Complaint Review: Christian Brother Automotive

Christian Brothers Automotive. Jan 2, 2015 my truck starts to misfire, diagnosed were 3 ignition coils on cylinders 4,5 & 6 which were replaced, the parts cost was $20 a coil. As well I had a tune up done, changing all 8 spark plugs (which lasted 130,000 miles) and the serpentine belt on my 2000 Ford F-250 which was done by a shop in Portland Oregon. That service cost me $373.17, which I thought was a fair price. Fast forward 1-1/2 years and 13,500 miles later, my truck starts to mis-fire once again. I'm assuming another ignition coils has failed. So I contact Christian Bro's and make an appointment because it was walking distance to my home. I tell them about issue, my suspicions of the problem and the tune up and the coil replacement a year & 1/2 ago. I'm asked if I want to pay for a diagnostic with their state of the art system, for $100 and change. I will look the life force of the engine, compression, fuel injection, electronic ignition. I say sure, as it's an 16 yr old truck. Going off my prior a experience I thinking $200 - $400 final bill. I leave my truck over night.

The next day I get a call from Christian Bro's and am told ignition coils 3 & 7 are shot and all eight sparks look terrible and they recommend changing. I ask the cost, told.....$663! Wait, WHAT!?! Why so much? Well the guy proceeded to tell me how difficult it is to get to the spark plugs. I ask why do they need replaced again? "Because the cheap Asian plugs the previous company installed" after other various explanations about dialectic silicone and rubber boots that weren't installed by the previous shop, & other things that are wrong with the truck at an estimate of $2547.59. I relent and tell him to just do the work & on the coil and plugs & I'll be later that day to get my truck. When I show up to pick the truck up, I'm told the final bill is $803.72........FOR A BASIC TUNE UP!!!!! I'm so pissed I can hardly think straight! I write them a check and leave. On the way home I smell a slight oder, it's something familiar, automotive shop related. I dismiss it as a mechanic was in & out of my truck with dirty shop cloths. The next morning, Saturday I jump into my truck, it's chilly morning so I crank the heat and turn on my defrost full blast. My truck windows instantly fog over and that smell, which I now recognize as antifreeze is so thick in the cab of the truck I have to pull over.

MY FRIGGING HEATER CORE IS LEAKING! the heater core in F-250 enters the cab via the passenger side fire wall right over the top of spark plugs 6 & 8. Im late for a job which I needed the truck for, so I figured I'd contact C-Bro's 1st thing Monday morning. When finally get a hold of the owner, I'm told the heater core was coincidental. REALLY!?! From the time it left their shop bay and they parked it in the their parking lot and until the time I picked it up, it developed a leak in the heater core?!? I then ask why the cost of $122.52 for each ignition coil when Motocraft (Ford brand/Ford truck?) cost $66.99 at O'Reillys??? We use Delco (Chevy brand???) at a cost to them of $95. I was told because they guarantee their work for two years the use the most expensive parts available (at the cost to the customer) Then I ask about the diagnostic fees, when a parts store will do a coding for the vehicle computer for free. We use it to pin point a problem when a code reader will generalize a problem. WAIT! Think about that? Christian bros has the fancy a*s diagnostic tool at their disposal to pin point problems. But will only use it if you want to pay $103 for them to use it. So otherwise if you refuse to pay for it the mechanic will poke and prods his way through?at his hourly rate driving up the cost of repair anyway. Then there was a $35 shop fee, for rags, solvents, soap, toilet paper, diapers.....gawd knows what else. Oh, by the way they did fix the original issue....