I had my A/C serviced at the local dealership three weeks ago and all was good, cold air replaced what had been just cool. During the past week I realized the air was increasingly less cool each day so I took my 96 E320 (82k) back to the dealership this morning and was shocked to be told that the evaporator is leaking and that the repair estimate is $2900 and change.

Question 1: Could the evaporator leak have been the result of the recent servicing, or just timely coincidental?

Question 2: I see that the cost of the evaporator is less than $400 so if I decide to pony up for the rather dear dash disassembling labor is there anything else I should replace at the same time?

Also, is this repair something a competent independent mechanic could handle?

Thanks in advance.

RonC.