2010 Lexus IS 250 aircondition problem

[S N Gohar]

I experienced a sudden gas leak in airconditionin system. I booked in with Lexus Edgeware on 20/10/23. I was informed that low pressure pipe was leaking. They charged me  £1315.82 for it ( £577.32 for the part)  Afterr filling in the gas it was claimed that high pressure pipe was also leaking and quoted £1193.57 to fix it. I have already paid £872.24 earlier this month for annual servive & MOT.  The new high pressure pipie cost £475.00 plus VAT

I would like to ask members  "Is any cheaper option availble and are there less expensive Lexus repair  specialist garages in North London? The only garage I found chagrdes £180/- per hour  for labour and is booked until 27th November.

[Spacewagon52]

Those prices are scary!

Have you searched for a firm that specialises in aircons?

 

Hopefully someone on here might be able to suggest somewhere?

[Linas.P]

Hi Sayed, I am sorry to hear you been charged these ridiculous amounts for fixing the car. Nothing on IS250 should cost so much to fix!

Lexus dealerships are reasonably good for maintenance e.g. annual services, they no longer make sense for cars older than 10 years or over 100,000 miles (previously they had "Essential Care" option, but now it was discontinued), but they are not horrible either . So if you choose to take your car there just for annual service - it is still alright, not amazing value but decent. However - NEVER use them for any work outside of service, their hourly rate is £195, over double that of any other independent garage and parts prices in UK are just ridiculous. 

Sadly, specialised A/C places no longer exist as suggested by David, I could not find any in London and I think specialised anything are things of the past, now everything is replaced as "units" and nobody fixes anything, some family owned business maybe exist somewhere in the country side, but from my experience gearbox specialist don't exist either. Not in bigger cities anyway...

That said £1315 is absolutelly ridiculous for the leaking pipe and should have been rejected, same for £1193 for high-pressure one. Sorry for long preamble, but I think it is important to explain what requires replacing here so that you can find better place that fixes what you need and not entire A/C system for thousands. 

So the A/C pipes are aluminium, unless damaged they DON'T LEAK, what leaks are rubber seals, but Lexus does not sell just seal, they sell whole unit and that is why the price is astronomical + it is astronomical because of UK pricing, I don't know why but in UK all the parts are priced ridiculously.

Here is the exploded diagram of A/C system:

https://www.amayama.com/en/catalogs/lexus/is250/2-sedan-left-xe20-2010-r-3504/electrics-4/heating-air-conditioning-cooler-piping-402

And here are the prices of the original Lexus parts delivered from Japan (everything, both high/low pressure pipes and seals):

It is kind of hard to tell what is low and what is high-pressure, but the prices should not exceed ~£160-210 (+ import duties, so sometimes +20%). Point is - nothing costs £500+ there. 

More important thing, most likely what you needed were just those o-rings for £1.36!!!!!!

So what you need to do, first of all avoid any big chains Halfrauds, Kwik-Frauds etc. they don't know what they not only charge ridiculous hourly rates, but on top of that (unlike Lexus) they don't know what they doing. Find local garage near you that says they do A/C work and recharge, ask them to do leak test to identify where it is leaking (they have special tools, they can add dye into the coolant to find the leak), most likely it is going to be dried out seal or o-ring which are usually quite universal, they may charge you maybe £20 for it whereas it is really worth £1, but that is still much better than £1500. If indeed somehow the actual pipes require replacing, then use the site I have provided above (few more sites exists in US as alternative  - Rockauto, PartSouq), order only the part you need form them for whatever it costs, say £80, it may cost another £80 to replace it. And that is what leaking A/C should cost to fix, that is £200-300 job at most, not £2000 job and it really pains me to see these prices, but you did a right thing to check before splashing another £1000 on it. 

Finally, as little bit of preventative maintenance - keep A/C on ALWAYS, this prevents seals and o-rings from drying out and exactly the issues you having. Second part - I tend to do A/C maintenance every 2-3 years, some members here would disagree, "because it is sealed system", but £80 every 2-3 years to recharge gas and replace lubricant is much cheaper than dealing with exactly the issues you are dealing with now, and they as well perform vacuum check, so it will helps you identify any similar issues early in future as leaking pipes would fail on vacuum and you would have good indication that system needs to be repaired before it get's too bad.

[Ipad]

I changed one of mine , reason rust, wery  expensive but my garage ordered the vrong one and they gave it to me fre of charge. 

[Linas.P]

14 hours ago, Ipad said:

I changed one of mine , reason rust, wery  expensive but my garage ordered the vrong one and they gave it to me fre of charge. 

Rust one what? Not the A/C coolant line? They are aluminium, so they can't rust, maybe you mean "oxidised"?

On 10/27/2023 at 1:58 PM, Linas.P said:

So what you need to do, first of all avoid any big chains Halfrauds, Kwik-Frauds etc. they don't know what they not only charge ridiculous hourly rates are still expensive, but on top of that (unlike Lexus) they don't know what they doing.

As well noticed type in my previous comment.

[Mr Vlad]

Hi Sayed. OK. You've paid for a Major service not long ago And recently for the low pressure AC pipe to be replaced at a ridiculous cost.

My advice is, as Linas has mentioned, find a garage that 'specialises ' in Air Con. Take your car there with the 'claimed' high pressure pipe fault. Do Not mention it however. Just ask them to do a gas refresh and test the pressure. 

One of two things will happen. 1 all fine and dandy, no leak found. 2 a leak is found.

If they find a leak ask them to quote for a repair. Also ask if they would fit a part you provide (you'll get that from the places Linas recommended).

Best wishes in an acceptable outcome. 

[Ipad]

1 hour ago, Linas.P said:

Rust one what? Not the A/C coolant line? They are aluminium, so they can't rust, maybe you mean "oxidised"?

As well noticed type in my previous comment.

Rust or not? It vas a leak in one of the conector points, not the tube, i had to change it and 14 days after the job vas done they called me and asked if i like to have the other pipe fore free, they ordere the wrong pipe line and it vas not posible to return it to the Toyota importer, probably i vil newer use it but a nice thing to do.

 

 

[SeanR]

At those prices, think i just wouldn't fix it.

Its not Arizona, took aircon out of 2 cars in the past and not really missed it.