A/C blew up...
06-12-2013, 12:19 PM
#1
A/C blew up... My wife called me Monday saying that she think her a/c was going out. Told her to baby the car. She called back a couple hours later and said she thought she ran over something. I told her she might have snapped the a/c belt.
Next day she took my truck to work and I took her car to our normal mechanic (car's out of warranty). He popped the hood with me and we both took a look at it for the first time, the compressor pulley was in pieces, so we knew that had to be replaced. He called his normal a/c guy, $1320 just for parts, $760 labor. I was very surprised.
I later went and picked up my daughter who is 3 months old. And I'm driving around Texas which was 94* yesterday. So I went straight to the Dealership to buy the parts. I pulled in the service bay to get my daughter to a/c asap. And they asked me what was up. Told them, they took the car back and came back and told me the Harmonic balancer, front main seal, and the a/c compressor all needed to be replaced, $1811 installed. I said deal, but I didn't ask to see the quote to see if they had all the parts that they were going to need. Got a call this morning saying it needed the condenser and drier set up as well. Making the new total $2297. Only thing that has made this worth it is driving a 2013 Tahoe LTZ around when it is 97*.
So overall, I was extremely surprised on the cost of the a/c system in a G8, and second I was glad that the dealership is actually taking care of me and not going crazy on costs.
Next day she took my truck to work and I took her car to our normal mechanic (car's out of warranty). He popped the hood with me and we both took a look at it for the first time, the compressor pulley was in pieces, so we knew that had to be replaced. He called his normal a/c guy, $1320 just for parts, $760 labor. I was very surprised.
I later went and picked up my daughter who is 3 months old. And I'm driving around Texas which was 94* yesterday. So I went straight to the Dealership to buy the parts. I pulled in the service bay to get my daughter to a/c asap. And they asked me what was up. Told them, they took the car back and came back and told me the Harmonic balancer, front main seal, and the a/c compressor all needed to be replaced, $1811 installed. I said deal, but I didn't ask to see the quote to see if they had all the parts that they were going to need. Got a call this morning saying it needed the condenser and drier set up as well. Making the new total $2297. Only thing that has made this worth it is driving a 2013 Tahoe LTZ around when it is 97*.
So overall, I was extremely surprised on the cost of the a/c system in a G8, and second I was glad that the dealership is actually taking care of me and not going crazy on costs.
06-13-2013, 10:46 AM
#3
Very common problem in the G8 for the stock balancer to start to wobble. Also a very common problem for the G8's to throw A/C belts, although I've never seen an A/C pulley break apart. Crazy Paul on GRRRR8 sells a replacement A/C belt tensioner that uses 2 idler pulleys as opposed to 1 to prevent this problem. If you are a somewhat competent mechanic you could have done it for less than half the price and had yourself a nice new UDP. or just replaced the compressor pulley, crank pulley, and belts and called it a day. Sort of what Six Speed was getting at. It isn't the A/C system on the G8's that are expensive, its the mechanics/stealership.
06-14-2013, 01:13 AM
#4
I agree with what you guys are saying, I just didn't have the time to do it. With a 3 month old time is something that I don't have a ton of. But the big thing for me was the loaner car. It helped out a ton and it was really nice to run around in a 2013 Tahoe all week.
06-21-2013, 07:28 PM
#6
You are ok with a $2300 bill for your car and it's just your A/C system and harmonic balancer? I would stroke out. If the parts are that much, I need to start collecting a lot of stuff for my GXP since I still use it as a daily driver...Fme that's crazy. Glad I turn my own wrench, at least I save $80/hr there.
06-23-2013, 07:20 PM
#7
My car kept throwing the AC belt so the dealer said they would install the double idler pulley setup. When the parts came in they told me it would be $1200 with labor and I almost had a heart attack. I told them it was a design flaw so they called GM and they agreed to pay $1000 of the cost. What a relief that was!
