Weird. I only realized that "Aircond" is not a recognized word but we have being using this word day in day out in Malaysia for as long as I can remember. Okay, for those who don't know what an aircond means, it simply means air conditioner and of course in this case, i'm referring to my Toyota Prado 90's air conditioner.
This was a long due service so expected to cost a bomb. I didn't go to my usual car service center (again, if you are aware of any good 4x4 workshop in Kota Kinabalu, please recommend to me as i'm getting sick of their service) as they don't do aircond. One Saturday few weeks ago, I went to a workshop specialized in fixing car aircond. This was the first time I visited this workshop.
Why this workshop? The workshop is located besides a main road so it caught my eyes immediately. I had no past experience with this workshop previously except for one time I refilled my Toyota Prado's aircond gas about 3 years back and that was also the only workshop I knew because of it's good location.
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| Servicing in progress |
As you may aware now, I'm driving a 17 years Toyota Prado 90 series. From the service record of previous owner, I knew the aircond system of this vehicle had never being serviced before. Although aircond was working fine but I could feel something was not right. The performance of the car felt a bit sluggish whenever aircond kicked in and during this time, the compressor is giving out ringing kind of sound. As the aircond compressor is belt driven which caused the performance of the vehicle, I suspected the compressor was not operating smoothly. A brand new compressor can cost a bomb and I was prepared for that.
The mechanic done thorough checking and finally pin pointed to the leaking cooling coil. The damaged cooling coil leaks aircond gas together with the compressor oil and was the reason why my compressor is giving out ringing sound as it was running out of oil to operate smoothly. Replacement of compressor at this moment, according to him was not necessary as there's no visible leaking from the compressor itself but replacement of the cooling coil was inevitable as if I did not get that replaced, I would soon bear the cost of the compressor and the cooling coil which both could easily cost RM2,000 or about USD600 excluding labour charges.
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| Old cooling coil |
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| Old vs New |
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| Old parts to go |
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| Connection to the cooling coil |
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| Rear aircond system servicing in progress |
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| Lubricant added to the aircond fan to make it performs like it used to |
Work done on this full service include replacement of the cooling coil, replacement of filters, refilling compressor oil, cleaning and servicing all clogged parts, refilling aircond gas and replacement of aircond and engine belts (these were never replaced too). The mechanic also refilled oil on the engine fan as he found out the fan was not rotating at full performance. Total cost, RM1,760 or about USD533. Worth it? I would say yes given service was never done before. With this money spent, I hope the aircond will last for another 3 years minimum?
Labour charge seems to account for 12.5% of total billed amount and the costliest was the cooling coil at RM880.
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| Total bill |
Overall review of this workshop? I will say 8 out of 10. Unfortunately I have forgotten the name of the mechanic but from how I see, he is extremely knowledgeable in his field. He thoroughly checked my aircond system and advised me whatever parts that urgently needs replacement before the whole system fails. He even willing to spend some time to give me lessons on every functions of the car aircond system. During my period of visit, he was also installing new aircond system onto two new Chinese made trucks that were ready to be delivered to a buyer. Labour charges were a bit on the high side though.
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| Chinese made truck. Apparently this one cost half of those more reputable brands from Japan such as Nissan Diesel. Of course, with that kind of price, expect less accessories (no aircond for this one) and less quality. |
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| Aircond installation in progress |
The address of the workshop can be found from the location indicated below.
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