So that means you can tell me which tire on a car goes flat most often, what headlight left or right burns out first most often, what area of the windshield gets the most rock chips…
1 Like
Your friends are not mechanics so their sample size is near non-existent. Rock damage to condensers, windshields, headlights, grilles, front fascias, and so on is very common. Along with paint chips…
Things like this have been very common around here forever and even worse now due to rock haulers over the past 5 years or so hauling countless tons of rock for the wind farms. Not only do they rock the roads onto the wind turbine sites but they also rock every last inch of county dirt road getting there. That means hundreds of miles of dirt roads and a lot of that rock ends up on the paved roads also.
Nobody here said that. What they said is it happens, and experienced mechanics have seen it, often multiple times over the years.
There really isn’t anything more to this. You were unlucky, get it fixed.
1 Like
This is a common A/C tool that has been around forever. Longer than me even…
It’s used to straighten condenser fins damaged due to rocks, sticks, birds, bugs, you name it. Might point this out to your friends.
And of course this tool is to even out damaged fins. It does NOT repair leaks due to harder road debris strikes which makes up an unknown percentage of those hits.
1 Like
You’ve seen the pictures, we haven’t. Is there damage around the area of the leak? Is the leak in the fins or at a connection or in a line? My opinion varies with the answers to these questions.
Post a pic of the condenser damage and I think the answer will be very apparent what happened.
No one is out to screw you over no matter what you think. If it was a warrantable fix the dealer would have done did it (to use mangled English…) and the insurance company would not be involved. The last thing the dealer needs is yet another car sitting there in limbo waiting on decisions.
1 Like
If rock damage to the forward facing parts of a car was not a common thing there wouldn’t be places left and right that repair rock chips to windshields or companies that sell bras for the front of your car.
How often do I see a condenser or radiator damaged by road debris? Couple of times a year. Not common but certainly not unheard of.
I see no reason that Hyundai bears any responsibility here, no more than they should be responsible for a flat tired caused by driving over a sharp rock.
1 Like
+1
Yup!
Accidental damage is accidental damage, no matter what part of the car is involved.
I had a radiator that also got damaged by rocks over time, causing a leak, and overheating the engine. The grill gives no protection to constant small and medium rocks that get kicked up over time, including on the interstates. After that radiator failure and replacement, I placed a piece of screen door wire behind the grill but in front of the radiator and the AC condenser. I just got some replacement stuff for screen doors at the hardware store and cut it to fit and tucked it in. Now rocks bounce off, keeping my AC part and radiator from that constant damage. Look through the grill at your own radiator or AC condenser and see the indentations from small and medium rocks, which occasionally cause a leak, and a replacement repair. One mechanic said to not do this, claiming it would slow the air flow. I did it anyway. Well, the engine temp stayed exactly the same. The AC is blowing exactly as before, just fine. I’ve had my screen in for more than three years now, with no effect on my engine or AC system, except to protect it. There is no rock damage to front of my radiator and AC condenser, compared to leaving it open to the elements. I’ve replaced the AC systems in 2 cars (compressor failures) for $3,000 total and no way am I leaving them open to the constant dings of rocks after that expense.
We called those bug screens. Covered the whole front of the car in the 50’s and early 60’s. Then they lost popularity and they made some that went behind the grill. Maybe they still do. It would make cleaning the bugs out of the condenser and radiator a lot easier.