twice before. Only 14,000 miles have been put on it since that time. He called back again with a rock bottom price of $616.49. By the time of this last call I had done some research and discovered that if the AC system was opened like it undoubtedly had been with the 2nd repair (at least) in 2007 that the accumulator should have been replaced. I told the service advisor of my finding and he said he would research it and call me back. I am still waiting for his call back.
I have worked as a collision repair estimator at a Ford/Mercury dealership and so am familiar with parts and replacement as well as how they all work off of book times (flat rate) on labor. I do NOT want the technician screwed in this deal....I understand how they make a living and for many years was responsible for coding their labor to make sure they were paid as they should be. It has been a few years since I quit working in that business but as I recall this is a bolt on part, easily accessible under the hood. Am I correct about that? Price quoted for the part was around $100 retail so originally they were looking at about $700 or so in labor!
I have two grown sons that are both pretty mechanically inclined. Could I have the dealer evac the AC system, buy the part, have my sons install it and then take it back to the dealer to be recharged? Is replacing this part difficult? It looks to me from illustrations I have seen that it is a matter of disconnecting the AC lines, removing the old accumulator, bolting the new one in and then recharging the system. Am I way off base here? I love my Mountaineer and always have (that's why I've had 3 plus the Explorer) but I am really not in a position to put out this kind of money for the AC right now. Yes, I could do without it but we're coming into summer and being a menopausal woman with hot flashes :fire: is no fun, LOLOLOL!!!
Thanks for any help or guidance. I expect to talk to them again tomorrow. Right now they have been put on hold and I'm waiting for them to research whether or not they should have replaced the accumulator in late '07 with the last AC repair.
Thanks!
Janet
Fast forward to today when I was out and the AC is inop again. Naturally now my extended warranty has expired. There are 86K miles on it. I took it back to the dealer I have used for all repairs and maintenance for the past 5 years. Now I'm told the accumulator is leaking and needs to be replaced. The price quoted to drive it out the door repaired, originally was $802.39. I balked at that reminding them they have repaired my AC twice before. They called back and lowered the price to $715.00. I told him that they should wait till I call back to authorize the repair because that was an awful big pill to swallow, especially considering they have worked on it twice before. Only 14,000 miles have been put on it since that time. He called back again with a rock bottom price of $616.49. By the time of this last call I had done some research and discovered that if the AC system was opened like it undoubtedly had been with the 2nd repair (at least) in 2007 that the accumulator should have been replaced. I told the service advisor of my finding and he said he would research it and call me back. I am still waiting for his call back.
I have worked as a collision repair estimator at a Ford/Mercury dealership and so am familiar with parts and replacement as well as how they all work off of book times (flat rate) on labor. I do NOT want the technician screwed in this deal....I understand how they make a living and for many years was responsible for coding their labor to make sure they were paid as they should be. It has been a few years since I quit working in that business but as I recall this is a bolt on part, easily accessible under the hood. Am I correct about that? Price quoted for the part was around $100 retail so originally they were looking at about $700 or so in labor!
I have two grown sons that are both pretty mechanically inclined. Could I have the dealer evac the AC system, buy the part, have my sons install it and then take it back to the dealer to be recharged? Is replacing this part difficult? It looks to me from illustrations I have seen that it is a matter of disconnecting the AC lines, removing the old accumulator, bolting the new one in and then recharging the system. Am I way off base here? I love my Mountaineer and always have (that's why I've had 3 plus the Explorer) but I am really not in a position to put out this kind of money for the AC right now. Yes, I could do without it but we're coming into summer and being a menopausal woman with hot flashes :fire: is no fun, LOLOLOL!!!
Thanks for any help or guidance. I expect to talk to them again tomorrow. Right now they have been put on hold and I'm waiting for them to research whether or not they should have replaced the accumulator in late '07 with the last AC repair.
Thanks!
Janet
