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Jeep Commander is Full of Hot Air

At full blast, the air conditioning cooled us to our bones. But lowering the temperature dial a notch caused the air to become significantly warmer. With the summer season fast approaching we drove to the dealer for service.

Moothart Chrysler/Jeep in Cerritos was busy when we arrived, and we didn't have an appointment...

But we met with a service advisor to explain the A/C issue after waiting only ten minutes. "Will you be leaving the car with us, or waiting," our advisor asked. With my carpool partner parked in the lot outside, I answered, "we'll leave the car, but will you call me with an update once you look at the car?" He quickly answered, "yes" and took down my phone number.

I've experienced advisors at other dealerships that tell me what I want to hear up front and then string me along, but that was thankfully not the case here as the dealer called a few hours later. "We diagnosed the problem. The refrigerant levels were low so we re-charged the system. In addition, the manufacturer recently issued a programming update for this problem. We'll re-flash the car's computer with the update and call you when it's ready for pick up later this afternoon." The call came and we picked up our car shortly thereafter.

All repairs were made under warranty and the A/C issue seems resolved.

Mike Schmidt, Vehicle Testing Assistant

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2 Comments

ventdiver says:

03:31 PM, 06/27/06

Did the advisor give you an explanation for why a brand new vehicle would have low refrigerant levels? Did they just short-fill it from the factory?

mikeschmidt says:

06:52 AM, 06/28/06

Our advisor "suggested" that the issue stemmed from the factory. If we run into any related problems down the road we'll be sure to post them on the blog.

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