MommaLiz

My daughters 08 was blowing hot air. My husband brought it to a local Firestone dealer (Labor Day weekend). They said it needed a compressor and due to its locations it was going to be 10+ hours labor, totaling $1610. Just curious, that seems excessive. Has anyone else had the same situation. Going to call the Honda service on Tuesday but thought Id check in here first.

ezone

What exactly is wrong that causes it to require an entire replacement compressor?

Quite often these can be repaired with far less than a complete compressor replacement, but one would have to seek parts from places other than the usual parts stores (meaning a dealer).
It's locations? Who? The location of the shop?

How and why would that turn a 'less than a half day' job into a 2 day extravaganza?

Oh wait, I forgot where you took it for a second.
Can you (or your husband, or the kid) open the hood and check a few things? Got any tools, like a voltmeter or test light?

MommaLiz

They said due to the location of the AC compressor within the car it would require 10+ hours to do the repair. Which seems absolutely incredible to us.

ezone

You didn't pick up on my sarcasm, did you?

I can have the engine and transmission out of that car, on the ground, and back in and running again, in less than half of the time they want to charge you for changing a compressor.

Labor fee calculation on replacing that compressor, including recharging the freon should be less than half of a day
(hourly labor rate X 4).

You need a different shop.

I've never seen the usual parts stores offer anything but complete reman (questionable quality) compressors.

If your compressor only requires a clutch and coil replacement to restore operation, the dealer can get the parts.

I posted a series of pictures of replacing a clutch and coil on an identical car in a different thread the other day, without taking the compressor out of the car.