'07 Vue: 10K miles, Dealer $600 A/C Bill !!

[Colt Hero]

'07 Vue: 10K miles, Dealer $600 A/C Bill !!

My 82-year old uncle (perfectly lucid and very active and energetic guy - not crazy), is driving down the main drag in town in his '07 Vue (4-cyl engine). He's LEASED it since new and it only has a little more than 10,000 miles on it over 3 years time! It's 95+ degrees outside, so he's got the A/C running. He hits a puddle of water which does not appear to impair the car at all, however, his A/C no longer blows cold. After two more days of driving around, still no cold air. His son checks the car from the top declaring all the fuses to be OK. Unfortunately, he doesn't look underneath because they both think this LEASED car is still under warranty. So it goes to the Buick/GMC dealer in town to be checked out. They tell him his warranty is expired, Saturn is out of business, the part he needs (high side pipe/hose combo underneath the car) will take DAYS to get, and the bill will be (nearly) $600 (including an insulting freight charge to GET the part)! Disgusted with this story, I took a look at the car today for myself. Absolutely no visibile damage underneath, but a river of pristine refrigerant smeared/stuck to the underside of the car (especially all over the trans. pan). I'm thinking if this failure happened while driving the car, there would be dirt/debris mixed in with this refrigerant river. Looked to me like the tech tried to charge it up and blew it all out - but even then, I couldn't see how it would've ended up looking like it does!

Is this fraud? Sure looks like it to me. Looks like the refrigerant got sprayed onto the bottom of the pan at the dealership! The pan is completely covered! Any history of these refrigerant pipes/hoses leaking on these Vues? Could the street water have caused a crack in the metal line on impact? I couldn't see any breaks anywhere. And aren't these parts readily available via the Equinox, Rendezvous, and Torrent? The whole thing looks very suspicious to me ... 82-year-old man .... the Saturn out of business story ...etc...