$1700 repair bill now A/C doesn't work

[LISonic]

2012 Sonic overheated twice in stop and go traffic. 97,5000 miles brought into my mechanic. He replaced fan. Also asked to replace timing belt, replace water pump with metal one, replace thermostat. Bill says replaced idle pulley cord. New antifreeze and serpentine belt. Asked to replace hoses, so lower & upper radiator hoses replaced. & replaced leaky valve cover gasket. He also replaced a couple 40amp fuses fan had blown. Drove car home & realized A/C not going on at all. The snowflake shows light not hearing compressor click on...
Any tips? Thanks in advance.

 

[UltimaSanctus]

If he had to take off the bumper at all you could check the ambient air temp sensor. I had taken my bumper off to mount a splitter and forgot to plug it back in. You can easily check if you normally have a display in the radio not showing what the outside temp is.

You could also try unplugging the battery for an hour or so. Worked on a friend's fiesta st when his a/c didn't work one day

 

[LISonic]

Thanks-no bumper wasn't taken off, still showing outside temperature display. I will try disconnecting the battery.
I have an appointment Monday to take the car back so I will do the disconnect of the battery this weekend. Also I will try adding more Freon. If some leaked out maybe the computer is seeing not enough Freon & won't turn AC on? Does anyone else have any thoughts with all the hoses being disconnected & put back on? Could the new thermostat with it's sensor possibly be defective & cause this?

 

[skurtov]

Thanks-no bumper wasn't taken off, still showing outside temperature display. I will try disconnecting the battery.
I have an appointment Monday to take the car back so I will do the disconnect of the battery this weekend. Also I will try adding more Freon. If some leaked out maybe the computer is seeing not enough Freon & won't turn AC on? Does anyone else have any thoughts with all the hoses being disconnected & put back on? Could the new thermostat with it's sensor possibly be defective & cause this?

Radiator hoses won't affect the air conditioning system. Doing the timing belt will force you to take the accessory belt off. I would start there, something the mechanic did is not allowing the clutch to kick on or the pulley isn't going.

 

[LISonic]

Thanks. Got an appointment for Monday offer the suggestion thanks

 

[ib2loud]

Thanks-no bumper wasn't taken off, still showing outside temperature display. I will try disconnecting the battery.
I have an appointment Monday to take the car back so I will do the disconnect of the battery this weekend. Also I will try adding more Freon. If some leaked out maybe the computer is seeing not enough Freon & won't turn AC on? Does anyone else have any thoughts with all the hoses being disconnected & put back on? Could the new thermostat with it's sensor possibly be defective & cause this?

Definitely don't add freon before finding out the issue. It should never just leak out. I had no A/C when the thermostat heating element went out but once it was replaced it worked fine. Do you have any engine codes?

 

[LISonic]

Dropped it off this morning and got the call that they found a cut wire down by the compressor so fixed that at no charge and I can go pick it up. Thanks for everybody’s input

 

[Sailurman]

:banana:

 

[Z71]

I also had to replace the cooling fan on my Sonic at around 75k miles. It blew both fuses (30 and 40 Amp) several times. If the fan is not operational, the engine coolant will get really hot in stop and go traffic and the A/C will automatically cut off. I bought an OEM fan from the local GM dealer and installed it myself. It cost me around $ 170 plus tax.