Please help! My mother-in-law has a 2002 C230 with <50K miles and the AC has stopped working(blowing cold air). The shop she took it to (local dealer is the option of last resort) says there is a "leak behind the dash" and it will require them to remove the entire dash to get to the leak and repair it. Said work will run about $3K..... They also said they "temporarily patched the system, and it should last about a week or so" since she was unsure about what she wants to do (repair/trade). Any ideas, thoughts?

 

OK>here's the deal. The part "behind the dash" is the evaporator. If that is leaking and needs to be replaced, yes....the entire dash
and more has to come out to access it. I did this job myself on my last BMW 3-series, and it was a living nightmare I never want to go
through again. TONS of labor. I had the steering wheel, console, air bags, entire dash, and even the seats out to get to it. NIGHTMARE.
I can only imagine the Mercedes is somewhat similar. The part itself was, on that car, about 700 bucks. The rest was time and labor and a
recharge of refrigerant. So.....the bottom line is.....I would ask them again, how they know it's the evaporator, and if it is, there's not going
to be a very inexpensive way to replace it because of the labor. Sorry to give you the bad news. PS>yes, I know they make some stuff
that supposedly "fixes" leaks in the AC system. Just like trying to fix a leaky radiator with a can of Stop Leak. I wouldn't do it.

 

Thank you VERY much for that explanation; it concurs with what I thought it was but was not sure. The charge was primarily for labor, not part(s). If he mentioned the evaporator to her, she neglected to tell me. I will confirm this withrepair shoptoday now that I am not so ignorant to the issue. Thanks again.