Plastic bag found in air conditioner

Tiny
FIDDLE CASTRO
  • MEMBER
  • 2016 KIA RIO
  • MANUAL
  • 15,000 MILES
I took my car in for the first service. It came back with a flapping noise when the air conditioner is on. The dealership said they would have to remove the entire dash to get to the air conditioner, and now they are charging me a fortune for finding a plastic bag.

How does a plastic bag even get into such an advanced piece of technology? And why is it so difficult/expensive to get it out?

What are my options now?
And how to avoid this in the future?

Thanks.
Wednesday, September 6th, 2017 AT 3:29 AM

4 Replies

Tiny
MHPAUTOS
  • MECHANIC
  • 31,937 POSTS
It may have been drawn in through the internal air vent (re circ air) out side air has to come through a grate so I doubt that it has come that way.
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Wednesday, September 6th, 2017 AT 3:43 AM
Tiny
KEN L
  • MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
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That does sound really strange specially when it did not do that before you took it in. Did they wash the car when they where done with the service? If the bag did makes its way into the system it is super rare. Depending on where the bag is they would need to disassemble accordingly.

Sounds like something happened at the dealer but you never know for sure, that is why we all work on our own stuff because things happen.

Do you have a picture of the bag you can share?

Please let us know.

Cheers, Ken
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Wednesday, September 6th, 2017 AT 2:13 PM
Tiny
FIDDLE CASTRO
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
They provided a picture. It looked like the kind of plastic bag a car component comes in. Actually it's my girlfriends car. She wasn't going to back down though. It's a lot of money. She discussed with both the dealership and the workshop, who denied any wrong-doing. So she took it to KIA SA CEO Gary Scott who assured her she wouldn't have to pay if they/ or their design was at fault.

In the end they determined that the workshop replaced the pollen filter (behind the glove compartment). They listed this work as replacing an "air filter".

They left/put that plastic bag in, hoping she would come back and probably pay for 6 hours of work. Unfortunately for them they messed with the wrong woman.

They returned the car, and she didn't pay a cent.

Thank's for your advice. I hope this thread is of benefit to others.
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Friday, September 8th, 2017 AT 4:47 AM
Tiny
KEN L
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Nice work, we are here to help, please use 2CarPros anytime.

Cheers, Ken
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Friday, September 8th, 2017 AT 10:15 AM

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