Cost to fix a leak in air conditioning system

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

Hi all,

I recently noticed that my air conditioning had stopped doing anything but blowing hot air, so I took it into the mechanic this morning. They flushed and refilled the coolant and told me there’s a leak somewhere, and to bring the car back in a couple of weeks so they can find the leak and repair it.



I had to drop $120 just for the coolant flush and refill. Can anyone tell me what I might expect to be billed for the repair of the leak?

thanks,

Ben

2

Oh… I guess it may be relevant to mention I drive a 2005 Ford Focus.

3

Did you just have your engine cooling system flushed and refilled? That is different from the A/C system, which has refrigerant. If you had the refrigerant “flushed” and refilled, go back to the shop and get them to fix the leak wich they likely caused, if it did not leak before.

Please itemize exactly what was done, since your question is confusing.

4

One assumes that it was a “refrigerant” that they flushed and refilled, not “coolant” as that wouldn’t make any sense for an AC problem. (Coolant cools the engine, refrigerant cools you)

As for the cost to repair the leak, that depends entirely on where the leak is. At a minimum, it will be more than $120, as the evacuate and refill procedure will have to be repeated. I would suspect that the worst case (if it is just a leak) would be around $1600.

5

Sorry, I don’t know much about cars (hence why I’m here to ask things).

You are correct, it was the refrigerant they took out from the car. They said there was only a little bit left, caused by a leak somewhere in the AC system. They performed some kind of vacuum test on the system to determine that there was, in fact, a leak somewhere. They then refilled the refrigerant along with a dye so that they could identify the leak at a later point.

So, yes, it is the AC system that has a leak, not the engine coolant system.

6

If you just need an o-ring it won’t cost much. If one of the components needs to be replaced it will cost more. There’s no way to tell until someone determines where the leak is.

Either way, you’ll pay to have the system evacuated, dried, and refilled again.