Hi,
My Mazda CX7 has recently developed an aircon issue. There is no cold air flowing out.
Cold air seems to only come out when im travelling at around 80KM/h - anything below or above that, it stops working.
I took it to my mechanic, and he says there is an issue with the aircon compressor, and says it'll cost around $2,000 to fix and add coolant etc..
Does this sounds reasonable?
Anything else I can do to avoid paying so much?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Regards,
Drose.
Take it elsewhere for a second opinion. You can new or used parts and just pay to have it installed
i'm assuming your car is out of warranty?
How much would a CX-7 be worth these days? $7-10k trade in?
You might be better off just trading it in and keep the $2k in hand for the replacement. So, effectively $12k to start with for your shopping, or assuming something else goes wrong with a car at least six years old and you have to spend even more or trade it in anyway, $8k if you get the AC fixed.
You might even find a deal via OzB.
But you'll lose that repair cost anyway, dealer isn't gonna give you market value when there's $1-2k worth of repairs (minimum)
so the dealer would check the ac works on a relatively modern car before offering a trade in price?
Yep
Car is outside warranty so we check stuff
Anything else I can do to avoid paying so much?
Don't get it fixed? :)
Get some other quotes and see what they are.
Anything else I can do to avoid paying so much?
Wind the window down?
Good old Russian AC. Aka WD100 air conditioning.
You live in Melbourne according to your profile, just do without, a couple of days a year when it gets hot, take a taxi/uber
Wow! a Japanese car breaking down, according to OZBargain, it only happens to European cars.
I'd take it to another place that specialises in Mazda to get a 2nd opinion.
Have you done a dye test?
My uncle's CX7 had an air cond compressor issue also, it was out of manufacturer warranty but had extended he had dealer warranty for 5 years if he serviced the car there which he did. The dealer tried to worm their way out of the warranty repair until I got involved.
I learnt that Mazda dealer were very expensive for log book servicing.
New car is the best option, even if you fixed it no guarantee (if its all fixed and there is a leak somewhere else, it will cost you extra).
For people wondering why a $500 compressor replacement costs $2k, it's not only the compressor that gets replaced. It's possible to do a budget job for close to $1k, but there's a risk of metal shavings being left in the lines after the compressor has seized. Therefore everything gets replaced along the line to prevent this.
When my $3.5k value car had an AC compressor seize and the repair cost was $1850, I chose to sell the car with full disclosure that AC doesn't work and it's not a simple regas fix. Car sold for $2.5k and I bought something new with a 5 year warranty that I intend to keep for a decade, like the old car.
Drive nude.
Cold air seems to only come out when im travelling at around 80KM/h
Never drive below 80
assuming your gassed up (which it sounds like because it does do cold air)
here's a test for you
crank up air con on
put car into neutral
rev the car to around 3-4000 rpm and hold it there
does the air coming out of the aircon become cooler?
if this is the case, its probably the expansion valve
Everywhere i went to ask to change it was around 1.5k just mainly because of the labour (honestly just think no one wants to do it) but none guaranteed it would fix the problem
so i just left it as is
Why do people ask for advice and then never even come back to acknowledge any contributions?
Triggers me too.
CX7 have major problems with the turbo engine, don't get caught…
My Cx 7 is getting the aircon repaired right now at a cost of $1,350. Same issue, blowing warm air. Pretty peeved off about it as car only has 60,000km on clock. Should have traded it in 2 years ago.
Good luck with that, with the cx7s you should at least replace the condenser, and at least flush the evaporator, as normally when the compressor let's go it will send bits of metal all through the AC system. Then not long after you put your nice new compressor on, the bits of metal go through it and destroy it.
Thread here says he was quoted $1500 part http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2203998
However here the compressor is under $500 (validate it is correct part obviously): https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mazda-CX-7-Air-Conditioner-Compr…
So yes, you can avoid paying $2000 by putting some effort in and researching.
Start by finding out exactly which part needs replacing.
Also go to a 2nd place to see if they agree on the cause.
Then go to a Mazda forum and see if it is a common issue.
I went to 2 places for mine and they said two different things (XTrail).
I bought the compressor online for $400 and paid $300 to have it installed.