Conditional Air Conditioning

I have a 2007 car. The air conditioner randomly decided to stop working and only started up again as I started planning to take it to the mechanic to have it looked at. I’d been fighting it for about five years by the time this all started.

At the start of the second summer of the global health crisis, it finally died for good. Because I hadn’t been driving much since the crisis started, I ignored it for two weeks to see if it would start up on its own. It never did, so I set an appointment at my local dealership to have them check it out and prepared myself for the cost.

The first one they put in that day all but caught on fire; it smelled like burning plastic when they ran the air. The second one I had to wait until the following week to install since it would come in after they closed. The advisor was very apologetic but I told him that was fine. They put in a temporary unit with no promises it would get me through my next appointment — still no issue for me as I’d been driving around with no air conditioner in my car for two weeks at that point.

The second one they put in basically broke straight out of the box, so this time, I let them keep the car until they got the third replacement in at the end of the week. That one broke, too! It sounded like a death rattle regardless of how high we ran the air.

The advisor was all but falling over backward, clearly mad and embarrassed at the three broken fans. I let him know I was in no way mad at him and actually found the whole thing quite funny. He said that they had been using after-market parts since they’re cheaper but was going to order me a brand-new part from their warehouse three states over and waive the cost for me. He apologized that it was going to take a few days and said it would be best for me to drive with my windows down.

Five days later, it came in… and it worked! The advisor was still upset and embarrassed at the other parts but was happy to see I was pleased with his work.