1985 SL Air conditioning problem.
 

My wife's 380SL's air conditioning has quit cooling. The fan works fine, just no cooling. The MZB dealer here in San Diego says the compressor is shot and the bill will be almost $5000 to fix it. They say to change the compressor they have to take out the whole dash. Does this sound correct to anyone? Any ideas anyone has to try before doing this kind of surgery would be appreciated. Thanks, Garry

They must have said 'evaporator', not 'compressor'. Did they say your freon leaked out because of a leaky evaporator ? Changing evaporator is extremely expensive due to intensive labor to remove and put back the dashboard. But sometimes, if the leak is not very big, and if you are using R134a (i.e. a cheap refrigerant), then by charging the system with a heavier oil, like stopleak, can get you through summer. MB dealer would likely not do this, you will have to take it to an independant auto air shop.