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Feel Like Ive been ripped off - 2009 Nissan Murano S

3K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  JayS 
#1 ·
Hello I am new to the site and hope you can provide some input to this problem. A week ago my car suddenly started blowing warn, no cold air. I took it to a firestone dealer in town and told him I thought it was just freon as I had been told about a year back that I may have small leak. The car was freoned and I was told that the car was still warm so something else was wrong. They checked the car and told me that the AC compressor was bad and needed replacing at the cost of $614, said if I took back in 30 days they would credit me for the freon that was just placed in the car. We were heading out of town that weekend, said they had to order part, took back on this past friday picked up that evening, car is very cold. Drove out of town, to orlando 3 hours away. an hour into our trip the car started blowing warm air, it would cycle, cold for a few minutes then warm then just air. I called the firestone shop next morning and was told to take back in to check. I brought in today and was told that AC condenser is now bad $400+. I got mad as I could not understand how, why this could happen to a car that is rarely driven, 2009 with 70,000 miles exact. He said there was no way to know until checking one thing and then checking another. It seems that I was ripped off. Offered to order part, I refused to have them touch my car. Told them so replace my old part and return my money as the end result had not changed. The car was still warm. Tried to show me the diagram of ac system and that leak was behind grill. Why when I told them that the car had a small leak, was all components of the ac system not checked, they seem to be doing reactive diagnostics. Do you wait until something goes bad to chek, when yo had my car there all day, why whould you not check my car throughly, instead of checking my tires to tell me that I needed brakes soon. Im about ready to write to the Firestone headoffice regarding this issue.
 
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#2 ·
This doesn't seem that unlikely to me....and I think they're telling you the truth. In fact, it sounds like they made an effort to explain the AC system layout to you and you rejected their attempt. Not a good idea.

Frankly, it sounds to me like you didn't trust this shop before you went in, and you looked for reasons to decide you were being cheated. I don't think you were.

The AC system has these components:

Compressor
Condenser (like a radiator)
Accumulator/drier (canister that has material which collects moisture)
R-134 refrigerant (not freon)
Tubes to connect compressor, drier and condenser; one tube will have a small conical screen in it to catch particles

70K miles is certainly enough mileage to have an AC problem. Leaks are tricky - what a shop should do is go over the system with a refrigerant leak detector, but the condenser is behind the grille and is often very hard to reach without removing the grille.

The condenser is like a radiator and can be hit by insects and flying rocks. They are often mounted directly behind the grille, in front of the radiator, where a flying rock can reach them. (I don't recall whether the Murano condenser is in front of or behind the radiator.) Condensers are made of aluminum tubing and a flying rock can easily knock a pinhole in one of the tubes, or they can simply crack from the vibration of driving. Either way, refrigerant leaks out.

If the compressor was indeed bad, especially if its seals failed, it is possible that there was a detectable leak there. If all the refrigerant was gone, there was no way for them to test for a leak without re-charging the system and doing so.

Each step in this diagnostic and repair process costs money. If you're trying to spend as little as possible, you run the chance of not doing enough diagnosis.

Here's what it boils down to: you're going to have to go to ANOTHER shop, explain the whole thing, pay for them to run a complete AC system leak test, and then most likely pay for them to remove the grille as needed and install a new condenser. In the process, they should also replace the accumulator/drier, since if the system is opened up it usually draws enough moisture from the air that it won't work effectively.

I may be wrong, but I think I have it about right.
 
#3 ·
Their explanation is about the only thing that makes sense. They recharged it the first time and you got nothing but warm air. They replaced the compressor and it the system worked fine which means the compressor was definitely bad. A week later it stopped and they located a leak in the condenser. They wouldn't have any reason to check the condenser after the compressor solved the problem and the system didn't show any obvious leaks. I'm sure had they charged you for a full leak test after the compressor had fixed the problem you'd have complained about that too.

I wouldn't be happy that both those parts had failed at 70k on an 09 but it's hardly Firestone's fault.
 
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