Mechanic Sabotage AC Compressor fails after Oil Change

I have to start off by saying I believe my sister-in-law and I were victims of a scam or some sort of sabotage by the mechanic or Dealership.

I took my car in to the Chrysler Dealership as I have a 1997 Chrysler Cirrus to have a tune up done on it. I received the car the next day and it was still not running smoothly. They advised me that I have carbon built up in the car due to the fact that I only drive in town and never go over 55 MPH and it increased the carbon build up. They said they hadput something in the car to break up the carbon and if it still was not working that I should bring it in on Monday. I brought it in on Monday and they said they redrained the oil that there was a lot of carbon still in teh system. It was February in Florida and the late afternoon, the car service person got in the car drove me around with the windows down and returned the car to me. I drove home only 1.6 miles from the dealership and never turned my air on until the following day. I turned it on and there was a clicking noise/rattling noise. I thought maybe they may have forgotten a tool in the engine. I brought it back in and they told me that my compressor had gone bad. Nothing that they did would make it go bad...even though I found oil all over the engine of my car that they attributed to the fact that I had had a tune up done. But it was wear and tear and a coincidence.

So I chalk it up to wear and tear. Well my husband wont fix it for me because he said he put enough money in the car $500 just for the tune up.

So my sister-in-law who has a different last name than I has a Dodge Caravan 2003 and takes her car in yesterday to the exact same dealership. I see her coming toward my house and her Van is making the exact same noise that my car is making. She says...do you hear that? I said yes...didn't you just get the van from the dealership? She said yeah..I just picked it up..I said your compressor is shot. Now keep in mind she took the van in for an oil change, add coolant, change the belts and to have them add some refrigerant to the ac because it was blowing cool but my brother wanted it as cold as his Dodge Ram. Take it back and see what they say. So she takes it back and she gets the call..it is the compressor.

SO IMMEDIATELY I AM LIVID...WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

So I talk to the service manager who tells me there was a leak and since they added 1/2 pound of refrigerant and the compressor was already weak..the added pressure caused the compressor to fail and start shaking and rattling. First of all...I really do not believe this happened based on what I have read in regards to how air compressors work. Secondly, they never did find a leak.

I believe they got caught doing some sort of scam and since they didn't know we were family...they got caught. Can anyone say if they have EVER heard of going in for a tune and having the AC fail and then having refrigerant added not because it stopped blowing cold air...because we know in Florida it gets freakin' hot here and we wanted to make aure our levels and compressor oil was where it needed to be. Please let me know what you all think about this! Thanks! I am sorry that that is happening to you imabeatleslover.


If you can get one more person, i think you have a case and you can really tell if they intentionally did something to the ACs. If they did do something it most likely a culprit easy to fix as charging it up and changing the receiver/drier and making sure there are no leaks.

And then again it could just be just a coincidence, watch for others opinion as well, they may have more to say as some of them work in car dealerships. There are some bad shops and dealers out there for sure but, most are not. Your car is nearly 10 years old and you haven't mentioned the mileage. it would not be uncommon to find a bad compressor on a 10 year old car, especially if the A/C hadn't been used for a few weeks. As for your Sister's van, it went in for A/C service because it wasn't blowing cold. This was likely caused by a leak that let some refrigerant leak along with some oil. It doesn't take much oil loss to kill a compressor.
I am not saying that you weren't scamed, but I don't think so.