Girlfriend's 88 vert had a high pitched whine that increased with speed. I thought well probably wheel bearing, but told her to take it in to someplace like a Firestone on her way home from work. Have them diagnose it, and if it was cheap enough just have them fix it, if not, I will fix it myself.

So she goes in to a Firestone, they come back with the estimate; $900 because all 4 wheel bearings need to be replaced... I say ok, tell them you only want the noise fixed, nothing else. They say, then front right and rear right wheel bearings need to be replaced. I say ok, these guys are completely retarded, tell them you want only 1 replaced, and it has to be the one responsible for the noise. They say front right, $~350 dollars. I say ok, tell them no thank you and come home.

She pulls the car in, I get it off the ground, check the wheel bearings. None of them are frozen or making noise. They all had some slight play in them yes, but nothing crazy.

Girlfriend suggests the noise is coming from the gauge cluster it seems, so I take it on a test drive, and confirm her suspicion. So I concluded it could be coming from the speedo cable since it only happens while moving and increases with speed. I unplug the speedo cable from the transmission, and sure enough the noise goes away.

How I fixed it: I took the speedo cable out of the car, pulled the actual cable out of the plastic shell/encasing. Laid it on the ground, sprayed it down with brake clean, then sprayed it down with some white lithium grease, put it back in the plastic shell/encasing, installed it back in the car, problem fixed

Those guys at firestone would have replaced all 4 wheel bearings, and the noise still would have been there.

 

Lol... Wow. It's pretty nice to be able to fix our own vehicles, eh?

 

This is why I try to do my own work. Only problem is when somethings is fucked its on me

 

qft

 

Its tough to trust people with cars :\

 

call the BBB+BAR and file a complaint. places that upsell **** that you do not need should be shut down. midas and jiffy lube are horrible for that sort of thing.

i haven't replaced a single wheel bearing in 10 years on one of these cars, yet yours needs 4? riiiiight.

 

i agree its hard to trust people with your cars. but working at a firestone myself if i never tried to up sell i wouldn't make any money because we get paid commission. at the same 4 wheel bearings is different than an air filter...either way if the noise was still there they would have had to fix it or give you your money back so you could have gotten free bearings!

 

Wooord... and Goodyear/Firestone are NOTORIOUS for this... especially with women!

 

How true is this statement?

 

or cover it up and fix the real issue in the 10 minutes it took funk to fix it..

i do feel for you though, those shops pay next to nothing and they give their employees incentive to rip people off to actually get a real paycheck that they should be paying in the first place. reminds me of working at the dealerships.

 

My Firestone story:
My daughter took her 1996 Honda Civic to Firestone on her own to have the oil changed. She wanted to show she could "do it herself" which I of course applauded. I asked to see a copy of the receipt and noticed she was charged for 5 quarts of oil. Only problem is, her 1996 Honda Civic oil capacity is/was 3 1/2 quarts. So I called the store that did the work, introduced myself (and they immediatly acknowledged my daughter). I receited the receipt, and said I looked the the trunk, behind the seats, and everywhere else I could think of to find the extra bottles of oil they sold her since the capacity was only 3.5 quarts and they charged her for 5 quarts.

Result, they refunded 100% of the money they charged my daughter although I will acknowledge they did that without my suggesting. My daughter asked where else she should go next time. I told her go back to that store since I knew they wouldn't mess with her again.

Another:

I have a lifetime alignment on my RX7. A new store in Chino Hills opened near me, so I went there instead of the store I've been going to for years in Diamond Bar. When they finished the car, I looked at the print out and saw they didn't adjust the camber. When I pointed it out, the service manager told me the lifetime warranty didn't cover the extra work of droping and rotating the struts to make that adjustment. Asked him if he had an extra pair of knee high boots so I can deal with the bull **** he was producing. While standing there i then pulled out my cell phone and called Firestone corporate customer service and shared his statement.

Postscript, the next time I went to that store I noticed he didn't work there anymore.

I will say Firestone is a fine company to deal with. They do have good deals on tires from time to time, and they have tools to do things I don't, so I use them in those cases. It's just that you occasionally run into idiots just like anywhere else. But it does pay to frequent the same stores so they know to not try and churn the pot on you for unnecessary work.

 

Come on Karack, no need to start slamming dealerships, after all somebody has to be charged with the resposibility to do it right..(that's not a guarentee, I can't speak for every dealer). I've worked in the service department for dealerships all of my adult life,Mazda for 27 years, usually we are the end of the line of finally getting it fixed...once you've been to Firestone, Goodyear, Pep Boys,etc...I don't think anyone really tries to rip people off, but I don't think most know what they are doing and very often give a wrong diagnosis which ends up costing you money.

