Replacement air con compressor - how much?!!!

[Lenny the Leon]

My wife's Leon TDi (2003, 87k miles) recently started making a strange whirring/grinding noise for a few seconds on firing up and turning off the engine, which she diagnosed as a slipping alternator belt and decided to ignore until the 90k mile service (on account of the fact that the alternator belt on her old MGB used to do the same 20+ years ago, and that never came to any harm...)

Not for me to argue, you understand - she's the engineer in the family...

The car's now started rattling alarmingly (even for a TDi) and Marshalls in Cambridge have diagnosed a failed air con compressor. Apparently the part is nearly £700 , and they haven't yet come back to us with a price for fitting it. Knowing them, I'm sure it won't be cheap

Does this sound right? It seems a ridiculous price to me. And how much of a sweat is it to fit a new compressor on a Leon TDi? Anyone got an idea of the likely labour charge?

Must confess that if it were my car I'd be tempted to disconnect the drive to the air con and trade it in!

 

[Willie]

get it traded

 

[Barker1977]

I would ask another garage, i know Marshalls very well, where i work we buy from them almost daily and i can safely say they are very expensive for parts (unless you get a nice trade discount) and i would assume their garage charges are also pretty extortionate.

 

[NickT]

Some of the guys on here use Skoda dealerships for servicing, same parts cheaper labour, might be worth a punt.

 

[Lenny the Leon]

Anyone know how big a job this is? 1 hour? 2 hours? etc