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It's my turn to share feedback on my recent AC repair...
About six years ago a mechanic who had a knack for returning my car with my requested part repaired and another one broken, replaced my '87 Saab Turbo head gasket but seemingly created a leak in my still R-12 AC. The AC had worked the previous week. He ended up replacing the R-12 with a substitute by the name of FRIGC. It worked marginally but I lived with it. I am pretty sure that he didn't replace any parts because he fixed it on his nickel.
About a year later it stopped working. The compressor no longer turned and another shop told me it was fried. I now had another car with a great AC to drive, so the Saab became my winter car. But it is very hard not to want to drive your Saab when the other car available is an anemic '90 Audi 80. A couple years later the guy who fixed my Saab's headliner said he could switch my car to R134a and get the AC running for roughly $250 which he did. He installed new bearings and seals to the compressor. Again the AC ran but only marginally. That was the summer of '01.
This summer the AC ran but didn't blew only warm air. I set out to top off the refrigerant. The last mechanic didn't provide me the retrofittings for the valves. WARNING: A local parts shop listened to my explanation of the part I needed and sold me a part in one of those little boxes with no instructions. I went to install it but I couldn't get a good seal over the existing schraeder valve. And when I looked at the fitting, the inside was all bent. The guy couldn't explain it and gave me a new fitting which I installed in his parking lot. I had a worse problem -> not only wouldn't it seal, but now my schraeder valve was leaking!!! It turned out that the sales rep had provided me a fitting that required you to remove the old valve stem. That was not the part I was looking for! Now the R-134a had all escaped and I needed to evacuate the whole system and start over.
The good news is that I ordered a new dryer/evaporator and expansion valve from Saabsite (great guys) for $56 delivered and found a mechanic (here in Roanoke, VA) who fixed everything (and did an evacuation) for $90 in labor. I was amazed on the drive home when my thermometer showed a reading of 42.8 degrees F. When I got out of the car my eyeglasses fogged over!
Here's to hoping that the cold air continues!!! You can get cold air out of an old car. Just mail order the parts from some Saab junkies and find a mechanic who doesn't have huge overhead (my guy's garage was completed in 1910 and I'm not sure anyone has clean up in there since).
Regards,
Trevor
'87 900T 130K
posted by 68.10.39...
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