$1500+ for a 4yo AC compressor replacement?

1. Did you hear the noise yourself?
2. Is your AC working now?
3. What would happen if you declined the repair?

 

Hi Alan,

OK, since you know the AC doesn't work, and the diagnosis is that the compressor has to be replaced, then the price of $1,500 seems reasonable for dealer service. You may wish to call around to the various Toyota dealers in your locale to see if you can improve on the price.

 

Laird, I'm curious as to how many miles you have on it. These are the things that are making me consider an extended warranty.

 

Well, a call to the toyota customer experience center may have toyota chip in somehow.

 

First let me say that I agree that it's failed early and the cost to fix it is pretty bad.

As for any bad effects of not fixing it, if you leave it switched off then there will be none.

BTW. Warm still works with the AC fully off. You can go into the MFD and make the AC off (light bar above the AC icon is off) but the fan on, and it will still (without AC) try to maintain that temperature. Obviously though it can only warm the air to achieve this.

 

I grimaced when adding the cost of a 100k mile Platinum service to the invoice for my brand new 2007 Prius in June of 2007. Last Saturday I had the car at Lee's Summit Toyota for a no a/c complaint and sure enough, the compressor is not working and diagnosed as "unresponsive". Repair cost = $1500.00! So as much as I hated the idea of purchasing an extended warranty, it has proved very valuable at this point.

What is distressing is a major component failure at only 71k miles on a car that I thought was very reliable and would require only preventive maintenance. A/C compressors should not fail within 4 years. Now I have reason to doubt its reliability and future cost of ownership.

 

reliability is based on number of complaints. doesn't mean they are all perfect. good for you on the extended warranty. i wouldn't worry about the future, but don't plan on not having more problems as you add mileage. maybe a trade in when the warranty is up is in your future?

 

I had always thought the weak point in the Prius A/C was the fragile aluminum AC condenser in front of the rad. Doesn't take much road debris to make a hole in it

Also, if as some point somebody "topped off" the R-134a, special care has to be applied to the type of oil used. The Prius A/C compressor is electric and using the wrong oil can cause a short in the AC motor that drives it

 

I recently posted here that my 2005 Prius at 115K miles the evaporator core failed, two weeks after spending a grand on a new Hybrid Battery that failed. The factory worked with me paying 75% of the battery cost, and so I opted for the repair. Now the evaporator failed and they want over $1700 to replace it, along with a new dryer and expansion valve. The Labor hit is 8 hours. I negotiated a 15% off parts , which knocked the cost down to $1300~ and change. But.....whats next ? The A/C compressor or Condensing coil ??? The information provided here has pushed me into getting rid of it, as the car has likely reached the wear out point. It would nice if a Toyota "insider" could publish historical failure rates for the major parts for the older model years-it would really help the consumer. But its probably in the Top Secret file in a cave in Toyota City Japan. Perhaps if Priuschat established a database where we could input the failures we have experienced-it would go far in helping understand the failure curves for these rare parts.

 

You might consider advertising it on this forum. There's probably someone who will appreciate that you've just fixed everything and it's good for a long time now
Seriously, I believe that on average you own one of the most reliable, long-lived vehicles on the market. I can understand that this double-whammy has been a shock, but assuming that the car's going to spontaneously fall apart from this point sounds like superstition to me.

 

no it doesnt seem right .. well for a dealer maybe .. but you could buy a whole salvage motor, with less miles, remove and replace the thing (not through the dealer labor) and have a smaller bill than the a/c you are quoting from the dealer ...

 

Yes four years is too soon, but it is the customers responsibility to make sure not to use the a/c as soon as you notice lower a/c performance. But I do understand it not always easy. It is even worse on a electric compressor because you have to cool the electric motor and winding to on top of the moving parts friction and compression. Just 30z low on refrigerant can be detrimental to the life of the compressor. Less refrigerant means less oil return, Less refrigerant means less cooling back to the compressor. Most cars lose a small amount of refrigerant every year. That was ok 10 to 20 years ago when the refrigerant capacity was 2 LB. to 4 LB. Now your Prius is less the 1 LB. = 554 g. your Prius is about 420 g. to 480 g. And looking for bubbles in the sight glass is not a good way to tell and sticking a thermometer in the dash can give you a false indicator on a cool day. On a cool 60F day and the refrigerant 1/2 empty you can still get 42f out the dash same as a full refrigerant charge, but on a hot day it will starve for refrigerant and then you will have poor cooling. Thers a lot more to it then that, but im just keeping it short and simple.

 

I have a 2012 Prius c. Today the service contract co. informed me that they rejected my claim about my air conditioning condenser claiming that it was damaged by a rock impact. I paid good money for this contract. I was also told that is very easy to damage the condenser since it sits low upfront. Calculate the cost of purchasing one. For me I learned a costly lesson. But I will never purchase 1 no more. Anybody else had similar results?