Firestone Complete Auto Care

I had a malfunctioning air-​conditioner that needed fixing, I got a printed estimate from a Chicago auto-​shop that was about $ 500 and wanted to get it fixed from this location as it was closer to my home. The person seemed knowledgeable and looked at the print-​out and gave me an estimate of over $ 700 with the likelihood of further increases if they find new issues.
I ended up going to Richards body shop in Arlington heights, though once they opened it they found additional issues that increased the total cost but overall I felt that the same job would have costed me at least 30% more at this Firestone location.
One possible reason was that the Firestone employees behaved like corporate employees without any desire to attract business and match competition whereas at Richards the atmosphere was more entrepreneurial with desire to attract business and good feedback.
If you are paying through your nose then instead of going to Firestone why not go to a full-​fledged dealer who may throw in a loaner car or other freebies.

I’ve been going here for a few years now along with the rest of my family and can’t say enough about this place. They are always very helpful and reliable. Great customer service and I know they’ll always do their best to help fix up my car. Highly recommended!

I’m sure auto places have some of the hardest times getting much love on here as most people are already predisposed with the frustrating situation that brought them there in the first place. I personally had a fantastic experience going to this location. Nicole was extremely kind and attentive on the phone. Jordan was at the front when I got there and I found a similar approach from him. They made it painless! Dropped the keys and was given a 45 minute estimation so I went across the street for some coffee and just about 45 min on the dot, Jordan called me and said it was done! Boom! Shared some laughs and now I’m back on the road!

One of the most basic things they teach you in auto mechanics class is how to use a torque wrench and the importance of appropriately torquing bolts. Too little, they come undone. Too much and you risk damaging the parts they attach.
Last month I brought my car to this shop to have a flat repaired on the right rear snow tire. They wound up removing both rear wheels as there was a misunderstanding over which tire had the flat. This past weekend, I switched over to the summer wheels and tires, doing the work myself in my garage. The front wheels, installed by me, were correctly torqued to 90 ft-​lbs. The wheel bolts broke loose easily with the use of my 250-​ft lb capacity impact wrench. The rears, installed by this Firestone location wouldn’t budge. It took the use of a three foot breaker bar being stomped on with all of my weight — more than 200 lbs to pop them loose. Most likely these bolts were installed using a commercial impact air gun with a capacity of 400 lbs or more. The right way to do it is to spin the bolts in with the wrench, stopping when they just hit resistance, then use a torque wrench to torque the bolts to the right tightness. This shop clearly just used their air wrench at full power, badly over-​torquing the bolts, risking warping my brake rotors, potentially cracking the wheel or worse.
Why am I making a big deal out of too-​tight bolts? Because it is a basic measure of mechanic skills. If you can’t get changing a tire right, how can you be trusted to do something more complex than changing the tire?
Beware of this shop.

This place is terrible! I took my truck there because it broke down near by. This turned out to be a big mistake! Took them a day and a half just to look at it. When they finally diagnosed the vehicle Justin said it is going to be a 3hr job. Long story short my truck ended up sitting there for three days. I felt like they knew my truck was broken down so they knew It wasn’t going anywhere. I’m sure they made lots of money on other quicker jobs while my vehicle just sat there. NEVER AGAIN!!!

My car always seems to come out of here worse than I left it. Two instances in particular stand out:
Several years ago I went to get a routine oil change. Upon leaving, I lost a bunch of protective plates off the bottom of my car on the highway. I’m convinced this happened because they did not properly secure the panels underneath the car after working on it. They offered me a free oil change as compensation, but I stopped going to them for a few years.
Fast forward to this week, another routine oil change. This time, I manage to see an oil fluid leak almost immediately after leaving. This may be their fault, it may not be their fault, but I think the two instances are too close together to be coincidence. Either way, they wanted more than $ 800 to fix it. I took it to a dealer for a second opinion, who fixed it for less than $ 250.
It doesn’t seem like they do a good job, they’re not reliable, they’re not reasonable on price, and I seem to always run into problems with them. Definitely avoiding this shop at all costs in the future.
Edit: I’m being told by the people working on it now that it’s likely the work done by Firestone did more damage than good. They said since the last time I took it in with them (the oil change once before Firestone) there’s a couple stripped screws, bolts with broken off heads, and some heavy glue that leaked into the oil pan. So a routine oil change by Firestone is going to cost me several hundred dollars.

As friendly as staff was, after taking my car for a second opinion I discovered that Firestone staff did not reconnect the clamps the held the hoses to the radiator that they recommended I let them replace at firestone.
They let me drive away like that. How about negative stars?

I went to Firestone for the first time this week. I can’t speak highly enough of Sam, the store manager. If I could give them more than 5 stars on here I would. Sam was warm, incredibly helpful, and honest. He made sure me and my car were taken care of. The rest of the staff was great too. I’d definitely recommend.

This is not one of the better Firestone locations I’ve been to. I recently had scheduled some major work that was going to take the better part of a day. They don’t offer a shuttle or loaner cars, so I arranged to work remotely that day from Panera across the street. After about an hour, they call and say they don’t have the parts and can’t get them today. The guy proceeds to tell me that they don’t actually order the parts until you show up that day (even though I had scheduled the appointment well in advance) — so, I basically wasted a bunch of time and then had to make the same arrangements again the following week to come back. This was super frustrating. I asked for a discount when I was finally done and was given a discount that was actually no more than I would have gotten anyways by using my Firestone card. The manager goes out of his way to be nice, but it does not translate into the service.
The worst part of all this is that the $ 900 service I had done was supposed to fix a burning smell that had been coming from my car. $ 900 and two wasted work days later, my car still has a burning smell :(
I’m normally a big fan of Firestone (a lot because of the 6months no interest card, lifetime alignment and free tire rotation) but not this particular location.

They did what I asked them to do (replace a tail light that had gone out). They were friendly. BUT… the whole thing took an hour and a half. Seriously. I came in and told them EXACTLY what I needed. They said «okay, we’ll take a look at it.» 15 minutes later they pulled my car into the garage. An hour later they called my name and I thought I was done. I was wrong. They were just calling me up to confirm that yes, the tail light was out, and that they would replace it. And then they tried to sell me new tires. I’m pretty disgusted that it took an HOUR for them to figure out that my tail light was out, which is something that I already told them was true. 15 minutes later I was done and they asked me how my experience was. I was honest but nice and just said it took way too long. They gave me some oil change coupons and I was on my way. I threw away the coupons because if it takes them 90 minutes to change a light bulb, I could only imagine how long it takes for them to do an oil change. Sorry Firestone, I wont be back.

Did not welcome me into their business, long wait then I was skipped for the next person…

Avoid this place by all means! They are completely incompetent. They overinflated the tires by 15 PSI! I am glad I noticed it since the car was riding very stiffly. This Firestone location is definitely the last place to bring your car to. You’ve been warned.