AC expansion valve

[Stewart, Joe (COX-Atlanta)]

I'm trying hard, very hard, to get the AC in my P10 working again. It quit
cooling worth a damn over the winter (no idea why). To make matters worse,
some moron was drilling out a broken off bolt and drilled into the condenser
on the car, releasing the refrigerant. (moron shall be un-named since it was
me). So, I'm not sure what the not cooling well problem was caused by, I just
replaced the condenser and receiver/dryer since those were the obvious things
that it needs. (I'll leave out the long story about getting the right
condenser to my house, since that is a whole other discussion.)

After replacing the condenser and receiver/dryer, I had the car taken to the
local shop to get filled. It wouldn't hold pressure, so they did some sort of
sniffer leak test. (Not the UV light thingie, just some sort of freon sniffer
thing (never heard of this, is he BSing me?)) and they say there is a leak in
the compressor itself somewhere (not hard to believe at 165K+ miles) and I
have a spare compressor, easy one.

They also said there was a leak at or near the expansion valve, which is under
the dash. I have never heard of one of these going bad in a Nissan. So, has
anyone ever had one go bad? How hard is it to get to? How hard to change?

I'm just trying to figure out if they are just totally ignorant and have no
clue, or if they are trying to take my money, or what. They quoted me $1200
labor to replace the compressor and the expansion valve. (Yeah, right.)

Thanks,
-Jay