So not even 30,000 miles in and my the dealer says my evaporator is leaking. I've seen other threads mention it's a 2k job at the dealer and that's what they quoted me for. I wasn't surprised really, I thought that was likely the case when I felt the warm air coming from the AC. However, the Mustang shop in my city suggested a different repair shop who said they'd do it for $1,000. I would love to save money but I'm worried that it's...too low?
I've never been to the shop before, they have decent reviews online, and the Mustang specialty store said they use them for AC stuff before. Is it better to trust the dealership to the job? I wasn't expecting such a big expense right now and I'm just not sure what to do, just wanted to see if anyone here had any experiences to share? I'm in southern California if that's relevant.

 

Not... terribly off balance, really.

So the operation to do this is...

Step one: remove entire front half of interior. No really. It's that kind of stupid. Seats, console, shifter, steering column and dashboard. *all of it*. Because the dash has to come out. You *might* can take short cuts but.. yeah. That's the deal.

Step two: Remove HVAC box. This requires draining of coolant and refrigerant. And some work at the firewall in the engine compartment. Funtimes. I'm taking the intake off, myself, but probably not called for...

Step three: Replace component(s) in question.

Step four: Reverse all that to put it back together, install coolant, charge A/C system, happy motorin'.

---

Now, in Step three, there's two ways this goes, and is the entire difference in the pricing (beyond the labor cost difference):

A - At the independent, they will probably take the HVAC box and drill out the plastic rivets holding the box halves together, separate the halves, and then swap the evaporator core. (And at this point, I'd also be swapping the heater core because you *do not* wanna do this again anytime soon, do you?) Then they'd screw the HVAC back together, and then do Step four.

B - At the Ford dealership, they will remove the old HVAC box, and swap in a *complete* brand new one. Which is somewhere around the 500-1000 dollar mark itself. They don't mess around with the splitting of case and swapping of cores. Oh, they might, but it's a liability that Ford and the dealership don't wanna mess with, so the *correct Ford procedure* for either the evap or the heater core is to replace the *entire box*, period. Then Step four.

To get you in the mood, here's a video on the entire thing. Short and to the point, and vertical, but it'll get the idea across.

And here's a series of videos on the box being undone and the cores being swapped out/in. Which has some language, but hey, it's that kind of job:

It's the worst job of the entire car, even worse IMO than the SN95 and before, and having worked on my Mustang to replace the timing chains and pull the oil pan, I can tell you I'd totally rather do that than do the evap core. Ugh.

Just for reference... Heater core 'removal and installation', as it were: http://iihs.net/fsm/?d=982&f=Heater%20Core.pdf&p=2
Notice the second Note. You don't swap the heater core out. Aka, the entire box. According to Ford, that is. And since you gotta take it out first to get to the evap, that's the entire answer to that. Yes, the entire box.

And here is the R&R for the box: http://iihs.net/fsm/?d=982&f=Heater%...%20Housing.pdf

After all that... if you trust the independent and don't mind them tearing the box up to do it, then sure, go for the independent, save the cash. As long as you trust them to do it right and back up their work, meaning they *will* pull that dash back out for free to fix the problem if the heater or A/C quit under there within X amount of days/weeks/months/years...
Hope that helps, and good dang luck. Welcome to the forums!

 

[ If the $1000 mechanic shop offers a warranty behind their work I would go with it it doesn't matter if that Box is split open the other components don't have to be replaced half of them don't ever go out so you're gonna pay an extra $1000 for them to replace the whole Box and be lazy.

QUOTE=TheRedCat;7054882]So not even 30,000 miles in and my the dealer says my evaporator is leaking. I've seen other threads mention it's a 2k job at the dealer and that's what they quoted me for. I wasn't surprised really, I thought that was likely the case when I felt the warm air coming from the AC. However, the Mustang shop in my city suggested a different repair shop who said they'd do it for $1,000. I would love to save money but I'm worried that it's...too low?
I've never been to the shop before, they have decent reviews online, and the Mustang specialty store said they use them for AC stuff before. Is it better to trust the dealership to the job? I wasn't expecting such a big expense right now and I'm just not sure what to do, just wanted to see if anyone here had any experiences to share? I'm in southern California if that's relevant.[/QUOTE]