[AT] Tractor Fluid (OT, only maybe)

[Stephen Offiler]

When I go to NAPA for brake parts, I am generally confronted by about 3
different choices in rotors and something like 4-5 different choices in
pads.  The cheapest rotors are Chinese, and they ARE cheap.  Half the price
of the next choice (which is typically, say, Mexican, for example).  The
Chinese metallurgy is poor; the rotors develop hard spots and create pedal
pulsations within a few thousand miles.  The highest-price, highest-quality
rotor choice is usually either Canada or USA.  I don't care about price; I
want my car to stop with exceptional reliability, and I don't want brake
shudder to develop  6 months down the road.  I always tell them to give me
the good stuff.  Since I no longer  do business with AutoZone, I can't
comment  on how a brake-parts acquisition goes down there.

 I used to have an AZ very convenient to my work commute, and a pretty wide
diversion to hit NAPA, so, I used to do business at AZ.  I had a rash of
three or four instances in a row with parts that were just dismal in
quality.  At the time, several years ago,  I was keeping a 15 year old,
200,000 mile Honda Civic rolling, and it was nickel and diming me with CV
boots, alternator, battery, etc etc so I was in and out of parts stores
pretty frequently.

SO



On Tue, Dec 10, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Doug Tallman <dtallman at accnorwalk.com>wrote:

> I'm not sure AZ carries Moog anymore. They used to advertise big on
> Timken bearings but every Timken I've bought there comes from offshore
> where brgs from other places come from USA. On the NAPA note, I had a
> customer that didn't want any cheap China junk on his car. He went to
> NAPA and bought a set of brake pads for his car. The box had "made in
> china" right on the front. I asked him why he bought them for me to put
> on. He wasn't real happy! The sad part is, almost everything we get in
> the aftermarket is junk today. There are a few basic suppliers
> furnishing parts for a bunch of different names. For electronics, there
> is no substitute for dealer parts and even them can say made in china.
> Doug T
>
>
>
>
> Mike wrote:
> > So if I buy a Moog tie rod end or ball joint assembly from Autozone, I'd
> > be getting a different (lesser quality) part than I would get at NAPA or
> > Rock Auto? That would be hard to believe. Store branded stuff I can see
> > being lesser quality.
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > On 12/10/2013 4:37 PM, Rob Wilson wrote:
> >
> >> Autozone parts are subpar at best. I replaced the timing belt, put a
> new water pump and tensioner on my wife's car and almost 1 year to the day
> the bearing I'm the tensioner seized taking out the belt and stranding is
> on a dark road. I asked my friend that has owned his own shop for almost 40
> years what I did wrong? He said the only thing that might have caused it is
> if I used autozone parts. He said he used to use them but kept getting
> burned on labor lost and lost customers. He said stick with Napa and leave
> the Chinese autozone junk to the backyard mechanics that don't mind
> practicing doing the same job over for free.
> >> Rob
> >>
> >>
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