by Chinky420 » Tue May 29, 2007 12:02 pm
if taken to a shop, the recharge should cost anywhere from 20 to 40 dollars, depending mostly on how much r-134a (freon) the car eats up. as for the air filter, i'll assume you're talking about the cabin filter that is located under the passenger side of the dash...i haven't any idea how much it costs to replace (but i think it's accessed from taking out the glove box....i could be wrong though).
this is actually some relatively simple maintainance (at least the recharge is), and can be done at home for less than 40 dollars (which would include the cost of buying the freon and the hose/gauge to recharge), and under an hour of time.
the cabin filter may take more time, as i haven't had any experience with replacing one of those.
my recommendation is to buy a haynes or chilton manual on car maintainance and check it out there. the recharge i would rate as being easier than an oil change, since you don't have to jack up the car or get under the engine to work on it, and since a full evacuation of the ac lines is not usual for a recharge (which would be analogous to draining all of the oil, instead of just adding a quart when the oil is low)
just make sure you hook the hose up to the right valve (high pressure vs low pressure line), otherwise you may seriously mess up the compressor and other components of the ac system
~kwan
