I recently had a check engine light on my 2002 Toyota Camry V6 XLE.
I took it to a local Firestone in Santa Clara, California. They charged me for diagnostics ($160-gave me a $30 discount) & then changed the cam sensor for a total of almost $450 ($510 with a total $60 discount).
When I got the car back, the VSC & Trac lights turned on once I started driving. The sales person asked me to drive around for a while when it would go away. It didn’t.
When I gave it back, they claimed that it was a different problem, charged me $80 & recalibrated the VSC/Trac system.
Is Firestone’s claim correct? Is recalibration a standard procedure after a cam sensor replacement, or is it a separate issue?
Do the rates for the engine diagnostics & cam sensor replacement sound correct as well?
Some aftermarket scan tools disturb/erase the “Zero point calibration” in the ABS module. Some Toyota vehicles require the Zero point calibration to be performed any time a scan tool is used on the vehicle, including the Toyota Tech Stream. Performing the ABS Zero point calibration is routine and only takes a few minutes provided the technician is aware of the process.
The cam position sensor is not difficult to access on that engine. How much labor time is fair? An hour and a half? Two hours? How long did it take?
The only reason I would go to a Firestone Store would be to buy, repair or rotate a Firestone tire.
I don’t know why people have such trust in national chains for car repair shops when scandal after scandal have shown that trust to be misplaced.
I am not saying that there are no bad local shops but the odds are so much better for you. The best local shops in any fairly large community are always very busy because word spreads. Once you find one it is worth the time to make an appointment.
Thanks @Nevada_545. I was charged for 2 hours labor at around $165/hr for the cam position sensor.
Your points do make sense to me. I suspect that they did disturb the calibration when they fixed the cam position sensor.