Expensive air conditioning repair

this saga begins with a noisy compressor on my 2001 subaru. after checking the system and determining no leaks with their freon sniffer, my repair guy said it needed to be replaced. a used one was put in for $150. however, a week later i had at best week cooling. i brought it back in and they found a leak in the condensor, and replacing that and the evaporator was $1000. they said the leak was in the firewall and missed the first time. i don’t think t

does this sequence of events and repair make sense? i’m a little troubled that they found two separate issues, which, in my experience, is uncommon in most repair situations. on the other hand, my compressor was definitely very noisy despite adequate coolant at the first visit. why would a leak suddenly appear?

Perhaps the new compressor provided just enough of a boost to make evident an already ready-to-fail leak.

Sometimes in repairing an older vehicle, if one part of a system is worn out it’s an indication that some other spot is ready to fail too, but it’s not always possible to dtermine where that will be.