Dualtone Alignment Brakes & Mufflers

I came for an alignment for my Jeep recommended by Discount Tire. When I left, the steering wheel was not aligned, my car drifted right still on the highway, and my newly balanced wheels were out of balance. They tried to rebalance the front wheels for free but did not meet expectations and balanced the rear ones incorrectly by adding unnecessary balance weights. I didn’t have the time to have them retry the alignment and balance as I needed my vehicle for the week and their location is out of the way for me based on my work location. I got my tires perfectly rebalanced at Discount Tire Escondido and alignment at Jack Powell Jeep dealership.

The staff here are great! I was treated with respect and I don’t regret choosing them at all. I made the right choice which I will share to my friends and family. Excellent service!

They were great! Got me in the very next day, and took about ½ the time they quoted me for. I accidentally went into the lobby, and before I could put my stuff down, an employee escorted me to the check in area and gave me tips on where to walk my dog. Quality service all around! Decent prices too!

This is the worst shop in San Diego to do business with. I took my Alfa there and they butchered the exhaust system. The owner gave me $ 100.00 back but I’m still not satisfied. If you want to be shafted by idiots, this is the place to go!

I dropped my truck off today for an alignment, I had no appointment and didn’t call ahead, but was still told that they could get it done before closing. They had it done in about 2 hours. Every one there was very friendly and knowledgeable. My truck drives great now! This shop and their crew really are good at what they do. I will recommend them to everyone I know.

I was referred to them by Discount Tire because the guy from AAA cross threaded my spare tire. Went to this place and had my car in and out in less than 45 minutes. The speed and courtesy was much appreciated and I’ll be taking my car back next week to have my brakes done. They also have some awesome pictures of pre 1950 Pacific Beach and La Jolla in the waiting room.

I have a Ford F-​350 that I pull my 5^th wheel with. On the drive down to San Diego, I developed a bad sounding rumbling in the rear that would stop when I put pressure on the exhaust pipe. I read the Unilocal reviews and took my truck here to have the noise checked out. The guys were nice enough, and took a look. They immediately found the culprit, exhaust pipe running on my airbag bracket. They could not fix it, and were honest and upfront with me about that. No trying to sell me something I did not need. I need to take it back to the place that installed the airbags and have them fix the bracket.
I would go back to this place and recommend it.

As a young female, going to a mechanic can be a little daunting. I always think that they will take advantage or use my lack of car knowledge against me. But these guys are SO nice and accommodating. My car had some steering problems and tire problems. It took about a few hours to fix, and then they drove it over to Discount Tires for me and had them do the tires. The man helping me was BOB and he was super nice and went out of his way to make sure the car was taken care of properly. He even called me and wanted to double check the brakes the next day, because he felt they were off when he drove it over to discount tires. He looked at them and fixed the brakes for free the next day! This is definitely the place I’ll be going to the next time my car has a problem. THANKS BOB and DUALTONE!

I first took my Nissan Maxima here to get an alignment back in 2012. After a good while after more wear and tear on my suspension, I tool it back after it was out of whack again. Daren explained that my vehicle was still under warranty and that the adjustments would cost nothing. Thats awesome that places like this still honor that kind of warranty. Also, after getting married, I started taking my wife’s Xterra here and I continue to get the same great warranty service from these guys! Thanks Darren!

Even though there are a billion reviews I am adding mine because this place saved me almost $ 2000.
The «Family Auto» place I took my sedan to a few months back (for a complete tune-​up) quoted me over $ 2000 to replace my muffler which sounded horrible and loud. They said Lexus cars required the entire Y-​pipe assembly to be replaced, there was no way around it, etc. It was so expensive because of the cadmium (and probably some sort of diamond balderdash.)
Since, I have been saving and budgeting to have this done … my uncle, a life-​long SD resident, said, wait a minute, go to Dualtone. I did. $ 129. Seriously.

