W140 Air Conditioning Problem: Help!

My W140 A/C is not blowing cold again. About a month ago, a local repair shop said I was low on coolant (freon?) and recharged me. I was good for about 2 weeks, now it's back to cool air, not cold. The repair shop said I probably have a leak and that the repair is $3000 + because they have to take the dash out more times than not with this problem.

Any ideas, recomendations???? Thanks!

[Kestas]

Hopefully, when they recharged, they put in some UV tracer dye. A savvy mechanic would have done that.

$3000 seems high. For that much money, they would (or should) change nearly everything.

It appears that you do have a leak. This leak needs to be found before a reasonable quote can be offered. He should be allowed to do some preliminary work before the actual repair. Are you willing to do some work yourself? Throw some soapy water on all the connections and look for bubbling. Then you can give that information to the mechanic for a reasonable quote.

[joe p]

The 95 through 99 S320's has a habit of leaking from the liquid line from the compressor to the condensor, generally right at the comdensor fitting. However, Evap's are nothing new in a 140 body. Just for reference, we get $2200.00 for the job including diagnosis, speaker grilles if needed and most illumination bulbs. R12 cars slightly higher.



Joe

Kestas and Joe P, thanks for you input. By the way, what is an R12, the 12 cylinder version of the W140???

[Kestas]

r12 is the old freon refrigerant, phased out by auto manufacturers sometime in the mid-90s because of environmental (ozone) concern. The new refrigerant is r134a.