Seriously. I replaced the hub on my expedition exactly 13 months ago (to the day) Now the hub has failed again. I had to use the Durlast part as they were out of stock of the Timkin ones and I had to get the truck running for the next day. (I used a Timken on the other side) I know i did it correctly. Proper torque etc. The truck has gone less than 3K miles (my wife uses it around town). This is going to be a fun day. I hope they are nice about it . Just really anoyes me that they are allowed to sell such crap. The OE Hubs lasted 150K. These lasted 3K WTF.
Autozone really needs to get there act together. That is unless they want to cater to the crowd that think car repairs consist of adding an air freshener, some fuzzy dice and plastic stick on louvers.
WTF I am seriously annoyed at the moment. Oh-ya and it really was not a price thing. I paid something like $130 for the Timken and the Duracrap bearing was $115. I mean come on I can see it if it was half the price of the Timken but $15 on a $130 part is stupid. It is not a hard part to swap that is unless the rotor has rusted/welded its self to the hub then I will have to replace that as well (add another $40 to the cost of this)
AUTOZONE PLEASE STOP SELLING CRAP IT DIRECTLY REFLECTS ON YOUR IMAGE AND THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF HOW YOU RUN YOUR COMPANY.
Ok I feel better now. Carry on.
take it back without a receipt.. say you bought it 6 months ago at a different store.
when they ask for your name, say it doesn't matter because you're pissed.
doesn't matter if it was az, advance, oreally's.... all the no-name ones come from the same factory. They all suck.
They know me by first name so trying to play the pissed off no name customer is not going to work to well.
Go to a different one across town where they dont see you often.
Or go to Napa...Ive always had luck with their parts.
They all be junk. Look at it from my point of view- I buy a part in good conscience, install it on somebodies car, 13 months later its noisy. Now the customer is mad at me, AND the supplier tells me to pound sand.
People sometimes ask me why I often insist on installing OE parts on their cars. I say, "There is nothing more expensive than doing the job twice."
Streetwiseguy wrote:
They all be junk. Look at it from my point of view- I buy a part in good conscience, install it on somebodies car, 13 months later its noisy. Now the customer is mad at me, AND the supplier tells me to pound sand.
People sometimes ask me why I often insist on installing OE parts on their cars. I say, "There is nothing more expensive than doing the job twice."
Yeah, us C4 guys are in that boat too, but the OE parts are all but gone now. Timkin's are the best we can find.
I almost always ask for the most expensive part for this reason. The mouth-breather behind the counter usually looks at me like I'm nuts.
I've seen starters from NAPA do the same thing. 12 month warranty, starter craps out a week after the warranty expires. happens to all of 'em
When the wheel bearing went on the wife's Av like 2 years ago and at least 25k miles ago, I bypassed the fast food auto parts place for the "big dollar" NAPA bearing. It cost me like $10 more then the Chinese one at Advance. It helps to know everyone in the store by their first name and they know mine as well. You know what I found in the box? It didn't have a GM number on it, but you could have sworn they were the same part sitting side by side. Oh and the NAPA bearing was made by SKF in Mexico, which I believe is the OE supplier on that part to GM.
dean1484 wrote:
They know me by first name so trying to play the pissed off no name customer is not going to work to well.
All the more reason they would want to keep you happy. Try it.
My experience is that Timken bearings cost a lot more than the chinese crap, not just $10. And they are worth every dollar. Bearings are one thing I do not scrimp on.
I've never used a bearing other than a Timkin or OEM bearing. I've never had an issue like that.
I try to shop at one parts store whenever I can. It used to be my local Advance, but now it's my local O'Reilly. Parts are the same, service is so much different.
pres589
SuperDork
9/28/12 11:47 a.m.
Timken, SKF or OE. Everything else seems to be junk.
Sounds like pretty good engineering, actually My old Civic had a 5 year rust warranty, the rear fenders rusted through in 5 years and 6 months. I was impressed.
as a napa employee, i can tell you that the SKF is often an improvement over the OE design. The one part number that fits all the Impala/Grand Prix/etc FWD's comes to mind.
i feel bad selling our "value line" sometimes.
I am just annoyed. I really did not want to have to mess with this this weekend. I am on the home stretch with the head gasket replacement on the mustang and then I have some deferred maintenance to do on the 924s before winter arrives (yes I drive the 924s all winter). I am hoping that they have a Timkin on stock for it this time.
So I took apart things and found that both hubs had crapped out. I go and look up the Timkin warranty and guess what. 12 month !!!!! So add Timkin to my crap parts list. Weren't they once really good? I mean I have been recommending them and using Timkin bearings for years with out issue. However this has me worries as I also replaced the front bearings in my Porsche 2 years back and I was getting some humming in the front end. I checked the preload this spring (per Porsche shop manual) and repacked them with Mobil one synthetic grease but it has not change anything the hum is still there. I am wondering if they have gone bad as well. This makes me think that Timkin is no longer the quality bearing they once were.
Ohya and the Valuecrap hub was completely junk compaired the Timkin hub. The timkin was just a bit loose with enough slop to warrant replacement. So Yes the timkin is better than the valuecrap but not by much.
So what now? It looks like my choices are MOOG (at about $175 each) or SKF (at about $210 each). Does FAG make hubs for these?
How much is a hub at the dealer?
dean1484 wrote:
So what now? It looks like my choices are MOOG (at about $175 each) or SKF (at about $210 each). Does FAG make hubs for these?
I would question MOOG quality. I bought a set of upper strut mounts last Friday. I foolishly didnt look in the box before leaving. I got the struts out and disassembled only to find the Moog unit had a plastic bearing about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of the OEM Honda unit. I was pretty hot about it. I always had good luck with them but they must be doing major cost cutting
MOOG has been selling off of public perception instead of really being great for awhile now, in my opinion.
I've still not been bitten by any timken stuff.
SKF at least used to have a very decent reputation. No idea if they're trading off that or if their quality is still where the reputation suggests it is.
I have a sneaking suspecion that the name on the box, be it OEM or otherwise is meaningless. I always buy Timken bearings for Subarus and without exception the actual bearing in the box is the made in Japan OEM Subaru bearing. I bought a bearing for my Dad's Ford and it was a made in Mexico SKF bearing in the box.
It's a real crock. People are so cheap the only parts suppliers that stay in business are the ones that make crap. It's getting to where you almost can never find anything worth putting on your car.