I took my car to the Toyota dealer for the 50K maintenance service, and they found out that there is a punctured hole in the AC condensor and is leaking. The estimated repair is $730. The AC still works and blows cold air.
Should I wait until it stops working or repair right away? What are the pros and cons in each case?
Thanks, Alex
Do you have full insurance on this car? If so, you should be able to get them to cover this repair as it is likely to be due to damage from a rock picked up by someone’s wheel in front of you.
That said, it is very hard to imagine any visually detectable puncture that wouldn’t vent all of the refrigerant in a day or less. Perhaps you should take your car somewhere else to verify that this puncture even exists.
thanks tardis for the reply. i do have full insurance. since the AC still works how urgent is to repair this if the hole actually exists?
I would say that it is urgent if you expect the insurance to cover it. They won’t cover it if you don’t file a claim right away.
Otherwise, it would be fairly safe to wait until the AC stopped working. You would want to have it fixed right away when it did stop, because the system could get contaminated once it was no longer pressurized.
Like tardis I’m really curious as to how there is an easily detectable hole yet at the same time a system that cools. This stuff is in there under pressure - even a very small hole will result in refrigerant loss in pretty short order.
That said, if for some reason there is actually this puncture and you still have AC you won’t for long
If there were a hole in the condensor the AC would not be working. The refrigerant would have leaked out by now.
Something smells fishy. I’d get a second opinion from an independent shop. Dealers are notorious for “fixing” things that aren’t broken.
If, on the other hand, the AC stops working tomorrow, you’ll know why.