Rockauto
 

Hello all-- new member here...I've actually done lots of research on acurazine but never actually became a member until now. I have an '05 TL 6mt A-spec and it's still running strong thanks to all the tips I've read from this website!

I want to bring up RockAuto, which apparently many people on here have used. I really like the user friendly website and more importantly, the prices for all the parts that they offer. These prices make me VERY skeptical though because they are not only cheaper than other places (amazon, oemacuraparts.com, acurapartsworld.com, etc.), they are pretty much HALF the price on every item...?!

I have done research on RockAuto but still can't seem to pull the trigger on my purchase just yet. The feedback from acurazine members have been fairly good, however, the A-zine posts have all been from posts well over 5 years ago (at least). If you simply google RockAuto reviews today, they are piss poor. Every review is a complaint on... wrong item shipped, shipped used/damaged part, return shipping headaches, and the list goes on....

Does anybody still buy from them? Are they reliable? I am looking to buy brake pads (Centric posi-quiet Extended, front brembos // rear regular), rotors (Centric high carbon alloy front brembos and rear regular) and a couple other little things like engine air filter, cabin air filter. Are the prices too good to be true? I really don't want to regret purchasing from them and end up like those pissed off customers who wrote angry reviews lol.

***Also a couple things I noticed:
1) Rockauto does not have a call center anymore for customer service, so if anything goes wrong with an order, everything is handled via internet/email :pc: really makes me wonder......
2) I emailed Rockauto yesterday to address some questions and (I don't know why but) I ended the email with my name followed by my phone number. They emailed me back this morning. Then an hour later I get a text message on my phone from an automated number "285-81" who is requesting "$2.19" from me. Lol now I'm not saying this is directly related to RockAuto but what a coincidence. Can't think of any other explanation.

Anyways, sorry for the crazy long post. I appreciate any info/advice, thanks in advance!

I've ordered from them plenty of times. Very cheap and fast! I haven't had any problems with rockauto.

They're THE place to buy stuff like brakes. The customer service is a little combative. BUT...its not bad if you're not a dummy.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Guess I was just thrown off by all the recent negative reviews...but my main concern would probably be the rotors. They're the most expensive items in my cart, and they're fairly large and heavy. Not too sure how well RockAuto packs their items but these are pretty much getting shipped across the US (I live in Los Angeles).

I have the exact same rotors, shipped all the way to Canada, they came out fine!

I've purchased a ton of stuff from them over the last 6 months. Powerstop rotors and pads, Mevotech control arms and tie rods, brake master cylinder and vacuum booster, odds and ends such as screws and caps and a brake bleeder set. we'll see how the customer services is though. I have to return the brake master cylinder because it didn't end up being the defective part. So far it's been smooth. They provided an RMA and shipping label. I had to pay $6 for shipping back but they generated the label and everything right off the website.

They'll be fine. They pack their stuff really well.

I've ordered hundreds of things from them.

If you think about it:
-Is the service at your auto parts store THAT good?
-Do you need that level of service?

The nice thing about buying from a parts store is that the warranty is redeemable easily and at the store. THEY return to the manufacturer on your behalf.

They will also almost always take your junk back whether its justified or not. You broke your axle because you did something dumb? No questions asked. They'll take it back and give you a new one right now.

That's why it costs more at a parts store. Its like paying for insurance on the part.

Also think about it like this:
For rockauto to keep their pricing low...their customer service has to walk the line between customer satisfaction and reducing their own return costs.

Sometimes the customer service person(s) do a bad job. Rockauto is set up so you almost never get the same person responding to the next message in the email thread. So it can be frustrating.

But....sometimes, the customer is just....a dummy. And sometimes their complaints are not justified. In that situation...they will lament not paying the extra for an auto parts store to deal with their affliction of not being able to be reasonable.

In any case, rockauto is a legitimate place to buy from. It is set up so your interaction with an expensive human is as limited as possible. That's a big reason for the low cost.

