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| - My car's engine light came on and the idle became extremely rough. My girlfriend had her car repaired at this Firestone location back in March. They had replaced the car's computer for her as well as a full engine tune-up. It wasn't cheap, but her car was running when it left Firestone.
So, why not? I dropped my vehicle off on a Saturday. I told them the issue with it. They informed me it would cost $100 to plug the computer in and get the diagnostic codes for the check engine light. I also asked if they could take a look at the front end as the right tire was making a grinding sound when turning.
After not hearing anything the next day, I called up and spoke with some Sour Puss. He sounded like he would rather be somewhere else. His first words to me were, "I don't know how much you want to put into this car, but it needs a lot of work."
"Really? How much?"
Sour Puss sighs and acts like he can't be bothered.
"The parts store is closed today. I can't get you a quote until probably Monday."
Fine. Monday arrives, I call back and he tells me it's going to cost $3000 for everything that needs to be fixed. I tell him that I can't get everything done, but what if he just circled the parts that would get the car running and fax it over to me?
Hours later, I get a fax. It's laughable. For the engine, they're claiming that it's a leaking valve cover gasket and my plugs and wires are soaked with oil. They stated that the engine codes came back and IMPLICITLY indicated that this was the problem.
For this specific repair, parts and labor would be about $700. They also claimed that the CV axle was broken and this is what was causing the grinding sound. That would be an additional $350 or so to fix.
I picked up my car and paid $120 for what amounted to a bum diagnostic. They claimed that they did a computer diagnostic on it, but I never received the print out nor any paperwork of any kind showing the codes.
I asked around and a co-worker told me of another place to take my car that did reliable work (check my other reviews.)
I took my car to this other shop that my co-worker recommended. Believing that Firestone was correct in their diagnostic, I asked to have the plugs, wires and valve cover gasket replaced. They quoted me a little over half of what Firestone quoted me (about $400).
Much to my amazement, they called me back a little later and asked me why I wanted to replace the valve cover gasket.
"It's not leaking. There's a little beep of seepage, but this is not the problem."
They ran a new diagnostic and found that the throttle body was missing a part. They were able to locate a replacement part from salvage. They were also able to accurately diagnose the wheel grinding. It turns out that the wheel hub was actually bent (I had bought the car used and a previous owner had apparently smacked a curb with it).
Furthermore, when my car was fixed and returned (for several hundred less than what Firestone quoted), I was given an invoice that showed all of the diagnostic codes.
Firestone never mentioned replacing the throttle body. They did mention that the wheel was bent, but didn't say anything about replacing it. Oh, but they did recommend that I get new set of front tires to replace the ones that were barely over a year old with less than 20K miles on them. I'm sure they would have recommended a change of "blinker fluid" had they thought they could get away with it.
TL;DR: Firestone charged me $120 to misdiagnose my vehicle. They were rude, dismissive and had I actually paid for the repairs they recommended, my car would still not be running and I would have had to pay more to replace the part that was actually bad. I wouldn't trust these guys to change my wiper fluid. They will not be getting any future business from me.
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