Ac Compressor

[cosmicfireball]

I'm a new owner of '92 sc300(80,000 miles) Reviewing bills incurred by previous owner I noted that a Lexus dealer installed a remanufactured AC compressor-as the original evidently failed. Should a remanufactured unit such as this be a concern-verses a new unit?

I would add that the previous owner spent,on average,$500//year on repairs for this vehicle-not including the amazing costs for dealer recomended maintence/tires/fluid changestiming belt&etc?

Is this a normal cost figure for a sc300 with such mileage?

[monarch]

What repairs? Typically, the owner is to blame for many unexpected repairs. For example, AC compressors are extremely durable if operated properly - mine has lasted 445,000 troublefree miles so far. But some owners do abusive things like not running the AC system at all for 4 months during the winter and then come spring they turn the AC system on for the first time while driving 80 MPH down the freeway which causes a great amount of strain and mechanic wear to the compressor. Or the failure to operate the compressor at all during the winter caused the compressor shaft seal to deform and leak out refrigerant & compressor oil which in turn might have caused the compressor to overheat and burn up. Things like that.

Another common unexpected repair is replacement of brake rotors due to rotor warping. Driver abuse of the rotors is the cause, not poorly engineered rotors.

[jzz30]

it depends onwhere you got the remanufactured compressor. my neighbor got a "remanufactured" compressor for like 350bucks at napa or something like that we changed all of the seals in the system, and in case it leaked again we put a dye in. sure enough the ac didnt last a day. after taking the compressor appart the first thing i noticed is that the clutch bearing was gritty(not a good sign) and well of course before taking off the compressor the UV light determined the leak at the shaft seal. and well it seems like they just cleaned up the outside and re sold it. and of course my neighbor got his money back and we ended up rebuilding his old compressor which is fairly simple anyway.

a remanufactured unit from the dealer(if available) should not be a problem. anywhere else could be sketchy. just rebuild the one you have now. most of the time only the shaft seal goes bad anyway, and that can be bought online for like 20 bucks.