It all started with some clear green viscous goop on the floor of my garage. I cleaned it up a few times and it would reappear a few days later. So I decided to run my car down to Sun Devil Auto. They're pretty close to the house and I'm not a fan of taking it to the dealer.
I was promptly greeted and the guy behind the desk took the time to ask me questions and listen to my concerns.
I should probably mention that I had also been meaning to replace my Serpentine belt for a few weeks and had actually bought a belt at Autozone in anticipation of having a buddy put it on for me. Unfortunately that fell through and the belt had been just sitting in my car.
The guy at the desk saved me the hassle of having to return the belt (without a receipt) and agreed to put the belt on for only the cost of the labor.
They called me a couple hour later to report that they had narrowed the dripping fluid problem to two possible options. I needed to replace all my cooling hoses which were starting to show signs of aging and I needed to replace something related to my a/c compressor. The only reason I give them 4 stars instead of a 5 is because they weren't sure which of the two was actually the problem. They wanted me to do both for over $700!! Which was about $400 over my budget.
I shared my budget and asked him to choose which of the two problems was the most pressing and the result of the dripping fluid. He was either unable to answer or unwilling because he wanted so much for me to do both.. I couldn't tell.
Eventually I decided to go with the hose replacement. We go to San Diego pretty frequently and I'm always nervous going over that mountain range near Jacumba with all the "beware of car over-heating" signs.
Unfortunately, within a few days I realized that wasn't the problem as the fluid still leaks on my garage floor. A follow-up trip to NAPA revealed that my A/C compressor is leaking oil and needs to be replaced. So kudos to Sun Devil Auto for identifying that as a problem, but bummer that they couldnt narrow it down to just that.
Edit: I saved the money to have the A/C fixed and went back in to the same Sun Devil Auto in September (4 months after the initial inspection and bid). To my surprise they upped the price on the repair by more than 70%. On top of that, they held my car for the entire day before telling me. I took it someplace else and wont return to Sun Devil Auto.