badhoopty

ok, i'm not a new ls1 owner but i really dont know where to stick this topic.

last year on a roadtrip my a/c started graduly blowing hot. in the middle of my trip i stopped at a dealer in colorado (luby chevrolet) and had it checked out. they told me my compressor was bad, but i didnt have the time to wait a couple days to get it fixed so i continued on my roadtrip. i didnt bother taking it to get serviced when i got home because it was late sept and it simply wasnt on my mind since i stored it over the winter.

the beginning of this summer, i took my car to a local dealer here in chicago (zfrank chevy), and told them my a/c was blowing hot. (fyi i bought the car from a ford dealer and have the ford esp used car warranty on it.) anyway, i dropped it off and a day later they call saying it only needed recharged. (i didnt mention the diagnosis from the colorado dealer the summer before) so i asked them how it would only need recharged if there wasnt a leak. the guy said something about how over time it leaks out and how recharging is just routine maintenence, and wouldnt you know it, the recharge wasnt covered under warranty...

i had them go ahead and recharge it, (250 some bucks...) and it blew cold for about a month and a half (car is a weekend-only driver, and not every weekend do i get time to drive it). one hot summer day its blowing hot, and i call the dealer saying that its blowing hot. he says the leak must be a real small one that they didnt find, and to bring it in again and they would put dye in the system. so i bring it in, again, they check it for leaks, again, fill it with refrigerant, again, and put the dye in and tell me to bring it back in a week or two.

about 2 weeks later, its blowing hot, again, and i bring it back to the dealer to get checked. 2 days later i get a call saying there isnt a leak and that the a/c in modern cars doesnt blow cold all the time like it did in the old days. if thats the case, why did he tell me the first time that it just needed a recharge? and also, why does it not EVER blow as cold as it did the week or so after said recharge? the beginning of this summer the a/c just didnt work at all. i just aint believing my a/c doesnt have a leak somewhere...

i think its total bs, and i think the dealer, for whatever reason just does not want to service it. when it starts blowing hot after getting recharged it NEVER blows cool again. the beginning of this summer before i took it to zfrank chevy it never once blew remotely cool. i dont know if its a money thing with the dealer not wanting to do warranty work or if whoever is checking it simply isnt good at his job...



anyway, sorry for the long post but have any of you guys had an experience like this with your a/c? i dont want to go back to the dealer and make a big stink if they are right. just seems to me the a/c should blow cool at all times. my plan right now is to take it to yet another dealer and see if they actually fix it, and if they can to somehow try and get my money back from the dealer who charged me 250 bucks for a recharge and then told me i have no leaks after bringin it in twice after that for gradually blowing hot.

before i take it to a dealer i think i'll get one of those leak detection kits at autozone and see if i can diagnose where the leak is. are those little kits worth the money?

sorry for the long post, but i only have a few more thousand miles before my warranty runs out and i'd really like to take advantage of it before that happens.

HAWK#549

dude just tell em how you feel exactly. Complain to the manager too........

Mike2kZ

iTrader: (3)

first off, paying 250 for an ac recharge is a joke. 5 cans of refridgerant (7-10 a piece) and 5 minutes is all that it takes. But yeah, something's not right with your system.

monicaz28

iTrader: (5)

That's what happens when you take anything to the dealer

TTPBilly

i literally JUST had my car filled up. It was 100% empty, and was blowing out HOT air... not even chilled.... Guy charged me $65 for a full recharge. She blows colder than a whiches tit now.

I'de go back and ask for a manager/supevisor. Ide bitch at them and let them know u are aware you were gipped. If they wont do anythign about it, shoot the place up!!

What a rip!!

quiksilver9531

Well actually it takes close to an hour to properly recharge an a/c system, you have to remove all the old stuff with a machine, it takes about 30minutes and then you have to recharge it with the oil and refrigerent, and the shop I work at also charges around 250

ACW

If it's such a small leak that it's impossible to find, how could it run down so much in just a couple of weeks??
Yep, sounds like to me.

Being a dealer, they ought to have GM's special electronic leak detector, J 39400.

