i brought my car to the mechanic again concerning my a/c. as i stated before, when the button for the ac is depressed the light on the button goes from a solid green to blinking after a few minutes then blows warm air. the mechanic vacuumed the system out and added new freon. it didn’t work but then he noticed that the ac would click and shut down including the fans that cool down the engine. he was saying it might be an electrical problem but one of the guys that is working for him says its the compressor. my question is what do u think and which is more expensive. thank u in advance.
There is no reason for guess work here. Find a mechanic that knows how to work on these systems and has the right Toyota code scanner and troubleshooting flowcharts.
would a toyota dealership be best? i know that they charge practically double.
What exactly do they say is the problem with the compressor? You don’t have to go to the Dealer. Find a AC speciality shop.
To answer your question directly,“what is more expensive tracing a electrical problem or much less diagnostics and just replace the compressor” Replacing the compressor through the Dealer is going to cost $800.00 by the time your done. I can’t put a price on the electrical problem search. How much do they charge per hour for electrical diagnosis?
This is the wrong way to go about this,you don’t need to know the price on a repair you don’t need. Find a AC speciality shop.
I second the recommendation to find an A/C specialty shop.
There’s also not enough info known to know whether this is a compressor problem (unlikely) or an electrical fault (more likely) or even a system pressure problem (entirely possible).
The reasons you were given by the shop could be a bit suspect if they simply evacuated the system and recharged it in an effort to solve that blinking light problem.
The only way I could even make a wild guess would be if I knew what the high and low side pressures were.
i understand and respect what u all r saying. i just wish that i had the option. my problem is that when checking the yellow pages under automobile-yellow pages there are only regular gas station names. i am at the mercy of my mechanic (owner) who has always been reliable and somewhat trustworthy. i just like to arm myself with some info. the owner and his mechanic said that it was electrical and the owner said that he had to research it to make sure. when i brought the car in the next day to be repaired, the owner wasn’t there but the same mechanic (who previously worked for toyota for 20 years) told me that it was the compressor although he did not look under the hood again. i felt like he just said that. i took the car back and am waiting for the owner to be there but now i am nervous because i don’t trust this particular mechanic and i don’t know how much influence he has over the owner since they are good friends. i thought by writing here that maybe u could just give me a guess by saying that you feel that i don’t need a new compressor. i know its not an educated guess because of the lack of certain info but i just wanted to hear something from the experts. i live in ny and i have had major problems with honesty from mechanics. the one i am going to now not only has proven somewhat to me that he warrants some type of trust but is right up the block from me. thank u for your patience with my posts.
There is a little known issue with A/C relay contacter points burning out on Toyotas. Its possibly do to the lack of a Diode in the field coil circuit to discharge the current when power is released. I would replace A/C relay to see if it fixes it.
THANK U SO MUCH!!! at least i have something. even if that’s not the problem at least u have given me some hope. thanks again americar and God bless you.
Your welcome. I also think Toyota has a updated Relay. Its very easy and inexpensive to replace.
How did this turn out? I’m having the same problem with my 2002 camry. The AC guy told me it was the switch. It wasn’t.
the mechanic found that it was a loose wire. (i think it might have been loosened when i had the timing belt replaced) you might want to check americar’s post on this board because i feel that he left very useful info about a little known problem with toyota’s relay contacter points.