A/C Condenser gone bad

The A/C in my 98 XJ has been out for quite some time. It still blows air, it's just hot air. Driving home from the airport in stop and go traffic during rush hour on a hot day in June in Dallas, I decided I'd had enough. So I took the Jeep into the shop and had them do an A/C check on it.

When they called on the phone, they told me that there was absolutely no refrigerant left in the system. This was no surprise to me since the A/C had been out for at least a year. So they pressure tested the system and determined that there is a small leak in the condenser. They recharged the system and told me to bring it back in a couple of weeks and they would look for the leak with a UV light.

So I picked up the Jeep and the A/C was ice cold again! My drive home from work was pleasant once again. Upon arriving at home, I began looking online for a replacement condenser.

Parts America has 2 models on their website. One is $193.49 and the other is $151.19. O'Reilly has one for $199.99. Autozone has one for $199.99. Jeep dealer has one for $272.65.

Anyone think it would be cheaper for me to buy the part from Parts America and take it into the shop and have them replace it with that part, rather than having them sell me the part that they have to order? The shop I'm referring to isn't the dealership, so I'm not sure what kind of pricing they would get on the part.

Or would it be worth my time to figure out how to install the thing myself and then go get it recharged again?

Thanks...
John

Just ask them how much they want for the part. Some shops will not do the work unless you buy a part from them- it's part of their profit they may not be willing to give up.

A can of "freon" is only 3-5 bucks too. Mine has some unyet found leak that requires a can about every 18 mos or so... someday I'll get it looked at.

Just when you do recharge it use ONLY R134a with no oil. We were talking about my system last nite when I was putting in his new PC at his house, that I have been adding 134a to for the last 3 years and this year when I tried it would not take any. My friend with the repair shop agreed with me that I probably have too much pag oil in there now. I was always refilling with the 134 with lubricant. We are going to drain the system tues nite and vac it down for an hour or so and refill to see whats what and add the dye, what I might do as long as we are doing that is replace the tower and pressure switch at the same time, it has to get fixed, can't be going into customers sites looking like a slob and dripping all over the place.

I would guess that a shop will charge you AT LEAST one hour labor to change the condenser. It's in front of the radiator, and according to the FSM, it's ATTACHED to the rad. That means the cooling system has to be drained to remove the rad.

Given all that hassle (read that expense, when paying someone else), here is what I would do:

1. buy the condenser from whomever you like
2. install the condenser yourself
3. pay the shop to evacuate and refill the AC system with the proper amount of the refrigerant.
4. congratulate yourself on saving the cost of at least one hour labor at $60+ per hour.