I got a call from my girlfriend saying her '05 Mustang was making a terrible racket from the rear of the car when it was in motion. When I arrived, I didn't notice anything obvious and it was pretty much undriveable, so we called a tow truck and had it taken to the nearby North Druid Hills Firestone, where she normally got her oil changes, etc. They told us there would be a $100 charge for an engine diagnostic, which sounded unnecessary because it didn't sound engine related at all, but what do I know? Better safe than sorry, right? \r
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After we got home, we got a call from this Firestone saying two bolts in the drive shaft were broken and had to be redrilled and three flanges would need to be replaced. When we asked if this was a common thing to this car we got a reply of, ""I don't know, you're going to have to ask someone with more experience."" There's some confidence for you! We were also told it would be around $500 for labor and parts, and it would be a week or so before the parts would be in. Plus we needed 4 news tires and total for everything including the diagonostic would be well over $1000.\r
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This sounded kind of sketchy, so we called a friend of ours who is a mechanic (which we should have done the first time, but it was a considerable distance to our friend's garage). She said they could probably do it cheaper and quicker AND they would tow it for free.\r
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End result-The drive shaft was replaced UPSIDE DOWN by the Firestone mechanic, and none of the bolts or flanges were broken. The bolts were tightened and treated with loctite by the new mechanic. A call was made to the Ford dealer, and even if we needed parts they would have been available in the next two business days. We had the car back in our driveway in under 48 hours. Cost $250 for 4 new tires ONLY.\r
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Dishonest, inept and possible malicious because of the drive shaft. I am making a call to the manager today. \r
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DO NOT GO HERE!
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