Master Brake & Muffler

First time using the shop for exhaust! Great work. Completed in a timely matter. And they steered me in the right direction, to achieve the sound and performance I was looking for! I work at Jackpowell Ram And I’ve already referred 3 to 4 people over to his shop. Great pricing without sacrificing craftsmanship! I definitely recommend them!!!

Last week I started getting a horrible, metal on metal grinding sound on my left front wheel. Lots of metal dust on the rim so I started looking for brake places. There’s a lot in a small area in Escondido so I pretty much just pulled into the first place I found; that being Master Brake. It was a Monday morning and they were just opening up so I got right in. The owner, Brick, was very friendly and courteous. After a couple of minutes he came back out and told me a price. It was pretty much what I expected and he said it would take about an hour. He asked if I’d had breakfast and I said no. He recommended a local restaurant and even dropped me off there to eat while they worked. Once the work was done, he called me and picked me up. Overall, the staff was very friendly. The shop was clean and I think the repairs were fairly priced. My car seems to be stopping nicely and the metal grinding is gone. I’m old enough that I’ve been in a LOT of garages. Most have been good with no issues, but I would rank my experience with Master Brake as very good. Highly recommend.

Completely trustworthy. Have been going here since I could drive, always gives a great deal and is efficient. Would recommend to anyone.

I agree with what previous gentleman said about brick and Master Break and muffler. They always do such a great job on all of my trucks. They always have the equipment\parts on hand and I have never waited over two hours ever.
They stand by their work and if there is ever any question about installs they will fix it!
I had a muffler bracket that came a little loose from my heavy driving and it was passed the one-​year warranty but they still fixed it with no charge!

I had purchased accessories from Off Road Warehouse a while back. I went in and asked them about putting more aggressive mufflers on my 2012 V6 Camaro. ORW referred me to Master Brake & Muffler, who they use often. I first spoke with Brick, the owner. He showed me several options for mufflers with a couple recommendations: FlowMaster’s Super 40, and a knock-​off brand of FlowMaster’s Original Series 40. He explained the ins and outs, pros and cons, and gave me the prices. He also gave me options for exhaust. He answered all my questions and gave me enough information to make a decision.
I returned the next day and asked for FlowMaster’s Super 40, and chrome exhaust. They had everything on hand and ready to go. They quoted me 2 hours, but called me 1h40m later.
I picked up my car, revved up, and it sounds great! Brick’s recommendation was perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. So far I’m happy with their service and the work they performed.
Before writing this review, I checked out some of the others. I feel like the complaints about their customer service should be taken with a grain of salt. This is a father-​son mechanic team. It’s a small business run by the mechanics. If you go somewhere else, you’ll speak with someone hired for their people skills, or someone trained to sell you something specific, perhaps not what you actually want. Master Brake & Muffler is there to help you make a decision, and then to do the work. That’s what you should be looking for.
As long as the work they did holds up, I’ll return to them as a happy customer.

I did not truly appreciate what a gem I had with Master Brake until I moved away and had experiences with other shops. My family and I have been bringing our cars here for years, and it was always a pleasant experience. I could fully trust their diagnoses and know that they were being honest. I wish I could have brought this family business with me!

The thing I really like about this shop is that they are willing to do custom work at a reasonable price. I’ve been to them for two custom jobs. The first was the repair an exhaust manifold. This was on an old Subaru, and allowed me to put off buying a new manifold for a couple of years. The second was to install a sway bar that required drilling. This was the only shop I was able to find to do the work, and they did a great job.

I brought my truck in a while back to get a muffler and a new set of headers installed. Within a week my check engine lights were going off, so I took it back there and had them look at it again. They said everything looked fine and were unable to find the root of the problem. I decided to take it to West Escondido Automotive and they found so many cracks in the weld job that it looked like a toddler took a torch to it. Needless to say, after spending over $ 1,500 to fix «Master» Brake and Muffler’s mess it’s safe to say I won’t be coming back. Don’t waste your time and money. Go to a professional and get the job done right the first time.

Employee brought van in for brake clean and adjust. They had him back out on the road in no time.
Thanks again for the great service.

