Dear Car Talk:
About eight months ago, I had Nissan put a new air conditioning compressor in my car. About two nights ago, I was driving and heard a snap, and my car started acting up and getting hot. So, I pulled over and stopped.
The compressor had fallen off. I don’t know what happened to one of the bolts holding it on, because it was missing entirely. But the other one had clearly broken, leaving the threads in the hole.
Have you ever heard of that? Now they’re trying to charge me to fix it because they say the bolts aren’t covered by the warranty — Jerald
Wow, they’ve got a lot of nerve Jerald. You said this is Nissan who did the work? At a dealership? They are 100% responsible for this, and you shouldn’t have to pay a dime to have it fixed.
I haven’t seen this exact situation — it’s one of the few mistakes I think I haven’t made — but it sure sounds like the guy who replaced your compressor either forgot to tighten one or more of the bolts — or overtightened them.
If bolts are overtightened, they get stretched, and they’ll eventually break. I think under-tightening is more likely, based on your story. When the bolts are left loose, one or more of them can work its way out while you bounce along the road for eight months.
And then, at some point, there was only one bolt left holding the whole compressor in place. And that bolt couldn’t take the weight, and it snapped.
At that point, it was just the connecting hoses that kept the compressor from falling onto the street. And that’s when you noticed it.
There’s simply no way that a properly installed air conditioning compressor could fall out of the car. Your old one never fell out, right? So, they should apologize for their mistake and fix this for you.
In most shops, the guy who actually did the repair would be responsible for eating this job and making it right. It’s no surprise that he’d rather not do it again, but that’s too bad. And shame on the service manager if he’s backing his guy up on this.
So try talking, politely, to the service manager. If he doesn’t relent, try the dealership’s general manager. And if they don’t make this right for you, there’s always small claims court, where you’ll win.
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