I just replaced mine about a month ago. I bought my compressor and accumulator New off of ebay for 138.50 and 35.75 shipped. and it was the same brand compressor autozone sells for over 200 in fact I checked at advance, autozone, oreilys, and napa locally and could not find the comp and acc for under $300. search for the descriptions below on ebay.

UAC Part # CO 20454C Compressor New
AC ACCUMULATOR DRIER NEW #HA 10356C

This is what I spent total and where.

138.50 compressor.......... Ebay
35.75 Accunulator............Ebay
25.92 three cans freon..... Big lots
6.99 Oring set..................Autozone
8.99 Pag 150 oil ..............Autozone
2.50 Orfice tube...............Advance
218.65 ..........Total

I borrowed a Vacuum pump and gauge manifold set from Autozone. Of all the parts houses with loan a tool programs they are the only ones I found that had them as part of the loan program.

So that is as cheap as I know you can possibly do the job right. I would never go with a used compressor because even if you can save $90 buying used you still have to spend all the rest of the money and what if the used one is bad. If you had to do it all a second time with another used one you would have spent more than buying a new one to say nothing of the pain in the but of doing the work.

 

Huge props! Very good advice from everyone here! The guy earlier saying he had a used one he would give me is tempting, as that would save serious coin. But like you said, If it goes bad or is bad, then I have wasted money on the rest of the project. What if I get the used one, install it and replace nothing else. Charge the system with r134a and test to see if it is working. If it works fine with no leaks, then change out the accum and vacuum out the system and recharge? I mean that would either save me $80-$90 or cost me $15-$30 (whatever shipping would cost).

I'm too indecisive.

Also, thanks for the heads up on Autozone renting the vacuum and manifold set. Advance Auto didn't so I just assumed no one else did either.

One more question: What were the o-rings for? I thought those were for some of the inner workings of the comrpessor. Are they for the line in/line out?

 

They are used everywhere there is a break. there will be one in and one out of the compressor, an in and out at the accumulator, then another at the orfice tube. I also found it easier to pull the entire hose assembly out with the compressor instead of putting it on underneath the car.