Horrible, awful experience with RSW! This is a long review, but I wanted to provide enough details…read moreto show how bad of a business this is.
I went in for an AC fix (no cold air). I told them upfront that I had already recharged the refrigerant.
They charged me $400 to diagnose the AC issue by vacuuming and recharging the refrigerant, despite me telling them I had already done so.
Their "master technician" said that the AC compressor had melted on the inside, and that I needed the compressor, condenser, and evaporator all replaced for almost $5000.
They said they also found a coolant leak, and replaced the coolant expansion tank for the high-temperature circuit.
After replacing that expansion tank, they say they ran a pressure test, which showed a new leak that is, and I quote, "gushing coolant". They wanted to charge $1600 now to replace the radiator.
I tell them not to do any more work (they had only recharged the AC system and replaced the coolant expansion tank at this point), and that I would be taking the car home as-is. I was warned that I "wouldn't be able to make it down the road without overheating and potentially destroying my engine". They made me sign an "unsafe vehicle" waiver.
I turned the car on, saw no leak, and drove home just fine. The temperature did not deviate from normal.
At home, I saw that not only was the high-temp expansion tank full of coolant, but they overfilled it. I drained it to the appropriate level, ran the car for a bit, and again found no temperature issues. However, I noticed the low-temp expansion tank had no coolant in it. I filled it, then saw coolant leaking from the low-temp radiator and where the coolant hose meets the expansion tank. I took both expansion tanks out, and re-installed. This fixed the leak between the expansion tank and the connecting tube (obviously didn't fix the leak in the low-temp radiator).
I replaced the low-temp radiator myself, which resulted in the low-temp coolant circuit now holding coolant properly. Tada, my AC works perfectly! Turns out that when the low-temp coolant circuit runs dry, the compressor won't turn on (to protect itself).
To put the cherry on top, I did a pressure test on the high-temp expansion tank that they replaced (I made sure to get the replaced part back). It did not leak, meaning it never needed to be replaced at all.
So to recap, I paid $1300 for them to replace a completely functional part, recharge a just-charged AC line, and not solve anything. Meanwhile, they tried to charge me an additional $6300+ to replace the compressor, condenser, evaporator, and high-temperature radiator, when in reality, NONE of those parts where faulty.
All of the above is purely fact-based. The following is my analysis. It seems there are two possibilities: either they repeatedly failed to correctly diagnose and address the issues, opting instead to replace parts indiscriminately, or they deliberately attempted to exploit the situation for financial gain.
Here are things that just don't add up:
- How did they come to the conclusion that my compressor was broken, and destroyed the entirety of the AC system with it? (it hadn't)
- Why did they replace parts in the high-temp coolant system, which had zero relation to the AC system and low-temp coolant circuit?
- I believe when they replaced the high-temp expansion tank, they pulled on the low-temp expansion tank connecting tube, which created an additional leak (I fixed by just re-attaching).
- Why did they believe there was an issue with the high-temp coolant circuit to begin with? Anybody with two eyes would be able to open the high-temp expansion tank cap, and see it was full and not decreasing.
- If they replaced the high-temp expansion tank and then ran a pressure test, how did that result in a pressure-induced leak in the low-temp radiator? Those systems aren't connected.
All I can say is that I would never, ever give RSW my business again. I attached a picture of the overfilled high-temp coolant tank, and the hole in the low-temp radiator.
