hhrumadbruh

To make a long story short, I am having lots of problems with the local firestone lifetime balancing and alignment service.

First of all, we had bought the car in IL and it had about 40k miles on it. It was a rental car.

We drove it all the way to CA with no issues at all.

The car was fine, up until we had the alignment done for the first time.

Then it started to pull to the left and the TPMS went out "randomly".

The last 2 times I went in, I reset the trip meter and they lied to my face about test driving it afterwards.

Immediately after the last service, there was lots of wobble at about 55mph.

Now I notice a clanking noise from the front wheels when I stop or slow to 5mph or so. I have no idea what it is though, but it doesn't sound good.

I have read in other places that firestone is known for this type of thing. I am wondering if this is because I have the lifetime service, and they know they will not make any more money from me, so they resort to shady methods such as not actually doing the work properly and damaging my TPMS so I have to pay them to put a new one in.

What should I do? I feel like they have caused my front end to become damaged, where as if I had not gone to them in the first place it would still be fine.

whopper

None of it may be related at all, other than likely the pulling to the side. If you don't trust them, take it to another shop for an inspection.

donbrew

Not just Firestone!
could be all unrelated to their work.
TPMS intermittent failures are not news they happen all the time, usually from RF interference.
My experience has been that everytime the alignment has been changed by a competent technician I have had problems. There is NO NEED for routine alignments on an HHR, the only time it is REQUIRED is when the toe has been monkeyed with (like the curb I recently had an argument with). All of the wear parts can be inspected by a tire jockey.

SS fan

Firestone does both of mine, it hasn't been easy, due to my numerous changes to the suspension. They have got them both dialed in, it's wonderful when they drive right......

Blue_SS

Could you try another Firestone store? I had this Lifetime Alignment on my last car, and found that the tech makes all the difference. It took me a couple of tries to find a good one, but eventually I did. And I was running some unusual setups for autocross at the time (lots of negative camber) that I didn't want changed.

jczboy

I really wish you lived in So Cal. I would love you to bring it to our Firestone. As mintioned, who does the work is very important. Did you get a printout of what it was, and what it is? I have worked for them for 36 years, and a person would be fired in our shop for being dishonest. To the best that I know, there is no way to damage a TPMS from the outside of a wheel. Noise in the front end is very comon but can be fixed. Part do wear out. If you are concerned with what was done, I would take it to another Firestone. If you are still not happy, there is a 1-800 number to call. They WILL make it right.