NAPA hosed me with bad parts for the last 2 days, bearings and rotors that don't fit eachother. I went through 2 sets and they confirmed 7 sets on their shelves (at the distribution center and throughout other stores) don't even fit eachother!!!!! They believe it's just a bad batch. I don't want to blackball em, just want everyone to learn from my mistake and check brand new parts at the counter before you go home.

So I have down time and I'd like to know your opinions/facts here at the DTR. High's and lows of the highs and lows.

In the brake department, whats a good rotor and pad combo? I just bought the Napa stuff for $90 for their best pads and $92 apeice for their premium rotor. They had another rotor with slots they claim is high performance at $150. Last is the EBC brakes, ranging from $24-$137 for pads and $186-$301 for discs. Too bad they don't sell hub-bearings.

In the hub-bearings department I found that I can spend $100 apeice on a mystery brand on E-bay, Timken brand was $169 apeice on autoparts123.com or $248 apeice for the NAPA high quality that don't even fit their own rotors. OEM is insanely expensive at $430 apeice and no mention about the quality rating.

I suppose the last option is to go dyna-trac and spend $2000+ on the entire hub change which is not really an option according to my mortgage broker.

 

I bought Brembo Rotors, around $80 each- buybrakes.com
I've used CAP lifetime pads- junk. Hard spots.
Titanium brand pads (JC whitneys) about $40. claimed severe service duty- better than stock (which were fine for me) but cracked when they wore down.
Local shop put in a set for me ($80!!) same performance as the Titaniums.
Running Bendix Titaniumetallic 2- lifetime replacement. Great pads. Use them on the wife's car. Great hot performance and very grippy when wet.

no bearing issues so far- 148K on original bearings (and I plow snow) and they're holding up fine. Just inspected them when the rotors were done about 5K miles ago.

I buy alot from Parts America chains when I can FWIW- Napa is good, but around me they are ultra expensive in comparison to other parts stores.

 

I use Duralast Gold brake pads from Autozone. I have them on all our cars and they seem to work well. They also have a lifetime warranty so I get free brake pads from now on. I've also heard good stuff about Hawk brand.

 

Are you sure you didnt just get a dumb parts guy? Ive been there before, LOTS OF TIMES. One guy didnt realize that the two 5.9 listing were different, one was gas one was diesel. I had to show him. I think napa can be expensive, but I usually use the for parts.

 

Remeber when you start putting everything back togethor, NEVER SEISE is your friend, I bought my hub bearings from from rockauto.com and they were timken and I made them greasable.

 

I had my own OEM hub-bearings not fit one of their rotors. Then when we found rotors they did fit the OEM bearings, but their own bearings did not fit. They were the right parts for sure, we had my parts, their parts, and we pulled every part out of their warehouse and called 2 branch stores and none of those fit either.

I think the problem is one parts maker follows the OEM standards to the minimum then another parts maker follows the standards to the minimum, and they don't fit eachother because they are both depending upon being used along with an actual good part!

It was frustrating. I have National bearings now, and I got them at a discount because I shopped around and told the supplier, olympic brakes, about online prices.

 

Infidel pointed me here > http://www.tirerack.com/
the best prices I've seen for brake parts, especially the rotors. ck it !

 

EMS Off Road also makes the packable bearing kits ,www.emsoffroad.com

 

Sorry, ran out of time, thanks for links. I settled for national hub-bearings, but I scored on the EBC slotted rotors and green stuff pads from local parts houses. Everything fit great, went in smooth (and is 4x's nicer then the napa crapa)