Hyundai AC over £600 to fix, is this Correct?

JohnSwift10

My 2011 Hyundai i10 AC stopped working so I had it checked out at a local garage specialising in AC.

I was quoted over £600 to fix it as 2 pipes are corroded and leaking and these pipes can only be supplied by Hyundai at a cost of £200 odd each and there are none in the country so have to be imported from Korea.

I had a new compressor fitted 4 years ago so that was a waste of £500 as the AC stopped working last winter but I never got round to having it checked until now.

This car has been nothing but bother with brake pipes needing replaced because of corrosion.  suspension parts needing replaced as well because of corrosion and a MOT warning that the other side suspension is corroded and needing replaced before it's next MOT.

Time for a new car but what for an 80 year old whose health problems could suddenly cause him to stop driving.?

Ayr_Rage

A Toyota Aygo, reliable and if in decent condition easy to resell if you stop driving.

Goudy

Do you really need air con?
I would save my money and crank the window down.

born_again

14 year old car is getting to the point where things like this do fail.

MouldyOldDough

On a similar vein - my 8 year old Suzuki Baleno headlamps are clouding over and would cost me over £600 each if / when the car fails its MOT on them ! 

born_again

MouldyOldDough said:

On a similar vein - my 8 year old Suzuki Baleno headlamps are clouding over and would cost me over £600 each if / when the car fails its MOT on them ! 

U-Tube is your friend there. 👍

JohnSwift10

Goudy said:

Do you really need air con?
I would save my money and crank the window down.

After 14 years you miss it.

Today with the windows open sitting for 5 minutes in a queue at traffic lights that were faulty, only letting one or two cars at a time through, the noise and fumes were annoying.

And the car had been sitting in the sun from sun-up till 11 am and was roasting inside.

In the winter I put the car in the garage so I don't need to defrost it, now in the summer I will need to do that to keep it cool.

fatbelly

JohnSwift10 said:

My 2011 Hyundai i10 AC stopped working so I had it checked out at a local garage specialising in AC.

I was quoted over £600 to fix it as 2 pipes are corroded and leaking and these pipes can only be supplied by Hyundai at a cost of £200 odd each and there are none in the country so have to be imported from Korea.

I had a new compressor fitted 4 years ago so that was a waste of £500 as the AC stopped working last winter but I never got round to having it checked until now.

This car has been nothing but bother with brake pipes needing replaced because of corrosion.  suspension parts needing replaced as well because of corrosion and a MOT warning that the other side suspension is corroded and needing replaced before it's next MOT.

Time for a new car but what for an 80 year old whose health problems could suddenly cause him to stop driving.?

That's older cars for you.

If you want to stick with a city car, Hyundai and Kia continue to make the i10/Picanto  to this day and the later ones are probably the best car in the sector.

There's nothing wrong with the 2014-19 model but if that's your price range you may want to take a look at the Up/Mii/Citigo, which had a lot of fans, me included, until they stopped making them.

daveyjp

Metal corrosion after almost 15 years is no surprise.

Back in the day you'd contact a breakers yard to find the part you needed.  Turn up with some spanners, take the bits off, pay £10 and leave happy!

EssexExile

MouldyOldDough said:

On a similar vein - my 8 year old Suzuki Baleno headlamps are clouding over and would cost me over £600 each if / when the car fails its MOT on them ! 

You can polish the headlights back to clear. Don't buy a modern Volvo, headlights are about £1200 each.

Goudy

daveyjp said:

Metal corrosion after almost 15 years is no surprise.

Back in the day you'd contact a breakers yard to find the part you needed.  Turn up with some spanners, take the bits off, pay £10 and leave happy!

There are what looks like decent sets of air con pipes for the i10 on Ebay for less than £50, but there's always a risk with used parts particularly air con parts when you need to pay for the regas, then find out they leak as well.

If it was mine, I'd see if I could weld a sleeve over the rusty section of the pipe before chancing a used pipe.
I certainly wouldn't pay £600 for new pipes on a car this old.