OEM? Ha!
There is a company selling parts here and it is called OEM.
Brilliant!
The not knowing people are told to buy OEM so I'd guess they think these are them. lol
Just more crap.

Powerstop Z23 on my Subaru, and Z26 on my Vette. #2 choices

rjp

I put a heater core in my pickup. That's a two day job, full dashboard removal and reinstall, for a shade tree like me.
The part I got from Rock Auto was the best on offer, and it was still inferior in every way to the original factory part - as was a replacement unit from the dealer, so I'll have a radiator shop braze up the original core and I'll keep it as a spare.
Thing is, there was no way I was going to pay big, big bucks to have a mechanic do this work, because if there are rattles in the dash, I want to know it's because I effed up and did a bad job, not because I paid someone to botch the job.


Car repair is such a ripoff anymore. Durable goods aren't durable, no matter how much you try and buy a quality piece, skilled labor is hit and miss, and all of us have been victims of the race to the bottom (line) when sourcing spares.

****, the other day my bro's GF was told she needed to do a water pump and timing belt on a honda civic for $1500.00. SHe **** her pants, and was about to have her kid tear car apart-

1. Car isn't losing coolant.
2l It's got 80K miles- a 2017 Honda CIVIC, more reliable than gravity itself.

I told her to leave the car alone, it's perfectly fine, and to go blow the money on hair and nail jobs.

Auto repair is outright theft these days.

rjp

On the flip side the other day I took my diesel dually into the local tire/repair shop . I am now towing a 5th wheel camper and wanted the brakes done .

Four rotors and pads . Adjusted the ebrake . Replaced two leaking axle seals . Added two quarts of gear oil . Did a brake fluid flush and bleed .

They did a brake pad break in to end their portion . Total price $1200.00 . I could have done the work myself but not the same day like they did . I climbed in the truck and drove home . Everything was exactly as I expected .

Long term I have no idea about the longevity of the parts they used . All aftermarket but OEM equivalent . I have used this shop in the past and always happy with their work . There are good shops out there .

I bought the front brake pads on my El Camino that were GM Mr. Goodwrench originals for $12 for the set. That was 8 years ago or so.

The only parts I buy on Evil-bay are old used parts that are no longer available new.

I was did not know Moog was junk now. I had my upper and lower ball joints replaced on the El Camino, and the old Moog parts were warrantied. That was many miles ago. I have worn out two sets of ball joints after 387,000 miles. Tie rods seem to last a lot longer. Keeping them greased helps a lot.

I feel for guys that have shops, as they can't rely on the parts chain any more than we can.
I love my old Mercedes, but what is going to kill them is parts availabilty. MB has really cut back on stuff for legacy vehicles, and the aftermarket isn't to be trusted. And yeah, lots of jobs are major hours do to the vehicle's complexity, and they're things I'd not do twice...

I haven’t worked on a Honda, but could it have been that the timing belt service was needed and It becomes smart practice to just replace the water pump while it is all apart?

There are good shops out there, but I think it's no more than 0.5% (and that's being generous). It's a shame and makes me glad that I can do most work (although I'm less interested in doing it than I was 10, 15, 20 years ago.

This is the deal on a lot of Hondas, except that car has a timing chain.

What is the name of the ripoff artist shop?

Right, "timing belts are good for 90-ishk, so do it now and you won't be stranded on the side of the road. And while we're in there, it would be silly to not do the W/P."

I don't know about Honda timing belts, but in the past I've always heard that rubber belts should be changed at around 90k. I have myself changed some at 100-110k figuring that I was already on borrowed time, and at the same time did W/P, thermostat, etc..., whatever the "while you're in there" stuff is for the specific model.

But I get it, I've also had shops tell me "you need brake pads" when the pads were <3mo old. I've also been witness to shops either trying or successfully screwing folks whether due to incompetence or fraud. The end result is not trusting any of them unless you can find enough folks that swear by them and then they prove themselves.

Threads like this make me glad I don't GAF about cars less than 30 years old. They're just appliances to me now.
Pay the man, fix the damn thing, and KEEP THE RECEIPTS.
Sorry to be so cynical, but modern cars and trucks bore me, piss me off, and cost me a lot of money. I hate them. The last new vehicle I owned that I liked enough to want to turn a wrench on it was a 2003 Tundra - and it rusted out on me.

Looks like the only PS pads for my boxster would be Z23 or "stock replacement".

It wouldn't bother me to get a set of pads that work well and have less dust than the stock/OEM pads that I've been running for the last 10 years.

I put Padjids 911 for DE events. They sucked for street use, squeaked and overheated the rotors. I don't know why they don't retract properly.

Our 2017 Civic Hatchback is the one I have been working on . Had to since new
235K on it now.
Origianl HJ20 pump is in it.
It has a timing chain.
Their weak point is the head gasket
Make sure you check the coolant level once in a whilest .
The AC condenser all go bad and the recall covers them.
The bad part of the car is that the dealership here just does not care about the customer .
For sure, I could state all the reasons, but in the end that's the point.
Maybe that's the new Honda approach? IDK
I will never ever buy from them again.
I think another Toyota is the next one, again.

Textron is the only manufacturer of bushings for landing gear mains for Cessnas with tubular gear (cannot get OEM at all); their bushings are a thick, metal sleeve with a urethane liner on the inside (originals were regular rubber liner), and while they look fancy, Textron produced a large batch of them that the urethan deforms and detaches from the metal bushing in a seriously short amount of time. Talk about a pain in the ass, repeated job, not to mention one needs to catch the failure before the steel gear leg chews up its big aluminum mounting boss.

Oh, and I just got a new one (was on back order for 6 months), to replace on a customer aircraft, and one end of the urethane liner looks like it was trimmed with a dull pocket knife, whereas the other side looks perfectly formed in a mold, so this will likely be a rejected/returned part. They are about $600.00 each. I guess it's not just autoparts that are lesser quality today.

Wow! Carpy aftermarket autoparts are one thing, but you would think that air plane parts wouldn't have the same issue all things considered.

Car has a timing chain!

rjp

A local shop in Tacoma, WA. Someplace I certainly would NOT frequent.

Seriously, that state is a desert wasteland for honest wrenches. I get calls all day, every day from friends/family in the area being terrorized by these idiots.

$1500 brake jobs on Honda, "Leaky" water pumps that never empty the radiator, or my own Acura which I gave to my brother that required "brakes"- like 3,000 miles after I did them myself.

I told her and my brother, when the time comes, DRIVE TO PORTLAND OR. There, the culture of the friendly indy (Like John Walkers. Workshop) still is alive and well.

What I would do, I can't stand and will not pay someone who treats me like an ATM-end of story.

rjp

Definitely a rip off then. Wankers!