Repair Price

I just had my F-350 diesel A/C done at an independent shop using a Ford factory kit he got from local dealer here in NC. $843.00. Those big city labor costs haven't got here yet and they don't use flat rate price either. $65 per hour for the actual time to do the job.

rgatijnet1 wrote:
The compressor itself is about $200 and a new dryer another $50. Flushing out the entire system might use $30 worth of chemicals. $1800 sounds like the "I don't really want to do this job but if I do, they will have to pay for it" price. Shop around and I think you will find others that may be interested in doing your work.

I concur !

If you can fix it, great! If you can't, you pay for expertise, and dealerships are generally more expensive. We had to have the compressor replaced in a 2007 Ford Freestyle. It came to $1200. Luckily we had a bumper-to-bumper warranty, and our deductive was $100. That was our final cost.

get one more est from a GOOD mom/pop repair shop.

rgatijnet1 wrote:

Dutch_12078 wrote:

Lantley wrote:

I would hope most reputable shops are not getting their parts on line.

I've seen Rock Auto and Amazon boxes in a number of dealers shops. The parts that came in them were usually correctly branded unless they were for trade-ins being refurbished.

As opposed to going in to NAPA or AUTOZONE, where you have a choice of one replacement part, Rockauto usually has multiple variations of the replacement part made by several different manufacturers. You can buy the "economy" grade replacement or spend more and get the part that is an exact factory replacement. Getting the parts sooner at a local parts store is usually not an issue. Just remember how long it takes most shops to repair your RV. Very few are repaired in one day and some online parts suppliers do offer next day delivery. Getting multiple quotes from several shops is the best way to determine if this is a good price.

When repairing things for others bargain parts shopping is not as important. Time is more important than money. Sourcing from a local reliable vendor is more important than saving $10.00.
Parts cost are marked up and passed on. If customer can't afford the part they need to find another shop.
Now when DIY'ing a project a penny saved is a penny earned, time is much less critical.

The compressor is probably $500-$600 I’m guessing. 6lbs of R134A refrigerant (I just recharged my system and that’s how much it takes) is around $200. Labor at between $150-$200 an hour is 4 hours. I would say it sounds like the price is in the ball park!

I would not use aftermarket parts. I’ve seen them fail after a year. Stick with OEM for something like this. If you buy cheap or want cheap, you are going to get cheap, and you won’t like cheap when it fails a year later! I can promise you, you don’t want the $50 an hour shop working on any vehicle that needs to be reliable.

Dutch_12078 wrote:

Lantley wrote:

I would hope most reputable shops are not getting their parts on line.

I've seen Rock Auto and Amazon boxes in a number of dealers shops. The parts that came in them were usually correctly branded unless they were for trade-ins being refurbished.

As opposed to going in to NAPA or AUTOZONE, where you have a choice of one replacement part, Rockauto usually has multiple variations of the replacement part made by several different manufacturers. You can buy the "economy" grade replacement or spend more and get the part that is an exact factory replacement. Getting the parts sooner at a local parts store is usually not an issue. Just remember how long it takes most shops to repair your RV. Very few are repaired in one day and some online parts suppliers do offer next day delivery. Getting multiple quotes from several shops is the best way to determine if this is a good price.

Get second and third quotes.

According to AAA, shop rates in their “Approved Auto Repair network” ranged between $47 and $215 per hour based on “the shop’s cost of doing business”. Quite a range. So I guess the answer is look for a less expensive shop.

Bruce Brown wrote:

Lantley wrote:

rgatijnet1 wrote:
As a comparison, which has nothing to do about labor, I installed a new compressor, new condensing coil, new dryer, new proportioning valve, flushed the system and bought the vacuum pump and gauges to recharge the system. Bought the parts as a complete kit from Rockauto, and bought the vacuum pump, R134a, flushing fluid, and gauges from Amazon. This was for my Chrysler hemi. Total cost for the parts AND the tools to do the installation myself and the total came to about $500.
As far as working on an RV, sometimes removing a tire, engine cover, etc, makes the access not that much different than working on an automobile. It is just that most shops don't like RV's or they think that RV owners are rich so they just pad their bill.

I would hope most reputable shops are not getting their parts on line.

I'd take a lot of the on-line stuff over some of the junk the local NAPA sells. :W

While I do imagine shops buy some commodity items on line. Most need their parts in a couple of hours not a couple of days.