Choose a location nearest you if you're worried. They ship from all over the place.

Try adding another brand rotor to your cart. If the shipping cost is lower for that brand...you just found a warehouse closer to you.

And try and combine items that will ship from the same location. Just mix and match items to find the overall least expensive.

Example:
I'm choosy on pads. IDGAF who makes the rotor. So I find rotors that ship from the same spot my pads do if that saves money overall. If my pads ship from location 'A', I'll look for rotors that do too.

Yea, I feel like some people don't properly research their own part numbers enough...no cross referencing or any of that, and that can lead to incorrect ordering of parts.

I'm not really looking for excellent customer service or anything like that, I was just afraid that they (rockauto) might be careless in the items they ship out and I will receive an incorrect part. Then when I try to return the part, I would have to pay for the shipping. This was a common issue I read about.

Good to get positive feedback though! I just spent a few hundred bucks on parts...hoping all goes well

What pads do you use for your car?

I was able to gather 8 items total at the same warehouse, shipping total was under $20!

I usually choose a semi aggressive semi metallic. I won't use ceramics at all for a lot of reasons.

Or stoptech SPORT (309 part number) are usually a safe bet.

I don't mind dust though. I prefer brakes to stop the car well.

I have brake kit you proposed in the first post - it is very good quality for the price. In winter it have to warm up (it takes one braking). They shipped it to Poland and everything was ok. To be honest - if something would happen to rotors or pads while shipping, it would not be worth putting in the car.

FWIW: I'm an OEM guy, for my cars. When repairing, friends,and family's cars, I buy aftermarket, regularly. 80% of my aftermarket parts, come from RockAuto. Nearly 2K in purchases, over the past 12 months, without issue. Parts, like struts, rotors, heavy parts, many times, arrive, with damage to the shipping boxes, but no damage to the parts themselves. Have the same experience, with OEM ( heavy parts )

Been using them for many years and no problems, but find the customer service via email is a little annoying, however, this is the method they utilize to keep a record of the "conversations". Just try to find products from the same warehouse to save on shipping.
Always look for the 5% discount code:
Thru 7/22/18
8394915715713113
Enter the code above in the "How did you hear about us" box without any other numbers or characters

RockAuto has been my first stop when looking for parts for years. They have not let me down.
These days I use Amazon more often, but that's just because I have a Prime account and they're often able to ship to my door in a day.
I only look at other places when I need genuine Honda brand parts.

Update: I ordered front and rear brake pads and rotors, engine air filter, and cabin air filter. Shipping was $19 and everything came in under a week. Mechanic said all the parts fit perfectly, so my first Rockauto purchase was a success!

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Jeez....I don't know why the pictures came out so big. Not sure how to adjust the size :shrug:

Easy on those Centrics. Mine warped within about a year. First time I've had aftermarket rotors warp. Of all the rotors I've used on several of my cars (Brembo's, Raybestos, Duralast and Powerstop) have never warped. Only the Centrics.

Doh! Well, I put my powerstops on about 2 months ago so we'll see how it goes. I would have gone Brembo but they don't make a rotor for the 4G.

Do you guys have a link for 3G TL brembos?

Hopefully this isn't a dumb question, but did you do the bedding-in process after installation? I was trying to find the instructions online for the Centric High Carbon rotors, but couldn't find anything. I then looked up bedding-in instructions for the Centric Posi-Quiet Ceramic brake pads, and found: "Posiquiet brake pads are scorched at the factory, and will bed-in during a normal post service road test. No special procedure is necessary."

From my brief research, warped rotors can occur if brake pads aren't bedded in immediately after install

I was concerned about that. I did a general bedding procedure from Raybestos's website. Most bedding procedures are similar. Whether or not that was correct I don't know for sure. What I know is that the warping seemed to occur over time, after about 6 months of use. I thought it could have been brake pad material on the rotor so I sanded them down and did the bedding process with a new set of pads. No change. I had a machine shop inspect them and they confirmed that they were indeed warped. Both of them. I don't recall ever going through a big puddle or overheating the brakes. I know how to avoid brake-warping conditions.

