Help!...I got Cheated on Air Conditioner
 

Hello,
I just moved from San Francisco to LA. I took my 1983 Mercedes 300D to my mechanic (whom I haven't used in years, he used to work on my VW), to check it out, make sure it was ok for the drive, I haven't had it that long. I also told him I wanted an air conditioner, but a New one. He said he didn't have one and couldn't do it that day. I said fine. When I picked up my Car he said he had pulled an air conditioner from a mercedes he had for parts. He said the air conditioner was fine and he said he saved me alot of money. He charged $550 for everything. Also the clutch for the AC. I was very annoyed that he hadn't called me to ask if I was ok with the used one, but he made such a big deal out of it; that he was doing me a big favor and it was fine. etc.
So the AC worked, but not very forceful. Then A few days before my trip, the Blower (not the AC), did nothing when I pushed the button. If I pushed the AC first and then the blower, it would work. I took the car back, the mechanic (sal), hit the panel where the buttons were a couple times and it worked. He said I have to understand the car is old, things get stuck and just to Play with it.
THEN on the way down to LA yesterday, On the Very Hot Highway 5, The air condition would Not work, only the air from outside, or if I turned it to heat, it would come out very hot!...so the whole trip down, no cold air. And today driving around town with a male friend who knows about cars, we turned on the air conditioner, and he said it wasn't cold enough, it was just circulating outside air.
I'm upset because he gave me a used AC and it does not work.
How can I get my money back?? He knew I was moving to LA, and he might have tested this AC once after he put it in the car. I know this guy and he's going to say its just stuck, or I didn't give it enough time, etc. It just does not work. NO cold air. WHAT can I do?...Threaten to take him to small claims, which would mean going back up to SF. I assume I could take it to a mechanic down here in LA to verify in writing that it does not work.
THe place in SF is call "moderated name/number". So beware.
He also knew I was very short on funds, and I was surprised he would first do the work and then give me a bill for $550.
What Can I do??..I'm so upset about this. I love my car and I feel awful about this.
Thanks
Lindajane

If you say that some ACC functions work and some don't and banging on the contols gets things to happen then your push-button unit (PBU) is probably in need of a good resoldering. I'm sure a SoCal member can help you get that done. In the meantime, it might help to leave the blower on max and start by using defrost (first button from left) for a couple of minutes then switch to AC (second or third button from left). That got the ACC in my 83 SD going when nothing else would. It could also be worn blower brushes. Banging on the dash can get the brushes to make contact temporarily.

It's hard to say how your AC should perform after the $550 repair. Did he use R12 or R134a refrigerant? If he used R134a, it'll probably provide marginal cooling at best. My SDL was converted to R134a before I got it and it's not fun on 100F days or warmer.

If my sense of time is right, it's been a while since the services were rendered so it's kinda strange that you waited until now to take action on the claim that you did not approve the work before hand.

Good luck.

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

You need to determine what exactly is wrong before you assume his work did not hold up.... these controls are tricky.... my buttons would work when they wanted to... not when I pushed them... almost random as to when they decided to take my " advise" about turning on something....
This is also the reason I love my 1980 all manual ac control 240d... it was the 81 wagon with the other style controls which ignored me regularly....

I agree with Leathermang - these automatic climate control systems in the W123 are complicated and know weak points of the car. There is no evidence your mechanic did anything wrong - the failure could be totally unrelated to the work he did.

I've spent $600 on ONE part for a Mercedes A/C system - they are very expensive and there are lots of parts that can go bad.

$550 is nothing for an A/C repair these days, especially in California$$$$

The guy probably did not try to rip you off. He tried to help you. If it worked perfectly, you would be singing his praises.

Keep in mind you walked in saying you wanted a new A/C and you wanted it that day. When an owner of an old Mercedes says that, they better have at least $1500 in your pocket and that is basically for compressor work. Taken literally, a complete new A/C would probably cost $4000.

I would take it to a new shop and find out what is wrong. Then call the guy in SF and negotiate with him to get it fixed right.

This would be a no win for anybody in court. Been there, done that.

No..I didn't want it done that day...
 

No...I said I wanted a new AC..but it didn't have to be that day at all. When I returned he put in an old one without asking me first. And I didn't make a fuss because he assured me it was good. I just want it to work and I hate to have to take it to someone down here and pay again when I thought and was told the AC was working fine and like a new one...

Linda, You need to read what we have already said in this thread...
First off... if you went in there and said " I want a new AC" ... then he figured you had not done your research and he probably tried to do the best he could for you....
If you went in and said " I want a brand new, not rebuilt, AC COMPRESSOR.... a 4 cylinder Delco " his ears would have perked up and he would have understood that you meant what you were saying...

I still say you do not know at this time whether or not the work he did is working for you...

There are too many other items which could make it look like his job was not good...when in fact it may be just fine... you will have to do more dectective work to find out... not fun.... but necessary and proper before you accuse him of anything...

How can you go to a mechanic and say you want a BRAND SPANKIN' NEW A/C system.... and then in the same breath say you are low on funds?:confused: From what you said.. it looks like the man wanted to help you out and saved you cash by using parts that are working... i highly doubt he would knowingly or purposefully cheat you by putting parts in that are about to go... especially if he has been doing work on your vehicles before.