So I brought my car to this place because I had a stripped bolt on my car, but not stripped to the point where it could’nt have been taken out by an impact wrench, called them to see if I could bring it in and for them simply to see if they could loosen the bolt. They told me to bring it in, if it didn’t provide them difficulty, they said it’d be free of charge. Too good to be true. So I brought it in, they put the car on the ramp and I showed them where the stripped bolt was. At first they were very nice, honest seemed like and I thought at last I found a local shop I could trust and bring my car to if it had any problems. This was not the case. As soon as they got to work I did not like how they handled the situation. There were two younger guys who lifted it and tried to pry it off with the wrong tools! I didn’t want to sound like a punk so I didn’t say anything and left the job to them, after 30 minutes of trying, they came to the realization that they stripped it even more. Without asking me they decided to cut it off. and even then, they had a difficult time. The bolt got stuck inside, they had to call their dad or what not, and they spent even more time picking their noses trying to burn the nut out. Finally they were able to remove it after removing the part and putting it on the clamp and just gently tapping the bolt out. So eventually they were able to get the bolt out, and as requested asked them to replace the bolt (I later find out it was a completely different size). I sighed relief as it didn’t take any longer to remove a single bolt (took 3 guys) and after I thanked them and would’ve rewarded them for their effort by bringing back lunch however when it was time to pay the bill came out to be $ 80! For a stupid bolt I could’ve brought else where, which they messed up on anyway by themselves, they further worsened the situation and made me pay extra for the labor they took to take out the bolt, the entire time they seemed very nice and I figured they would’ve charged me a simple $ 20 or $ 30 for such a simple job which I would’ve tipped anyway. but instead I was insulted. I paid it, let them take their chump change and vowed to never return. I would’ve thought that the entire time, they had taken their time to do the job right, but they only took their time to make it seem as though I was taking up their time. Understandable if the shop were busy, but I was the only one there! I can see now why it’s empty most of the time.
Sure most shops charge labor $ per hour but If they had taken their time to do the job right, it wouldn’t have taken that long.
So a two star for getting the job done at least but for the price and honesty it was horrible. I felt ripped off.

I just went in to master brake and muffler today to get my brakes done on my car they were fast, affordable, and friendly. They quoted me a great price and they never tried to change it and my car was done on time. I would have to say it was a great experience all around. Thanks Master brake and muffler:)

Theses other reviews are? im surprized master brake and muffler has been around along time. I had great service every time. the shop is busy but my stuff gets done quick. thanks guys.

I initially wrote up a less than favorable review about this location. I felt that I had paid more than I should have, which wasn’t helped by the fact that my husband was convinced that without him I would be doomed to pay too much plus the other reviews seemed to set a negative tone. In retrospect, the people were friendly, the service was quick, and once I expressed my unhappiness with the price, Brick quickly contacted me to see what he could do to fix this. In the end, he went above and beyond to make sure that I was happy, and I hope that others take this review to heart. I’m sure he made the same effort with the other negative review writers, and can only speculate as to why they would not allow him to earn their favor.

Oh the memories! I was trolling through RJ A.‘s Unilocal reviews, and saw his review for Master. My wife and I are the friends that RJ A. was referring to in his review. I had forgotten about our experience at Master Brake.
Long story short, we needed brakes. We saw the ad for Master, complete with the Christian overtones. We thought they would be trustworthy, so we went in. Then came the estimate: $ 1,100. For brakes. According to Master, we needed not only brakepads, but the entire brake set & rotors on all four wheels. I was pretty sure we didn’t.
Long story longer, we left. We took our car to North County Auto in Escondido (on the corner of Mission Blvd & Escondido Blvd). Their diagnosis was as I expected — we just needed front brake pads. They inspected our rotors and rear brakes. One rotor needed to be turned, not replaced, and not all four. Total bill: $ 90.
Unless things have changed in the past few years… I would steer clear.

horrible service. had them install a new CAT on my integra. after «Brick» (i guess he’s the manager/​owner) reversed my car out of the car lift car, he ripped the left side off of my bumper. so it was just hanging loose. took it back in and some what put it back together but the flanges were broken.
after a couple of weeks i start hearing a rattle noise, so i took it back in and it was the heat shield on the CAT which i guess was loose when first installed. so he took it back out and it still rattles and it was the resonator and not the CAT
i agree with Unilocal user RJ A. «stay away from here!!!»

Overpriced, dishonest, and after all of that, tried to pull the «I’m a Christian» act on my wife and I. We will never go here again, and we found out afterwards they pulled the same thing on some friends of ours. Stay away from here!!!