San Carlos Radiator & Auto Air

This place closed down. Came today, doors locked, I called the number and was told they shut down 3 weeks ago.

The A/​C was intermittent on my Sparkly Green 1994 Honda Del Sol VTEC. My regular Honda mechanic said, «Don’t take chances, or waste your time, with an Air Conditioner problem, you need a specialist».
San Carlos Radiator was very careful to identify exactly what was wrong with the A/​C (failed compressor clutch).
He offered me the choice of rebuild the clutch or replace the compressor. I have a classic car that I intend to keep on driving, so I went with the replacement.
Yea! The A/​C is good for 20 more years, and now my car is REALLY COOL…

After discovering that the owner of Tango’s Auto Repair, Lynton, was using my car for his own personal commuting, I got a tip to contact Mark at San Carlos Radiator and Air.
He needed my car for two business days. During which, he diagnosed my AC problems, replaced the compressor and dryer, and got the air conditioning blowing super chilly air.
Mark’s honest and genuinely interested in his specialty of air conditioning. I’ll certainly return if I need any AC help later on.

The fact that this shop specializes in air conditioning repair makes an enormous difference. Mark is great! After a few minutes speaking with him it became clearly obvious I was at the right place. What I loved the most was how thorough he was. My situation apparently was unique as he had never seen it before, and because of that, he kept investigating to see exactly what had happened and why. After solving the puzzle, he made some simple and effective modifications so it wouldn’t happen again. Not only did he save me nearly $ 800, he probably saved me from having to go back and spend more money in the future.
Everything about this place is top notch. Customer service, the quality of repair, and the deep knowledge of the systems
If you need your AC fixed, this is definitely the place to go!

Planning a weekend project on the 86 Porsche 911 to lighten the load by pulling out the air condenser and the compressor (shaving around 18 lbs). The problem is I need to evac the freon that is in there and it is R12… a chemical created by Dow back in the 80’s that got banned in the mid 90’s as it is an ozone killer. Called several Auto A/​C shops and only 3 could do it. One charged $ 40 another $ 150. What these shops do is pull the freon and store it for themselves as the stuff is around $ 100/​lb. However San Carlos Radiator & Auto Air did it for free knowing that they will be mining and keeping this gas. Mark also gave me a history lesson on how A/C’s were an afterthought for Porsches and not even installed in the factory. Well unfortunately for Mark, my system was 95% empty and he didn’t get a lot of gas yet he didn’t try to charge me… even though the amount of R12 was not worth his time. Good solid shop who knows there classics. Two thumbs up!

OLD SCHOOL/​NEW SCHOOL THEY DO IT ALL. I’ve been going to Mark here at SC RAD for many years. I have an Old school muscle car and a newer convertible he knows his stuff. Affordable, Honest, Trustworthy !!! You wont be disappointed.

This is the only place to go if you want old-​school value and skill. I am sending all the guys from our car club here. My 50 year-​old Austin Cooper radiator had a fan blade go through it. It was spewing all over the place.
Less than two hours after I left it there Mark had it pressure-​checked, patched — and painted! The cost? $ 50.
This radiator was last inspected in 1971, and SC Radiator has it working like new. No BS stories about why you need to spend $ 500 and leave your car there for 3 weeks… just fast, efficient repair and you are back on the road.

I had a tricky (and gross) problem — a small dead animal somewhere in my A/​C system that smelled bad and prevented the fan from actually running. The fan sounded damaged and I wasn’t going to be able to live without air in the middle of summer. I called several shops that either said they «don’t do» A/​C repairs, or wanted $ 150 just to take a look, or couldn’t give me any sense of how big (time– and money-​wise) a job this might be. I stumbled onto Mark’s shop, saw the good reviews here, and gave him a call. He was the first person that sounded like he’d done something like this before and gave me a pretty good idea how long it might take (about a day) and what the cost might be (could be less than $ 200, or maybe double that if parts were needed). I brought it in the next day and he kept to his word, giving me a written estimate of $ 200, and saying he’d give me a call when he knew more about what he was dealing with. He called me in the late morning and said he’d removed a mouse from the fan and I had a choice: he could either clean out the fan compartment as best as he could (and it might smell for a couple of weeks until it died down), or he could replace some of the parts for another couple hundred bucks so that it shouldn’t smell at all. I asked him to do the best he could to clean it out (the fan was working fine) and I’d deal with the smell. Well, he did what he said and I’ve never smelled a thing, even with the car sitting in the 100° days we’ve had since then. Overall, a good estimate, and a job well done!

This place is amazing! I’ve had a complicated AC electrical issue with my Acura MDX and Mark did a great job. He was very professional and worked miracles to find me the best, safest & cost effective solution for my car. Highly recommend this place. A++++ in my book.

Great service at a reasonable price. Found a leaky high pressure hose that had ended my air conditioning. Straight-​forward estimate with no ridiculous charges for recycling, washers, etc. Job done on time, too. The business has been re-​named «San Carlos Auto Center» to reflect that they also do general auto repairs. Highly recommend.

Ran into this shop on Unilocal and the service far exceeded the great reviews. Mark, that’s who I talked to was extremely professional over the phone and even better in person. Just super honest and focused on giving his customers the best service possible. He even followed up with me a day after I picked up my radiator. The quality of work was amazing, I am working on restoring a classic car, my radiator looked like hell, I got it back looking brand spanking new, the inlet/​outlet pipes were shining, the radiator was painted perfectly and the core was new and more importantly American Made :). Turn around time was 1 day, pretty amazing.
Honest and exceptional quality, highly recommend and will be going back for more.

