Dashboard dials (speedometer, etc) & air conditioning working intermittently

[James92]

I own a 2007 Toyota Camry LE, with about 90,000 miles on it. It’s been kept in pretty good condition, however recently I noticed that the air conditioning was blowing hot air occasionally. I took this to a garage to get it fixed, and soon after this I noticed that the dashboard dials (speedometer, revs etc) would occasionally drop out entirely and not work. When this happened, I noticed the air conditioning would blow hot air at the same time. Other than these issues, I haven’t noticed any other issues - the car turns on and off every time fine, doesn’t cut out and generally appears to be running fine.

I took it back to the garage, who said that it appears that ‘part of the onboard computer is playing up, and it’s a particularly expensive part to replace’. He quoted me that his cost for the piece alone would be about $1,800, not including labor etc.

This seemed very high to me, so I was wondering whether anyone had any experience of whether this appears too expensive, or plausible? Something about the way that the guy said it, and the fact that he then offered to ‘do me a favour and buy the car from me himself (for pennies, btw…)’ made me think that something fishy may be up…

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks.

[Mooly]

The only advice I could give is that generally speaking any 'computer' part would be the last thing to suspect. It is far far more likely to be something much simpler.

You mention just an A/C fault originally and yet now it seems to have changed to this latest issue of an instrumentation problem. I would be looking at what work was supposedly done to fix the original A/C issue and take things from there. 

[James92]

Thank you for your reply.  I did also think it was strange that the dashboard dials problem only started after the air con 'fix', so interesting to hear that you had a similar thought.  It seems to me like a second opinion may be a good next move!  

 

Thanks again!