Should I Get a New or Remanufactured A/C Compressor?

[Fyodor Dostoevsky]

I have my 2013 GTI in for repairs and service at a dealer. I had them diagnose the faulty air conditioning system. Today the dealer emailed me to tell me that the a/c compressor is faulty and needs to be replaced.

I have an option to either get a new or remanufactured compressor. Apparently both the new and remanufactured versions are made by Denso, and both are official VW OEM parts.

Is this information correct?

Any opinions on whether to go with the new or remanufactured compressor?

 

[GeorgiaBII]

Go reman. Warranty is usually the same or better and there is a cost savings.

 

[brat_burner]

I second that. It's probably just as good, not like it's rebuilt in someones shed.

Seen a guy buy a Corvette ZR1 and he found one that was stock and only had 700 miles on it. He brought it in to get a few mods installed and also it had an oil leak from the steering rack. You couldn't even buy a new one at that time, it had to be a reman unit. Car was maybe 7 years old...

 

[Fyodor Dostoevsky]

What do you think about what this guy has to say:

 

[Allchokedup]

I have used reman more times than I can count. I like scotty and he has some great content, I have only had 1 starter that I can recall that was a bad reman. Granted it has about a 1/10th of the parts as a compressor.

 

[ben_m]

How much is the difference? If its like 200-300 get a new one and not worry about it.

 

[1ashchuckton]

It would depend on who the rebuilder of the reman unit is. In the past I've bought many reman parts & they were great. Seems these days reman parts can be kind of sketchy. If it's a reman approved by VW I'd go with it. What is the cost difference new vs reman?

 

[Fyodor Dostoevsky]

As it turns out, there was nothing wrong with my A/C compressor.

The compressor controls have a low temperature shut off. The dealer thought that the shut off temperature was 0 C (32 F). They had the car in the shop, where the temperature is warm, to do the re-charge, but the compressor wouldn't turn on. So they concluded that the compressor was faulty. Then a couple days later they had my car indoors overnight and tried the A/C system again the next day and it was working fine. So apparently the low temperature shut off is higher than 0 C (32 F). Probably another factor was the weather last week. We were getting below -30 C (-22 F) overnight so it probably took a long time for car to warm up once indoors and this could have fooled the low temperature shut off.

 

[AM407]

Surprised they wouldn’t know that. Can’t remember if the actual number is in the manual, but I believe the cutoff is +4 C.