Can be ordered from SPX (click 'How To Order'): http://subaru.spx.com/detail.asp?partid=J-39400-A

badhoopty

little update...

this weekend i went to autozone and got one of those el-cheapo 10 buck uv-light leak detection kits with the little pen light and the yellow glasses.

the compressor is leaking. its obvious. i literally popped the hood in the autozone parking lot and found the bright green spot all around the center of the compressor in about 15 seconds.

its so obvious you dont even need to use the glasses if the ambient light is low enough.

how should i handle this with the service departmant of the dealership that on 3 seperate occasions couldnt find this leak? i'm under the assumption that they did indeed find the leak and just are crooked bastards, in which case i really got nothin other than trying to get the 250 bucks back for the recharge that leaked out as a result of thier false diagnosis of the problem.

i'm thinking call the service department and try to get ahold of the main manager. one of you guys wouldnt by any chance know what the manager title of such a peep would be would you? i just want to know so when i call to make an appointment to have a meeting with the guy i dont have to ask the receptionist who the big cheese is...

any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Quickin

Listen man. Call the dealership and get the name of the OWNER. You write him a letter and explain what happened. Screw all the crooked ******* managers, its just a chain of command of trailer park trash idiots with a good job in which to steal money from the public. (((Not ALL dealerships and their employees are like this)))

Tell them the date you showed up for a recharge. Tell them you had no leak at that time, and that the tecjnicians confirmed that. Now, some time later you have a leak, yet you never had the proper use of your A/C system because it kept leaking out. Then you bought a cheap testing kit and found it yourself. Simply ask what he can do for you about this repair, and that you already spent alot of money and time with them and got absolutely nothing out of it.

I'm lucky, I have a dealer here that for some damn reason is friggin honest as all hell and is actually as cheap or cheaper than privately owned shops all over the city, plus my friend is the parts dept manager and me and the dealership owner go for rides in my car all the time

If the service manager isn't gonna help you right now just write that letter to the owner, don't waste your time with anyone esle.

Good luck.

Quickin

Oh: Chain of *****, I mean command.

Owner of the dealership

General Manager of the dealership

Sales Manager

Service Manager

Parts Department Manager

Loan people

Accountants

Techinicians

Salesman

Body Shop & Paint people

Secratary

Car detailers & car runners

Spy's

badhoopty

thanks. i pretty much knew the compressor was bad before i brought it in to this particular dealership, since the summer before when the ac started blowing hot during a 5k roadtrip i had it diagnosed at a different dealer in a different state and they said it was the compressor. (i couldnt get it fixed, had to be in a different state that evening...)

the reason i didnt tell this new dealer that it had already been diagnosed was that i wanted an 'honest' diagnostic.

i'm just gonna start with a call to the service dept manager and request that he give me 30 or so minutes in person to run him thru the issue and show him my car personally.

badhoopty

well...

i called the service manager to try and talk to him about this, i didnt even get to talk about the problem before he blew me off and told me he had to call me back because he was busy at that moment. i never got a call back...

so i filed a complaint with the chicago better buisness bureau...

i'm gonna take it to a different dealer and get it serviced the right way and just write off the 250 some bucks i got swindled as a learning experience. if anything else having a different dealer look at it and determine that there is indeed a leak and that the compressor needs replaced should help me with the dealer that tried to bend me over and make me think that hot air blowing out the vents at the 'max' a/c setting is acceptable...


CHICAGO PEEPS DO NOT TAKE YOUR RIG TO ZFRANK CHEVY ON 6060 N. WESTERN.

ACW

Their BBB listing says Mr. Charles E. Frank is the owner: http://www.chicago.bbb.org/commonreport.html?bid=4587

And here is his address:

Charles Frank
25 Lakeview Ter
Highland Park, IL 60035
ZFrank Chevrolet President

...courtesy of his contribution to the Sierra Club Voter Education Fund
http://www.campaignmoney.com/politic...oter_ed_fd.asp and http://forms.irs.gov/politicalOrgsSe...6&formType=E72

He's definitely making plenty of $$$ from that dealership That land+house, built in 2002, is worth almost $1.6 million.

jcori3

sorry to hear your bad dealer experience. I have had the same thing happen. I took my car in for a driver side window motor. When i got it back one of the switches on the door panel was broke. I refused to take the car and raised all kinds of hell about it and screamed like a little girl. Well it worked, they took my car back right then and replaced the switch with a new one. Then i told them that i would never come back there again and to go **** themselves. I know that wasnt prolly the right thing to do but it sure made me feel a whole lot better about the whole ordeal.