I don't do many reviews and rarely ever do a negative review, but I felt I needed to this time. I was having a misfire in my motor on my car and changed the plugs and still had the miss, so not having the required diagnostic equipment to find out what was causing it, I took it to McAlister's Auto Repair of Fort Myers. I was told it would cost $125.00 to diagnose the motor, so I left the car with them. I ask them to look at the front end parts as the car is getting old and has high miles on it, and to check for a slow power steering fluid leak I had been having.
They called me the next day and told me the miss was due to bad fuel injectors and it would cost $832.10 to replace them. They also told me my slow power steering leak was because I needed all new power steering hoses at a cost of $712.00. Next, they told me my front end needed a center link and 4 ball joints for a cost of $1,023.88 for a grand total of $2,692.98! Wow, I thought, my tires aren’t wearing, my power steering only needs a little fluid every so often and the motor runs fine when driving, it just has a miss at idle. So I paid them the $125.00 for the diagnoses and drove my car home.
I bought all new injectors at a fraction of the cost they quoted me for the parts alone, and I installed them myself after Googling “how to”. Much to my dismay, the car ran exactly the same. Next, I Googled some “DIY” diagnosing and found two of the coil packs were the problem. I replaced them for $145.00 and the car runs fine. Next, I cleaned the engine compartment and looked to see if I could find the power steering leak. It ended up that a low pressure hose had a small crack where the hose clamp was, so I cut off a 1/2” piece and tightened the clamp back and whala, no more leak, and all the other hoses are fine, no leaks at all on any of them. Then I looked up a bran new complete front end kit that included the center link, all 4 ball joints, all 4 control arms, all 4 tie rod ends and sleeves and the idler arm, for less then one ball joint from them!
more