Kaneohe, HI
My car's A/C worked great most of the summer but in August it started to occasionally blow warm air. Over a few weeks it slowly got worse and eventually there was no cold air coming out. My A/C had morphed into a heater. NOT good because as you know El Niño has made it an extra warm summer this year in Hawaii. So I decided to see if I could figure it out on my own b/c I'm on a tight budget right now. After an hour of Internet research I determined my A/C needed to be recharged and for about $50 at O'Reilly Auto Parts I could purchase a can of refrigerant. Easy right? I watched a couple YouTube videos just to make sure I didn't screw it up. After following the directions and calibrating the gauge on the refill canister my A/C was recharged and it was blowing cold air again. Victory! Well not so much because a couple days later my A/C started randomly blowing warm air. Within a week the A/C would blow cold for 3-5 minutes and then warm air the rest of the time. It was time to take it into the shop. I went to Lex Brodies in Kaneohe and told them the entire story with my attempted servicing of my A/C. Just to diagnose the problem cost me $84.95 and that was WITH a coupon b/c like I said, tight budget these days. So I left my car there for the day. They called and said I needed to replace my A/C compressor and clutch assembly and the A/C Receiver/Drier. The total cost with warranty was $2,095.54. So I did what any rational person on a budget would do, said I would get a second opinion and then wondered how long I could last without A/C. I lasted two weeks. Today I stopped by Mike's AC & Auto Repair in Kalihi (1815 Dillingham Blvd Honolulu, HI 96819) without an appointment. I called on the way and even though it was near closing time he said he could look at my car. When I got there he was friendly and I told him I'd taken it into Lex Brodies and they recommended I replace the A/C compressor and Receiver/Dryer. He quickly got to work and after only about 10 minutes he came back to the office and said my compressor was fine but the A/C system was overcharged with refrigerant (Guilty as charged) and he serviced it so it was back to the correct level. He said they should have caught it b/c it's straight forward and easy to see when checking the A/C system. At Mike's I received the kind of treatment I would expect a family member or a close friend would get but I was some random guy off the street that found his business on Yelp. Businesses like Mike's are what make Honolulu great and I highly recommend him for any auto A/C problem. For the record, Lex Brodies in Kaneohe is either really bad at diagnosing A/C problems, shady, or both. I'll let you decide but either way don't go there b/c you don't want to waste your hard earned money like I did.