Maybe someone here can help diagnose my problem. I have, as you can see from my name, a 2005 Mazda 3 SP 23. When I start my car, the AC does not work at all, on any level. It takes a while and then the AC will start and stay on and work fine. After it runs for a while, I can turn it off and then right back on and it usually starts right back up. But, if I restart the car or keep it off for a while, then there is again a delay before it begins. It seems to have been getting worse too. At first, it would only take 30 seconds or a minute max to begin. Today, it took almost 10 minutes. Once it kicks on, I can change the different levels and they all work fine. I saw on this forum that if the AC works on some levels and not the other, then it's likely a switch issue and not a resistor, but I didn't see anything pertaining to simply a delay start.

I took it to the shop today and they basically told me what I've already read, that it's either a problem with the resistor or the switch. They said to replace the switch, they'll have to replace the entire console or something, I'm not that familiar with those parts and it would cost almost $700. They said to fix the resistor would cost 450ish.. BUT, they wouldn't know which one was the main problem until they repaired one of those. So, basically, I would have to pay for one and hope its the right part and if not, well then I still have to pay for the other. Seems really fishy. Is there no way to test out those two parts to see if they're functioning properly?

Thanks for any help!