These guys are fairly good scammers. I went in to this shop soon after they opened and asked to get my brakes checked on a 2011 Honda with 57,000 miles on it. (I had noticed a grinding sound when NOT pressing the brake peddle the night before) I knew they where probably worn down as they where the original pads on the car. The gentlemen that was helping me out had a nice casual conversation as we filled out paperwork. About 25 minutes later he brings me out to my car to show me the problems. First he shows me the good news. Rear brakes are in good shape. He shows me the front pads, which are totally worn (no surprise there) Now here is where things get shady. He has me take a look at my front calipers and starts picking at some rubber with his pencil and rips it. He tells me that because of this bit of rubber the entire caliper has to be replaced and it’s the same story on the other front caliper. (Keep in mind. 57,000 miles on this car.) after that he shows me some arbitrary numbers on his note pad and mumbles then circles the lowest number, then says «yep the rotors are no good either. Too thin to machine.» At this point I am getting suspicious because rotors can last up to 3 machinings before getting too thin and my rotors haven’t even had 1 yet. I bring this up to him and he replies with «well maybe since your calipers are bad the brake pad may have worn down the rotor.» Seeing my very confused face, he quickly changed the subject. He quickly tells me that my front hub bearing is also bad. He jiggles the front rotor and there is a tiny amount of play. He tells me that the small amount of play means the hub bearing is bad and that also needs to be replaced. We go inside to get an estimate. $ 720 for parts and labor. Considering all the work he said needed to be done. That’s not a horrible price. So I told him to forget about the rotors. Bringing the total down to $ 580 and some change. I sign the form and go sit down. I start doing some quick research on my phone about hub bearings and find out the way you find out if a bearing is bad is by listing for a noise from the wheel. Not by a minuscule amount of play. I stormed back into the shop and tell him to stop all work and put everything back the way it was. He was nice enough to leave the car running for me. I took the car to the Honda dealership to get a second option. According to the dealership, all I needed was new pads and a rotor machining. (They where by far plenty think.) Out the door from the dealership… $ 200 which is what you would expect with dealership labor rates.
I now drive almost 35,000 miles a year, cars break, no denying that. I would love to take my loyal repeat business to a small local business. That’s why I went here first. It is really sad to say but DO NOT TRUST A WORD THESE PEOPLE TELL YOU. They saw a college student in a nice shirt and a well kept car and tried to take advantage. Lucky for me I knew just barely enough to make me question what I was being told. I will make sure to tell absolutely everyone I know to stay away from this place. I suggest you also find somewhere else.

Although my experience here was short, I want to give a shout out to the guys at Dualtone who helped me out during a brief crisis I encountered a few weeks ago.
On my morning commute to work, I heard a huge thud noise come from my car. After inspecting it, it looked like my exhaust pipe was hanging lower than usual and I was convinced that a hanger had broke. I was about to drive all the way to Bakersfield that day so I didn’t want to take any chances.
I brought my car into Dualtone and the guys put it up on the lift and inspected it to make sure that nothing was wrong. Apparently my exhaust pipe just hangs lower than most and everything was okay. They didn’t charge me a thing to take a look and were very nice through out the whole process. I value a good auto shop with kind employees that aren’t trying to short change you (especially as a female). I really appreciated the time they took to make sure that my car was okay to hit the road. I’ll definitely be back in the event of a real auto emergency!

Holy moly I wish I could give them more stars. Got referred over here by my mechanic to get the catalytic converter put it. Then, it was quoted at like, $ 500 less than the dealership. When I came here in person it was another $ 150 cheaper.
I had planned to leave my car and take an über somewhere or something, so I asked how long about it would take. Guy says if I hang around and wait he’ll do it right now, less than an hour.
Super excited about how easy this was.

So good to find an auto repair business that you feel you can trust the first moment you get there. I will definately return with my other car when needed. I was treated very honestly and had exactly done what I needed and wasn’t hounded to make other repairs.
Even got a lift home!