Do what you said you will.. take it to another pro who can verify whats wrong. If it turns out to be something wrong with his worksmanship... you can settle this with him. If it turns out to be a part that he put in that went bad... settle it with him... maybe he will replace the part.

lindajane - I finally got around to reading through this post and edited the name of the place out until we figure out exactly what is going on. In reading through your stuff it sounds to me like your push button unit is working the way they work when they fail or are on the way out. Can you press the defroast button and the compressor comes on? If you can then the refrigerant part of the a/c system is operating which will verify that the fella in SF did the right thing. Also, while under there check the site glass in the top of the dryer located in front of the passenger side wheelwell. If the compressor is running is it clear or cloudy? There is nothing wrong with a used compressor but you are correct, the way he did it was not right. On the other hand, if you indicated to him you did not want to spend anymore $$ than absolutely necessary then he probably figured he was doing you a favor. I have people come to me all the time wanting to nickel and dime a/c repairs and in my opinion, it is not worth it. Like the earlier posters indicated, this is an unnecessarily complicated system. You need to find someone that knows how to properly troubleshoot and repair it. I would put my money on a bad push button control unit $$.

No no, you got it all wrong
 

i went to him MAinly to check out the car and make sure it was ok to drive to LA. I remarked that I would like Air conditioning, but after reading about rebuilt ac on this forum, told him I wanted to go with a new one AT SOME POINT. I did not mean that day at all and he knew that.
When i picked up the car I was surprised that he had put an AC in it and hadn't picked up the phone to clear it with me first. Since we had agreed that at a future date, when I had Funds, that I was going to put in a new one.
I think he pulled it from the car he had for parts (thats what he told me) and tested it and put it in. But it may have been faulty in the other car off and on and he did not know it, or maybe he did; he assumed it was working and put it in. At least that is what I think. But even when it was "working" in my car, the force of the air was so weak it was practically discernable.

Linda, again, you need to do more research on your car to determine ANYthing...
For instance, the air blowing weakly HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE COMPRESSOR HE PUT ON....
I can see that you would be upset by his actions..... but that is different from making the jump from the physical indicators which you have listed so far... to him putting either a bad compressor in.. or the ac work in general not currently working...
You will have to check out the CONTROL parts of the system... he has no way to tell when the other stuff is going to go out... but it can affect the impression you have of his work.... but it is not fair to do it that way....

I really hate to read/hear things like this.

It's this kind of experience that will make lindajane go spend $20k on some plastic crap just because people can work on it and it has a warranty. Then they'll never consider another old car because of something like this, it takes very little to sower a person. I've been haveing the same argument with my mother for a decade now, it's frustrating watching her spend five times what my 300D cost on a damned Kia that is falling apart after 50K miles. (note: nothing personal to lindajane, just common reference and observation)

The fact that he said it's "old and you'll have to play with it" show's he's a moron frankly in my opinion. If he'd said something like it's old and is worn and you can either put up with it being finicky or replace it, that would have been alright. But his answer is one of the things that makes me shudder. It's a short, short step to the kind of person that tosses parts at a problem with nothing but hope to back up the decisions. I have and am selling parts to civi's and commercial outfits on a daily basis, have off and on for about six years now. If I couldnt work on my own car I'd ride a horse.

Linda, find someone that KNOWS Mercedes and is recomended and tell them what happened and have them look at the car. By someone that knows I intend someone with independently veriafiable references, from here or elsewhere. Maybe your tech did the best he could, maybe he slaped used parts on there and figured he made a quick $500 with a used compresor and some spare cans of r134, we can't really say. But let this be a lesson, and I hope you don't turn bitter from it.

If I was the mechanic fixing the A/C system I would make it perfectly clear to the customer that I am dealing with a 20 year old rather poorly designed - way over complicated HVAC system.

It has a bunch of moving parts, some of the parts are electrical, some are vaccum controled, many sensors, control modules ect ect ANY of which can cause problems in the operation of the system. Given the lay of the landscape I would NOT guarantee that the system would function for 30 minutes after I fixed it, unless of course the customer would be willing to replace every part in the system in which case I would be happy to issue a gaurantee (just like MB did when the bulit the damn thing) As a prior poster points out this would cost about 4 thousand dollars....

I'm not sure I agree with the Kia/Hyundai argument - if you don't have alot of money and you can't fix/troubleshoot issues yourself I'm not sure a 21 year old 300D is a great choice for someone with limited $$$

Of course your mileage may vary....

Tim

I was thinking more along the lines of a manual everything 240D in Mothers case... It would not take many car payments to go through the brakes, suspension, flex disks, etc, the wear items.
That's probibly another thread worth of conversation though..

I agree about the AC as well though, 98% of techs, even good ones, would never guess how bad the ACC can be on one of these cars, I imagine a lot of honest one's have lost there rear over them. Leaving thing's you don't know anything about the heck alone is always a good idea..

AC
 

I didn't find this particular question doing a search, but has anyone developed a procedure for safely/effectively bypassing the ACC. Mine is seat of the pants bypassed/direct wired. Got it that way. I currently have AC, it blows high only, and comes out all vents; defrost, panel, and foot. I can survive the summer if nothing breaks, but will have to figure out heat situation before winter. Anyone much smarter that I have permanent bypass ideas? It would apparrntly help a large number of people.
Jimmy