Auto AC repair anyone? (Hollywood Park, Blanco: inspection, live, price) - San Antonio - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

blizzrd · 06-09-2010, 09:23 PM

Where should I take my truck? AC blows cold once freon is in, but it only stays in the system for about 3-4 days and then it's all gone. I want to take it somewhere that I can trust because it could be a simple $200 job or one where they replace everything for $1200. It would be easy for a place to just say it all needs to be replaced because I wouldn't know any better. Thanks in advance.

Pachuco2 · 06-09-2010, 10:23 PM

You have a leak somewhere in the system,..a visual inspection can be done by looking for wet spots on hoses and underside of hood. If no wet spots are visible, a leak detector (sniffer) will need to be done to the system to find the leak. If it leaks out in 3-4 days, its a big leak.

blizzrd · 06-09-2010, 10:49 PM

Well yeah I knew that. I don't have a sniffer and can't see anything visible and even if I did, I don't have the tools to fix it, hence my question. I'd be putting my trust in a shop and need to know of a good one.

elnina · 06-09-2010, 10:51 PM

What part of town?

blizzrd · 06-09-2010, 10:57 PM

I live over by 1604 and 281 but that's not as important as finding a trustworthy place.

kevcrawford · 06-10-2010, 06:58 AM

Hollywood Park automotive at 281/Thousand Oaks. Bert has been working on my cars for years. Honest as they come. I had a BMW that the dealership told me would cost thousands to fix the A/C problem. Bert did it with a $5 part and labor. I also had my Yukon in there recently for a rear A/C issue. Found the cheapest, but most effective, fix without having to replace the compressor.

autiger92 · 06-10-2010, 07:14 PM

Hollywood Park Automotive does have a great reputation.

Another option: I just had my A/C worked on at Cornerstone Automotive on Blanco near the Bitters intersection. They were very reasonably priced and professional.

They've worked on it twice actually--once a couple of years ago when something electrical went wrong. It was a simple, relatively inexpensive fix, but they could have easily told us we needed the whole thing replaced--we wouldn't have known the diff.

Just last week we did have to have the compressor replaced. We got two estimates--one was $1500 (Belden's on 281) and Cornerstone was $984. Pretty big difference. Plus, we weren't really comfortable w/ Belden's because they didn't spend as much time listening and trying to diagnose the problem.

Good luck!