AC compressor & Receiver dryer/desiccant

[Gchen78]

Hello,
The ac compressor on my ‘18 model s is pretty loud and we decided to take it in to have it checked and replaced. One, not crazy about the diagnosis fee but whatever.
Second, they came back with the report that we need to replace the ac compressor (what I told them all along) and they also recommended that I replace the receiver dryer and desiccant.
I asked to only replace the compressor and their response was that they will not perform the work unless I agree to replace the dryer and desiccant as well and it will impact the warranty?!?
I don’t mind the bs fees but I feel like I shouldn’t be forced to perform work that I don’t agree with.
Anyone with similar experience or should I take it to another Tesla service center?

 

[Grey Fox]

That sucks. Really any Tesla service center should handle it. Where was the original work done? Not in Phoenix?

Original work was done in Tempe...but they wrote the estimate, having my service record in their data base or even on the screen at the same time. What bugs me the most is a compressor is a compressor and dryer, desiccant and flush s what it says it is...how can the parts be different? I can't believe I'm driving a 100K car and a TESLA service center will not honor their own warranty! Is that how low we've gotten? Is everything really only all about the money? No wonder that people go postal!

 

[Grey Fox]

That sucks. Really any Tesla service center should handle it. Where was the original work done? Not in Phoenix?

The question is...where do I go from here? Never had that much trouble with a car from BMW to Lambo...never!

 

[STS-134]

Frequency for replacing the AC desiccant actually varies quite a bit between different Tesla Models per their official maintenance recommendations. It is actually recommended every 2 years for a 2012-2020 Model S every 3 years for newer 2021/later Model S, and as long as 6 years for the Model 3. So you need to pay attention to the details. The 2012-2020 Model S comment is actually in the small print below the table shown on Tesla's website with the maintenance recommendations.

Vehicle Maintenance | Tesla Support

Unlike gasoline cars, Tesla vehicles require no traditional oil changes, fuel filters, spark plug replacements or emission checks.

www.tesla.com

Don't you have to evacuate all of the refrigerant to replace the desiccant bag? If so, I'm not sure how a 6 year replacement interval makes any sense. Shouldn't it just be "replace whenever you have work done on the AC system that involves charging the system"?

 

[ucmndd]

Don't you have to evacuate all of the refrigerant to replace the desiccant bag?

Yes

 

[PCMc]

Don't you have to evacuate all of the refrigerant to replace the desiccant bag? If so, I'm not sure how a 6 year replacement interval makes any sense. Shouldn't it just be "replace whenever you have work done on the AC system that involves charging the system"?

I've owned cars where I've gone over 6 years without the need to have any work or recharging done on the AC system. The 6 years may be a backstop, or not to exceed recommendation. This could be to protect against the desiccant bag breaking down, allowing contamination to get into the system and take out the compressor.

 

[STS-134]

I've owned cars where I've gone over 6 years without the need to have any work or recharging done on the AC system. The 6 years may be a backstop, or not to exceed recommendation. This could be to protect against the desiccant bag breaking down, allowing contamination to get into the system and take out the compressor.

I had a Corolla that went over 18 years never having any maintenance done on the AC system. Not sure if there even was a desiccant bag in there. It's just such a weird recommendation because I've never seen anyone recommend replacing the filter/dryer in a home AC system unless it has to have maintenance done on it that involves opening the refrigerant lines. The refrigerant should be a sealed system and moisture should never enter nor should refrigerant ever leave.

 

[Grey Fox]

That sucks. Really any Tesla service center should handle it. Where was the original work done? Not in Phoenix?

It was done in Phoenix/Tempe...we only have three service centers here.

 

[David.85D]

Sorry, plus another $600 plus for the compressor. The grand total is a bit over $1000. I don’t mind it I just don’t care for the bs.

It’s not BS at all. It’s standard procedure to replace the filter/drier anytime you break vacuum on the system. It catches moisture and neutralizes acid that forms inside the system. This requirement is not unique to Tesla. I am EPA certified to handle refrigerants. I don’t know any compressor manufacturer that doesn’t require you to replace the drier when replacing a compressor.

