99 ZX2 chain of problems- air compressor froze

[ilanasf]

ironically enough, a couple days after I had some freon put in my car due to a lack of cold (about 2-3 mo without AC is fine in san francisco), I had some car trouble that a mechanic told me resulted from the AC compressor freezing. The result was the serpentine belt breaking while I was driving on the freeway. at that point I lost my power steering and being 40 mi from home and clueless about cars, I drove another 35 mi until the entire car finally shut down. Unfortunately I bought a new battery from AAA (not knowing what the actual problem was, though the battery clearly got drained and the battery light is on), more $$ wasted.
The mechanic says it will cost $800 to fix, including the receiver dryer and replacing serpentine belt.
does this sound like a reasonable price? I am told this is a very honest mechanic.
thanks!

[denisond3]

That sounds about right. What you are really having done is the a.c. compressor replaced with a rebuilt (around $500), a new receiver dryer for the a.c. system ($60?), an a.c. system evacuation, flush and refill, which itself could cost $150 - $200 for the labor and materials (the flushing liquid, R-134a freon and the correct amount and type of lube oil for the inside of the a.c. system), and last but not least - replacing a $40 serpentine belt.
The work would use up a couple of hours -at least- - and the work requires expensive a.c related equipment. The mechanic has to comply with federal regulations for capturing any old refrigerant and making sure there arent leaks.
When the freon was recently added to your car, some lubricant should also have been added - since the system will leak freon, AND the lubricant. And its gamble on how much to add: Not enough lube oil = compressor going bad. Too much lubricant = the compressor might go bad!

If the car has more than 100,000 miles on it, I would advise replacing the idler and/or tensioner pulleys that the serpentine belt runs on.

[mightymoose_22]

OUch... bummer.
Ya I agree the price sounds right... actually sounds like a bit of a bargain to me (considering it is being done at a shop), Even as a do-it-yourself job this would be pricey... compressors are expensive and so is the refrigerant.

Next time make sure you stop when those lights come on!

[ilanasf]

thanks! Denisond- that's pretty much what the mechanic told me.
FYI I got a new pulley 10K miles ago and I only have 66k miles on the car, so hopefully that should be ok. I should tell the mechanic just in case.
what really sucks is that I'm going to sell this car to get my dad's Saab since he is no longer fit to drive, so I can't even take advantage of the fixup! The mechanic said he could bypass the AC but would have to put the tensioner on the outside instead of how it's normally inside the belt- hence a custom situation that would not necessarily hold up. even that would cost over $200.