Went to turn on my Air Conditioning the other day - nada - so I made an appointment and dropped it off at the dealership this morning.

Got a call from them just now, apparently the air conditioning condenser is damaged - they are claiming (speculating?) from a rock - and they wont replace it under warranty. They want $520 for a new one!

Now I've had this car from new, less than a year. Haven't taken it offroad or anything - the worst surface it's been on is the parking lot up at Crystal mountain ski area and I've always been slow and careful driving around all those potholes.

Needless to say I'm a little tee'd off. Is this a Subaru or a fuggin Geo Metro? Do I have to put a skid plate and a rear diff. protector on the bloody thing just to roll around a ski area parking lot??? Am I being unreasonable in my expectations?

I could really use another perspective here before I call back and get sarcastic with them.

Bonkers.

 

This is entirely possible since the condenser is totally exposed up front, being mounted ahead of the radiator in the bumper opening.
You might ask them to show you the actual damage.
Since you're going to be paying for this, before springing for a brand new one check out the classifieds here and over at NASIOC as there are occasionally used ones for sale. Put up posts in the Wanted forums too.

 

Welcome to the world of Subaru warranty coverage, er denial.

 

That's just what I did Mulder and I saw exactly what you're talking about.

I now understand why the dealership cannot fix this under warranty and I must commend Nikki at Chaplin's Bellevue Subaru for being calm, understanding and helpful in the face of an obviously unhappy customer.

However I will be taking the matter up with SoA. This is a ludicrous design deficiency, especially in a car with a rally heritage! For the sake of a few dollars worth of wire mesh, they put every owner at risk of a $500 repair. That is unacceptable to me and by the time I'm through I will make damn sure they know that.

Bonkers.

 

I'm in the same boat as you bro.
But i don't know why they want $520 for a new condenser, unless they factored in the labor and recharging the new core.
I paid $309 +tax, and i ordered some new o-rings.
Im gonna do it myself though because they wanted $380 for labor.

 

This whole episode makes me think again about putting a lower front mesh grille on my 03 WRX. I'm thinking about Grillcraft because I've had their black foglight grilles (modified for easy lamp cleaning) for a year now and like them. The only doubts I have are about airflow. I live near Sacramento where summer temps are often in the 90's and get over 100. The grille sounds like cheap insurance that looks good, but does anyone know if they cause a significant reduction in radiator/condensor cooling?

http://www.grillcraft.com/applicatio...rs=2002%2D2003

 

Wow, those are crazy expensive. For those kind of prices I'd expect billet aluminum or something; I'd go to Home Depot and get some screen mesh instead

 

They are really expensive, but the blacks are nicely powdercoated. It's a small shop in the LA area and they have patterns for about every vehicle made. The fog grilles have saved my lamps a couple of times, I figure and they have held up very well. About 20% can be saved by buying at discount, elsewhere.

I'm thinking about the lower grille because the black would look good with my MBP WRX, but I'm still concerned about the effect it may have on engine cooling.