Calling this BS reflects quite a bit on your state of mind…

 

[David.85D]

I had a Corolla that went over 18 years never having any maintenance done on the AC system. Not sure if there even was a desiccant bag in there. It's just such a weird recommendation because I've never seen anyone recommend replacing the filter/dryer in a home AC system unless it has to have maintenance done on it that involves opening the refrigerant lines. The refrigerant should be a sealed system and moisture should never enter nor should refrigerant ever leave.

Wow. This is such grand standing. All refrigeration systems leak at some rate. If they have rubber hose, those leak. If it has orings, those leak. EVERY SINGLE CAR I’ve ever worked on has a drier cartridge. EVERY MANUFACTURER requires it to be replaced at any time you open the system (such as compressor replacement).

The fact that you ignored one system for 18 years and didn’t notice the degraded performance means nothing about what is correct.

 

[STS-134]

Wow. This is such grand standing. All refrigeration systems leak at some rate. If they have rubber hose, those leak. If it has orings, those leak. EVERY SINGLE CAR I’ve ever worked on has a drier cartridge. EVERY MANUFACTURER requires it to be replaced at any time you open the system (such as compressor replacement).

The fact that you ignored one system for 18 years and didn’t notice the degraded performance means nothing about what is correct.

The refrigerant is under pressure. Even if it's leaking out, no moisture should ever be getting in. All systems leak at slightly different rates. Wouldn't it be better to check the pressures and if they're low, then you evacuate the entire system, replace the cartridge, and recharge it? I have a R-410A system for my house that needed a small amount of refrigerant because the subcooling was 5F° less than it should have been. On the other hand I have an older R-22 system that still checked out fine (pressures and everything) after twice the number of years. Just telling everyone to replace all of the refrigerant and cartridge seems like bad advice because all systems leak at different rates. Sometimes you get lucky and the HVAC guys sealed it so well it goes the entire life of the equipment without even needing a small recharge.

Every time you open up the entire system and start replacing stuff you have the potential to create problems too so you first want to make sure that actually doing this is necessary. That's not to say you just don't check anything until there are obvious issues but telling everyone to replace the desiccant bag at 6 years seems like they're just trying to create work for the service centers. Telling people to check pressures at say 6 years and every 1-2 years thereafter and immediately evacuate the entire system, replace the desiccant bag, and recharge it if the pressures are too low on the other hand? That's entirely different.

 

[morepower]

Wow. This is such grand standing. All refrigeration systems leak at some rate. If they have rubber hose, those leak. If it has orings, those leak. EVERY SINGLE CAR I’ve ever worked on has a drier cartridge. EVERY MANUFACTURER requires it to be replaced at any time you open the system (such as compressor replacement).

The fact that you ignored one system for 18 years and didn’t notice the degraded performance means nothing about what is correct.

I will add to the "grand standing" by noting that my Mom's 2000 Toyota Camry has never had the A/C serviced and still blows cold as of last year. I just looked at the owners manual and it is silent as far as any desiccant replacement requirement/schedule and has never been recommended by the service department. Perhaps it just doesn't have it or is not needing scheduled replacement. Full disclosure is that it is an extremely low milage car which has less than 50k miles but not a single leak and has only had two out of maintenance repairs of a wire loom that had become stretched causing intermittent electrical issues and needed repair and a hood hydraulic strut that failed. Thanks to YouTube I was able to repair it by splicing in little longer wire and the hood strut was easy to repair. It has been a remarkable car in reliability.

 

[M0D3fan]

You can tell them that you waive the warranty. If you need a new compressor, there can be debris in the receiver dryer that can keep circulating in the system and ruin the new compressor(and the whole system for that matter, like expansion valve). Changing the receiver dryer is not bs. A new receiver dryer will make the system work way better.

 

[David.85D]

Many “desiccant bags” also contain acid neutralizer. You have no good way to measure acid accumulation until something leaks or breaks.

In addition, hybrids and EVs with high voltage electric compressors are especially sensitive to the breakdown of oil and/or acid formation which allows the compressor to short out.

 

[REDI KW]

Many “desiccant bags” also contain acid neutralizer. You have no good way to measure acid accumulation until something leaks or breaks.