 

^Well.....

I've worked on all sides of it, and can honestly say that there's really no telling what kind of service you'll get from anywhere. I started at a dealership and saw first hand customers getting ripped off all the time. I'm talking about the exact same scenario that Karack said... the whole "charge customers $1k and still not fix the problem, then figure out it's a cheap/easy fix and cover up their mistake and still charge them the full price for all the other stuff".

I also worked at a tire shop where the service advisers would try to up-sell stuff and the techs (not lube/tire techs, but actual techs) would refuse to rip off customers.

But what most people find shocking is that the highest quality work and most integrity came from the independent shop I worked at. My boss would sometimes do a spot check on us. If a bolt or hanger or anything was missing... so help you God.

 

yep, it's always hit or miss. i always tried to do the best job possible but when the dealerships went flat rate i took it in the *** and when i felt like i was starting to do shotty work as a result of that is about when i left and started doing this work.

 

I know what you mean, when I started as a Mazda PDI tech, I adjusted headlights, balanced wheels, and did wheel alignments on a PDI the whole 10 years I was a tech and I have never seen any one do that since then, but I don't hold every one to that standard, but still, some techs really aren't very good and try and fake it. That's where wrong diagnosis come in and rip off to try and cover it up.

 

I agree, many independent shops would not try to rip of a customer, I mean, if they do good with a customer, that customer will stay with them for a long time, and will tell everybody else to go there.
I worked at 3 independent shops in 10 years and there are bad independent shops that will rip off a customer at first sight, but if you look around, there are great ones.
In one of the shops I worked at, the boss and everybody else has a high ego when it comes to working on cars. You **** up once, and they will smother that **** in your face for years lol. The boss would check every work twice when it leaves the shop

 

the only way id take my vehicle to a service center like firestone,sears,etc. is if i had a huge wad of cash in my pocket,and it was so large it was irritating and uncomfortable and i needed someone to take it all and leave me with little in return

 

Like what most other people posted. I wouldn't go to a firestone or ect for any diagnosis. They just aren't use to that type of work. But I do feel they should atleast be able to diag a "suspension problem".

Either way i've worked at independent shops and dealerships as a tech. Some people get screwed. Some people get exactly what they ask for.

All i know is the loudest gear gets the grease. And if your an angry, unsatisfied customer and vocal.... You will get everything you want

 

So I worked at an independent shop as a smog technician and manager for about 6 years, which is why I know a bit about cars and how to work on them. Problem is, the shop I worked at closed down, and I no longer have access to a lift, tons of tools, etc. etc... the tools I have at home are rather minimal. This is why over the phone I told her to just hit up a fire stone because my initial thought was that it was a wheel bearing... and firestone supposedly specializes in wheels and tires? lol

I can only assume when she went in, she probably told them she thinks she needs a bearing replaced because I told her what I thought it could be. This was a problem, as you should never try to give the shop your diagnosis, as it will only give them the lead in to replace what part you may think is bad even if it isn't.

As far as reporting them... I don't think I am justified to do so because I wasn't actually there to receive the estimate and talk to the technician. So I don't know exactly what went on.

 

even so, any technician shouldn't take someone's word for it. you look much better when you walk into the office and say "i found your problem, it wasn't the $350 wheel bearing you though but the speedo cable that will take 1 hour to replace plus cost of parts". a 5 minute road test would have told their ears that the problem was nowhere near the right front that they pointed out as the definite cause. but you're right, it's all second hand info.

even worse when they start downgrading the repairs and accepting the bare minimum fault, which also was still 100% wrong.

problem is, there is a story like this for at least one customer who goes into each of these stores almost every single day of the year. regardless of the good techs that each of these stores likely has who do try to do a good job, the hacks make all of the stores look like thiefs.

 

So true. I would sometimes go talk to customers myself if the service adviser couldn't make clear what their complaints were.

"I just need a tune up" turns into "it dies when I turn left"

"Car pulls to the left" turns into "car pulls to the left when I hit the brakes really hard and go into an almost ABS stop"

And so on...

My favorite to date was the lady who brought her dakota in for an alignment. I drove it only to find it didn't pull. Weird. I set it on the rack and check everything.... all suspension/steering components are tight, ride height's ok. I check the alignment, it's perfect. I ask the service adviser, he says she's already taken it to a few different places to get it aligned, but they just can't get it right. Hmm.... I go inside to ask some more questions and without asking anything, I get my answer. She weighs at least 400 pounds.

Time to sandbag the driver's seat and re-align it

It's all about the customer satisfaction, and sometimes it takes a person to think a little abstract before jumping to conclusions.