I just got back from Dual Tone and boy did they do a good job.
My car couldn’t pass the smog test and had an engine light on because of a faulty catalytic converter. Catalytic co-​what? Yeah I don’t know either. Well, my car had to pass the smog test so I began searching around the area for someone who could fix it.
All in all, I searched around the area and got three quotes. Gary at Dual Tone’s was the best. His price was 3−4x cheaper than any of the other guys! Unbelievable! I took it in and Gary and his crew were super nice and said they’d have it done in an hour.
No problem, I’d go to the In-​N-​out next door, get a burger and wait it out. 20 minutes later, I got a call from Gary and it was done. Wow. Super quick work at a good price. I’d say hands down the #1 place in town for catalytic converters. Just call Gary and he’ll get you covered.
Chris

Absolutely best alignment shop in the central and north city area. These guys have the most expensive laser machines you can buy, and a couple of alignment techs that actually know what they’re doing. I took a problem — child Corvette to these wizzes, and they got it straight in two trys. Plenty of shims, but no one else could do it. Add in really low rates and while you wait quickness, and I couldn’t recommend another alignment shop for Corvettes more. I take the Benz where ever can get me done the quickest, since it really never needs adjustments, but my ‘Vetted always go to Dualtone. Make sure to make an appointment, and if you’re going to be a waiter, there are a few food options close by. Check these automotive professionals out. They also have a pretty strong muffler and welding department, and do standard automotive work as well.

I love to rate places with all 5 Stars. My experience was great. I got a coupon from Discount Tire (I guess that is a good relationship ;) Daren was nice, professional, and informative. He said they were busy. Nice to know so I made an appointment. That was the way to go. Daren said it would take an hour so I brought my iPad with me. They have free Wi-​Fi for customers. The service took 58 minutes as promised.
No surprises. Thanks Daren!

To be honest, the place looks a little sketchy from the outside. You have to violate a couple of no U-​turn laws just to get into the place. It took a bit of convincing from others, but I finally gave it a chance to see what it can offer below the surface… sort of like going on a date with an unattractive woman who seems popular.
I was expecting the worst… my tires were wearing unevenly, and there was a squeak in my brakes that started but stopped a few weeks before.
With no appointment, they took me in. They examined my front and rear carefully, determining that only my front needed some work. Even though I was ready to cough up some cash for the brakes, they said no, it was not needed. A rare garage that does actually says NO to unnecessary work!
I was in and out with my front end fully serviced and tested in under 90 minutes, and cost far less than I was prepared to pay. With this truly happy ending, it’s like the best date ever.

Dualtone is THE BEST. They saved my car, literally. While driving cross-​country from Massachusetts to San Diego, I ran over a truck tire on the highway. It ripped the oxygen sensor out from my catalytic converter. I took the car into a shop in Arkansas and they told me that because of all the rust (being a New England car) that it would cost over $ 5000 (!!!) to fix because they would need to replace the entire exhaust system (which has three catalytic converters). I only paid $ 4300 for the car, so that estimate basically totaled my car. I kept driving. When I got to San Diego I took it into a shop. They looked at it and told me that it would cost $ 3300 just for the parts, not including labor. I was going to junk my car and buy another one. But I LOVE this car (it’s an 2004 Nissan Altima 3.5 V6) so I took it to Dualtone to see what they would say.
The Dualtone team worked their magic and saved my car. They got creative, fabricated a new catalytic converter, managed to cut around the rust, and fix the car for about $ 850. The mechanics there had the skill and knowhow to fix a problem that other shops could not. They saved me a ton of money. Also, they were extremely nice and informative, showing me the parts that needed to be replaced and letting me see exactly what had to be done. I will recommend them to anyone in the San Diego area and I am now a loyal customer forever.

Great place… friendly, knowledgeable. I only wish they were a full service station. Their employees seem to enjoy their work. Also they will try to deal with you a wee bit at times.
If they can’t do the work they’ll usually send you elsewhere to a trusted place. They at times can do some other things beside their advertised specialities.