Has anyone else experienced a Freon leak issue in their 2015 CT 200h?

I have had the car LESS THAN A MONTH, and when I took it in to the dealership because my A/C stopped cooling. The AC light comes and stays on, but it seemed as though the condenser didn't either kick in or work. When I took it in, I was told that a stray rock managed to hit the condenser putting a hole in it causing it to leak out the Freon.

I am very frustrated as I love the car, but I've only had it less than a month, and now I have to cough up money for a costly repair. I had my previous car (Mitsubishi) for over 130,000 miles and over 5 years, and NEVER had a problem with it where I had to take it to get it repaired other than body damage. Lexus is claiming that it's not a design flaw or a manufacturer defect, so they will not cover it under warranty.

I would like to see if there are any other CT 200h owners that have had a similar issue. If this has happened to more people, there is definitely a manufacturing/design problem.

 

I would say since that it did happenyou can argue that there isn't sufficient protection to cause such an issue. If your dealership doesn't agree keep going up the ladder to corporate. Check the Prius chat room since its the same drive train and engine maybe the A/C configuration is the same.

 

Ouch. How much is the dealer asking for fixing it? Can you take a pic of the condenser for us?

edit. If I got it right Prius 3 has the same condenser, part number 88460-47150. If the dealer is making silly offers, one can just buy that and get it installed in somewhere else.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2010-2011-TO...-/310668018277

 

They're saying it's $1,700. I have contacted my insurance and filed a claim for it, so that will help a bit.
Thanks for the advice guys.

 

Did they show you the hole in the condenser that looks like it was smashed in??


A rock could smash the condenser at any time, but if there was a rock you will clearly see dents in the fins. If there are no dents then they are lying and it failed due to some kind of mfg defect.

The sad part is if they were shady they could have purposely damaged it why you were not there to see them work.
Does anyone know if the dealer loses money on warranty work in some way or if the techs get dinged on their metric for warranty work. I could only see the techs being shady if they had a reason to be to save their jobs.

Damaged on condenser


No Damage

 

I know for certain, that dealer gets paid a lot less for warranty work when compared to customer paid work. Yeah, ask them to show you the problem source. I'm surprised that they didn't show right then. This problem is unheard of. Do you see any damage to the grill?

 

That condenser is one good reason more to use lower grill block during colder times of the year. I guess upper grill should be left open as the inverter cooler is behind it and you don't want it to overheat.

Some guy attached a mesh to protect the condenser. Punctured condenser don't seem to be a common problem, but a mesh will extend it's life expectancy.

http://priuschat.com/threads/a-c-sys...9/#post-886357

 

Not specific to the CT, but on my wife's RX the lower opening on that grill is susceptable to rocks striking the condenser and taking out the A/c for an expensive repair.
I actually put a piece of gutter guard & secured with wire ties behind the grill to prevent anything from getting through but air.
The good thing about the gutter guard is it still lets air get through for normal functioning, but will stop damaging road debris.

Unfortunately it won't help you now, but might be something to think about once you get the problem resolved and for other people who want to protect their condenser.

Good luck.

 

I haven't seen the damage myself yet as I didn't go back to the dealership once I left the car with them. The only peace of mind is that apparently the insurance company will send out their own adjuster who will look at the damage and apparently they will follow up with me if the damage is a defect, etc.

 

Reading about other folks woes with road debris in the condenser I did the same thing with black plastic gutter guard and black plastic ties on my 450h. Can't see it and no issues in over 60,000 miles.