Above vehicle is cherished by my daughter and is immaculate S/H fully up to date and so on, she has run it for 3 yrs now. Have to say it is a very enjoyable car. Unfortunately it recently suffered extensive front end damage due to heavy deer strike. Insurer agreed to repair but there was 3 weeks waiting list. As the insurer pronounced car driveable [despite visible extensive damage and the aircon having stopped working due to loss of all refrigerant in accident and so on] the car had to be driven in that state. Later mu daughter was contacted by insurer informing her that repair complete, but aircon not working as aircon compressor needed replacing and this not covered in policy. Fault code apparently showed elecrical fault in an internal pressure regulating switch in compressor itself? Unfortunately 2009 is apparently too early for dated fault codes. So they are now saying the aircon was not working before the accident. The examiner said the compressor could not have been damaged by the deer strike. However the aircon certainly was working up until the accident, the aircon unit was serviced last year, fortunately the car was seen by the garage a short time before the accident and they will attest that the aircon was working ok at that point anyway.
The aircon has never given problems on that car and my daughter certainly would have complained if it had stopped working. Have to admit from the insurance point of view the compressor is set further back from where the damage occurred and it is difficult to see why the accident would cause it to fail. Unless sudden loss of refrigerant would cause failure? The insurer says that due to the vehicle age the compressor was probably going to fail anyway..!! Any clues as to why this compressor decided to fail at the time of the accident would be very gratefully received.