Looking at buying a ladies 1997 honda civic today with 140,xxx miles. everything works great except the ac.. She says all it needs is the ac recharged. CAn anyone tell me what they think about this, anything will help. I dont want to get stuck with spending 600 bucks to get the ac fixed. Thank you

 

Well, you can get it recharged, but if there is a leak in the system, expect to not have A/C shortly afterwards.

If there is a leak, that is when it can get costly as the shop needs to locate the leak, then replace the damaged part. Who knows what it could be?

I am not too advanced in the world of A/C. I pulled it out of my car due to a swap and it stopped working 2 years ago on my 99

 

The first rule, when someone selling a used car says it merely needs a simple repair, a repair that would likely increase the car's sale value by more than the cost of the repair, ask yourself why didn't they just do it already?

You should inspect the compressor closely. They fail by the shaft seizing up and / or having a hole blown in the side of the case when the internal scroll decides that it is time to get out of there. To check for seizeup, try to rotate the plate next to the pulley by hand with the engine off of course. It should turn readily by hand, a slight "once around" hesitation is normal.