re: "homemade" A/C lines

[William Elliott <William.Elliott@mail.mei.com>]

"Craig D. Niederst" writes:
<<Coinciding with the first use of the A/C last month, I noticed a small
amount of bluish green fluid coming out of the A/C high pressure line. I
just received a call from the place where I go to have my car serviced, and
they tell me the line does have a leak, and a new one from the dealer is
$200. He then tells me that they seldom use the dealer parts for these
lines, but they make their own at a fraction of the cost. Sounds good to me,
but has anyone else dealt with these "homemade" components? TIA.>>

Custom built high pressure hoses (A/C or otherwise) is something even
below average shops do well.  (American hp hoses have been fairly
unreliable since A/C was put it cars.  And it appeared the same hose
was never used twice... but varied with make, model, year, and options.
It was easier to make the hoses than to try to buy the right one.)

Depending on the shop, quality can vary from "a bit worse than the original"
to much improved.  I had the local NAPA store build a hp oil cooler line
for me (about $25) when a new one couldn't be found (and listed at about 
$300).  Limitations for foreign cars seems to be the available fittings.

To make you feel better, my A/C in the UrQ didn't kick on at first use this
spring.  The evaporator finally gave up the ghost.  (A/C shop didn't call me
first, but tried to find a replacement part themselves.  Said two suppliers
laughed at them and the rest said the car didn't exist.)  Audi wanted almost
$600, Blau had one for me in a few days at $250.

Bill Elliott
Lake Mills, WI
85 UrQ