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| - I've been going to Sun Devil for about 15 years but never use them for any job over $200 because they have demonstrated many times that they are either untrustworthy or unskilled (sometimes both). I've gone to many locations all over the valley and two weeks ago I went to the Elliot location for an oil change.
I always do my oil changes at Sun Devil because the price cannot be beat and they have Valvoline Max Life which I like to run in a few of my vehicles. Also, they include a tire rotation and in depth inspection with each oil change. Oil changes must be a loss for them to do but they make up for it with the inspection which always results in many findings no matter what condition your vehicle is in. And i actually kinda like that because even though 80% of what they say is wrong or totally made up, the other 20% of the time I get a heads up on something that I can take care of at my own place either by myself or at a better shop.
Anyways, I told them that my vehicle was vibrating during acceleration and to look for a possible culprit during the inspection. So about 20 minutes later they call me out to the shop to show me their findings/recommendation: A bad wheel bearing and an entire front end suspension rebuild (lower and upper control arms, stabilizer bar, etc). Total quote: $2300.
So we are looking at the vehicle and I grab the tire and shake it and there is indeed play and thus the wheel bearing is bad. I don't believe the control arms diagnosis so I ask the mechanic "did you check the U joints?" And he says "yeah, everything else looks great."
So I pay for the oil change and get out of there. This past weekend I took the same vehicle to Firestone to have the tire balance checked and while it was on the lift I asked them to check the U joints since I never believed Sun Devil and sure enough the front joint on the rear driveshaft was totally shot: tons of movement and orange dust around the housing (u joints 101). I went home, jacked up the rear end, and removed the driveshaft and the u joint and looking inside the joint there was no grease whatsoever and several broken needle bearings. So $15 later my truck is running smoothly with zero vibrations.
So again, the 80/20 rule: they were right about the wheel bearing (which i had replaced for $125 elsewhere) but the $2000+ suspension quote was totally off base and wouldn't have done anything to stop the vibrations. And the most important part being that they lied to my face when I asked if they checked the u joints. What makes the story even sadder is that this vehicle in question is 20 years old, has 216,000 miles, and is worth $500-$1,000. If you're going to try and hustle someone for $2,000 then make sure the car is worth more than that and that they don't know anything about auto repair. It's hard to believe they could be that bad at picking their victims though so that points to the bad mechanics theory. Unscrupulous or Incompetent? The world may never know.
I'll be back in 3k miles for another oil change :-)
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