A lot of these rotor "warping" issues lie with the pads.

Posters above say they "warped" lots of different brands of rotors. And they all probably have different time periods and types of use. But the one thing I can wager they all had in common was:
Ceramic pads.

;)


The rotor wasn't warped. Your pads just smeared themselves unevenly on the surface.

Cast iron is melted at like 3000F. Your ceramic pads probably don't make much friction after 800F. There's no chance they are heating the entire mass of the rotor to 2000+F to soften it and warp it from heat.

Unless the rotor was actually warped by bent hubs or incorrect lugnut torque.


And...

High carbon rotors don't prevent pads from depositing uneven amounts of material on the rotor. High carbon rotors are semi-useful on tracked cars that tend to CRACK rotors from large heat swings.

There's no need for fancy rotors on a street car.

Buy cheap rotors....but pay more attention to the pad compound. Pad selection is how you prevent brake pulsation.

Also, definitely bed your pads. Some moderate stopping from 30 to 10 and then 45 to 10 a few times...followed by a cool down drive will do it.

That's true. I used ceramic pads. But I've used ceramic pads with other rotors too without problems.

So what do you recommend? Semi-Metallic?

You did something wrong during the installation. I've never had a set of centric rotors 'warp', even on aggressive Hawk HPS pads. If you just slap rotors and pads on without paying attention to hub surface, caliper bracket, brake hardware, and slider pins, then you'll "think" that the rotors warped, even though rotors don't really warp. It doesn't matter what pads you use either. I've used aggressive pads on standard/non-high carbon rotors, on more than a dozen different brands/makes of cars without any brake issues.

Semi metallic for sure. But its important to find decent ones. Bendix Honeywells were awesome
..but are discontinued :'(. I think Centric probably makes a decent semi metallic. Or just buy the semi metallic option at a parts store.

Or high performance NAO. Stoptech SPORT 309 part number (not to be confused with Stoptech STREET) are a safe bet.

Or hybrids like Raybestos EHT.

Some street blend ceramics are less prone to smearing and trapping heat than others. Because "ceramic" is not very specific. I think Akebono ASP's do a pretty good job, for example.

I buy cheap "whatever you got" rotors for track use. Iron rotors are just iron rotors for the most part. Never had brake pulsation. Pads are key.

Thats because aaggressive pads PREVENT brake pulsation....

Not the other way around.

Back to my thoughts on bedding the pads. Don't do it, and as many find, that under extreme conditions pad material is deposited on the rotors and cause pulsation, as BROlando mentioned rotors don't warp. On our knock around car when the pulsation starts, I put on some metallic pads and within a day the pulsation is gone. Have done it many times.

Back to bedding the pads/rotors. The new Vette has in the owner's manual that easy on the brake, no hard stops for 200 miles and no heavy use until after 500 miles. This procedure is recommended every time the pads are replaced. So much for bedding in the pads.

Brembos on eBay Anybody ever buy these from eBay?

Someone mentioned R1 Concepts also. Didn't see them at Rock but they are on Amazon.

RockAuto is great, I've been buying from them for over ten years. I have Centric rotors that I installed 2.5yrs and 35k miles ago - zero issues.

So semi metallic is a lot better on the rotors?

Anyone here use Akebono ProACT pads?

Semi metallics generally offer better brake bite, more stopping power, and are less likely to leave deposits on rotors. They also allow a lot more visible dust.

They are not easy on rotors. Pads don't need to be easy on rotors for no pulsations to happen. Pads just need to avoid smearing themselves onto the rotor to avoid pulsations.

Akebono ProACTs are ceramic. They are formulated for low dust and are very similar to most OEM ceramic pads.