My co-​worker Kenny had brought his gas tank here on my recommendation that «radiator shops usually are able to clean gas tanks» and my hunch was right.
So after Kenny brought his rusty old tank, I brought my tank… With special implications…
The tank I’m using is for my old chassis (1980 Corolla), but the motor I’m swapping in is from a 2003 S2000… So rather than figuring out how to shoe-​horn the S2000 gas tank into my corolla, I modded the Corolla tank to accept all the s2000 peripherals *ie SMOG/​EVAP equipment*
Modding it required me to weld it, so I cut parts from the s2000 tank and welded it to the top of the corolla tank. I brought the tank here and Mark was quick to help me out. The tank was boiled out and cleaned, and pressure tested.
Mark called me to let me know that I had a couple pinhole leaks near my welds, and before he did any work to fix them he let me know what the price was. I gave him a thumbs up and it was ready the next day.
Its rare to find a business with an owner that actually cares about the quality work they do. I feel that slowly these small businesses are being overlooked and everyone goes to a franchised repair shop. DON’T DO IT! San Carlos Radiator will take care of you! They were prompt and very professional! *nine hundred thousand thumbs up*

I just randomly found this place thru Unilocal when i was looking for a local shop that repairs GAS TANKS. The tank in my old corolla was rusted up so i decided to give this place a shot.
The worker (could have been the owner) here was super duper nice. Told me he’s done many many gas tank repairs before and guess what, he got the job done right. 5 stars for sure. funny guy.

My air conditioning was not working — this look like just the place, with a 5 star rating (based on 3 reviews).
$ 39 bought me a diagnostic checkup and the answer was… «A/​C — not cooling, no heat also». I knew that. The owner added that the refrigerant was okay (no leaks). And that actually diagnosing the problem would cost more money.
It turned out that the blower motor wasn’t running — it’s a safe bet that any garage could diagnose that. Otherwise, the place looked like a typical A/​C and repair shop, clutter everywhere and I hope, a good business stating whether A/​C is cooling, or not.

If they had 10 stars on here, SC radiator would get it. I’ve used them in the past for an 86 4runner i had. in this case, it was the radiator out of my 1971 chevy c10. I’m doing some work on the engine. since i had the cooling system apart, i figured i’d do it right and bring the radiator to them. Mark (the owner) and i had a good thorough discussion about my situation. i had no idea if it was in good or bad shape, but i wanted him to go through it. turns out i ended up re-​coring the radiator. Mark is EXTREMELY knowledgeable. gave me all possible situations. all possible options. his crew totally overhauled my radiator in about a day. they use Local suppliers (which i really was happy to hear.) when i picked up the radiator we spend a good 20 minutes discussing the finer points of engine cooling systems. Mark is a straight shooting, down to earth, all around great guy. take my advice… do NOT go anywhere else!!! he cares about his customers. he does things the CORRECT way. The automotive world needs more people like him. They do all things auto related. cooling, air, heating etc. Drop in, shake the mans hand and know that your in good hands. He is the best.

San Carlos is a great shop.
I came here after having traveled across the country in my truck for a second opinion on an estimate I received from a local ford dealer that was over 1k. My hometown mechanic diagnosed the issue as one of two «smaller» possible items, but Ford hit me straight up with a huge estimate after having the vehicle for several days.
San Carlos Auto Center took a fresh look at the vehicle after I dropped it off at 9:30 and by lunchtime had identified the issue (and repaired it) … as my hometown mechanic suggested, it was a fairly small issue. Being stranded halfway across the country, I’d have had to paid pretty much anything to get my truck ready for the return trip, but they were very honest and efficient and got me on the road again quickly. They also noticed a secondary issue (missed by the previous 3 Ford dealers I’d visited within the last month) and gave me a good referral on where in town I should consider getting it looked at.
Grade A, top of the line. There’s a difference when you decide to go somewhere where the owner actually bothers to deal with customers and get his hands dirty, instead of just focusing on all the extra little things they can try to cram down your throat.
My only regret is that I don’t live here to be able to bring my other vehicles back, so my next best approach is to try to help you, the reader, realize that this is probably the place you should take your car.

The guy who runs this place is an air-​conditioning god. He’s done custom a/​c work on our imported classic cars, also an R12 to R134a retrofit, replaced radiators in those and our every day cars and given a ton of excellent advice — which has ended up saving us money.
We’ve had nothing but great customer service and trouble-​free work at reasonable prices.
They have changed name to San Carlos Auto Center and are now offering complete auto repair we’ll be taking the cars to them for everything now.

These guys know what they are doing !
If you have an «orange mess» in your radiator… (if you have it, you know what I am talking about. If you don’t… it doesn’t matter to you :-))
…They can fix it for good!
My Pontiac started overheating at about 90K miles. Coolant was leaking and the radiator had this awful orange gunk all over.
The guys at San Carlos took good care of me, gave me an estimate, gave me a ride to Caltrain, kept the car for a couple days (it takes time to get rid of the orange mess…) and they even came below the quote.
They also provided me with a couple of pictures of how bad the coolant passages of the engine were before the cleanup.
Highly recommended ! !