In addition, hybrids and EVs with high voltage electric compressors are especially sensitive to the breakdown of oil and/or acid formation which allows the compressor to short out.

The ac compressor just failed on our RWD 2016.5 MS75 at 98500 miles. We were driving back to AZ from LA on the 10 freeway and got a warning that ac was limited and supercharging may be reduced. We barely made to the Ehrenburg SC as power and regen. slowly dropped to less than 5% and we were limited to 37mph on the smallest of climbs and drove in the breakdown lane to avoid the trucks. The temps were 110+ at 3PM when we arrived. We got a room while the car charged at 2kw and it slowly climbed to 45kw. We left at 3AM and drove straight to the Glendale AZ service center in Phoenix arriving at 6:30AM. To our surprise, they were open on a Sunday and accepted the car with an estimate of $1500 for repairs. The service writer called on Tuesday with a revised estimate of $6500 stating that the compressor had failed internally and scattered debris throughout the system, the entire system would have to be removed, flushed and rebuilt. The final invoice listed the total parts as $1874.86 and labor as 4236.60.

Service assured me that the battery did not show any errors and would not be adversely effected by the heat stress it was subjected to. So far, it is charging normally at home and the Cordes Lakes SC.

Two Questions: Have I done long-term damage to the battery? If they started work on Tuesday and delivered it on Thursday, how can there be over $4200 in labor???

 

[PCMc]

Regarding the $4200 in labor, I'm guessing their labor rates are in the neighborhood of $200 an hour, possibly little more, so lets just round ad say that's about 20 hours of labor. You state they started work on Tuesday, but you also say they accepted the car on Sunday and by they time they called on Tuesday, would have spent time doing diagnostic work that I'd guess is part of the 20 hours labor. Also, it's possible that for some of the work, they may have had multiple techs working at one time, so even in two days, it's not impossible to have 20 hours of labor.

 

[larrya15]

All true. But that assumes the system remains sealed between maintenance intervals.

If it’s evacuated and opened to the atmosphere (like it is in the case of a compressor replacement) you should pretty much always replace the desiccant bag as a matter of course. It’s a $6 part.

Plus $400 for the labor

 

[larrya15]

The ac compressor just failed on our RWD 2016.5 MS75 at 98500 miles. We were driving back to AZ from LA on the 10 freeway and got a warning that ac was limited and supercharging may be reduced. We barely made to the Ehrenburg SC as power and regen. slowly dropped to less than 5% and we were limited to 37mph on the smallest of climbs and drove in the breakdown lane to avoid the trucks. The temps were 110+ at 3PM when we arrived. We got a room while the car charged at 2kw and it slowly climbed to 45kw. We left at 3AM and drove straight to the Glendale AZ service center in Phoenix arriving at 6:30AM. To our surprise, they were open on a Sunday and accepted the car with an estimate of $1500 for repairs. The service writer called on Tuesday with a revised estimate of $6500 stating that the compressor had failed internally and scattered debris throughout the system, the entire system would have to be removed, flushed and rebuilt. The final invoice listed the total parts as $1874.86 and labor as 4236.60.

Service assured me that the battery did not show any errors and would not be adversely effected by the heat stress it was subjected to. So far, it is charging normally at home and the Cordes Lakes SC.

Two Questions: Have I done long-term damage to the battery? If they started work on Tuesday and delivered it on Thursday, how can there be over $4200 in labor???

Maybe 10 technicians worked together on it?

 

[brkaus]

body shops go by a “book rate” for labor. Some shops take longer, some are quicker, but they lookup the hours to charge in a table for the specific repair. Tesla might do the same.

Sounds like the AC system is over complicated if it takes 20 hours to “recover” from a blown compressor.

 

[ucmndd]

Plus $400 for the labor

Like I said, if you’re in there anyway, it adds no extra labor to speak of.

 

[TLLMRRJ]

I am surprised these compressors last as long as they do. They are running a lot more than ICE cars since they also maintain the battery temperature when driving, when parked, and when charging. And cabin overheat protection can add a lot more run time. ICE cars only run when the humans want cooling.