Firestone Complete Auto Care

I went to the firestone in Kirkwood, Mo not to far from the IL one and they claimed to have fixed my brakes and gave me my car back unsafe! I couldnt stop. I got an extensive inspection because it was making a sqeaking noise and they said oh its the ball joint but its fine. After that I went to get a safety inspection done and it failed because of the brakes. And to make matters better right before I could take it to them the car collapsed at a gas station yea you guessed it the ball joint they said was fine wasnt and it broke the axel, operating arm, ball joints etc. needless to say I feared for my life after that and just traded my car in this was the FOURTH time I took it back because of their negligence. My father begged me not to take it to them because a bad oil changed destroyed the motor in his car and they wouldnt compensate him for it. However, I thought not all firestones are the same. I am going to file a complaint with the BBB this is ridiculous.

First of all I'm not a whiner - just someone who wants to warn others of Scott AFB Firestone Car Care Center.



I took a truck in for an alignment. I scheduled an appointment for 11:00am. They didn't look at the vehicle until that afternoon. I thought that was the purpose of an appointment. Oh well. Glad I didn’t need it that afternoon.

After they gave me the laundry list of what was needed; the truck needed over $750 of front end work to perform the alignment. I do give them credit as they did not charge me to look at it.



One thing that I found weird was that they said my air filter was bad. Air filter? What does that have to do with a wheel alignment? I don’t remember me asking them to check my air filter.



I drove the truck to a trusted ASE certified reputable mechanic in the state of Michigan. He propped the front end up with a common floor jack and within moments he found bad ball joints. One other part, a steering linkage, which was on firestone's laundry list, was bad.



The price I paid for the steering linkage - around $100. Firestone wanted to charge $255 for the same part. Now the parts were different brands; perhaps the firestone part is of better quality, etc. BUT $155 difference? OUCH!



The parts (ball joints & steering linkage) were changed on the truck and the front end is a lot better (and safer).



I returned to Firestone at Scott AFB to bring this to the attention of them.



First excuse: "We have to get the weight off wheels to check play in the wheels and our lift doesn't do that". Oh; a 'car care center' doesn't have a typical floor jack?"



2nd excuse: "We couldn't tell what's wrong because your hubs are bad". Really. They mentioned the hubs were bad but never mentioned getting them changed before they could do anything else. (By the way, only the driver’s side hub was bad and doesn’t have anything to do with steering. It’s a 4WD component).



I showed them the bad ball joints and asked: "How did my mechanic find these then? Are they good? I'll just put them back on the truck if they're still good." - I give them credit - they did admit that the ball joints were bad (finally).



Firestone also said I needed to get both pitman arms changed – neither was bad as they are just a piece of metal. The whole ‘courtesy check’ annoyed me as well. It’s just a way for them to pick your vehicle apart to make more money.

I realize that people make mistakes and may troubleshoot problems to the wrong parts, but what really was disheartening to me is that this business just kept making one excuse after another. They never were concerned with making the customer satisfied with their service. But who am I? I’m only 1 customer. I just feel for that Grandma Wilson or Mother of 4 taking their vehicles to this place and they pick it apart, change the wrong parts, charge them an arm & a leg for parts & labor and give them back an unsafe vehicle.