Hello all,

I have a 1996 Honda Accord
2.2 Liter VTEC engine
278K miles


Many OEM parts are no longer available for this old car.

And, my experience is that so many aftermarket parts are bad now.
They will only last a few years, like bearings, and ball joints.
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-.../#post52710443


Between; Autozone, OReillys, NAPA, Advance (or any other retailers)
what places do you recommend?

Which places make reliable aftermarket parts,
that will last for the remaining life of the vehicle?

Note that I'm asking about your experiences. ie.
Bought x from a, worked fine.
Bought y from b, required replacing in a year.
No longer go to c.
This particular brand from d, is very close to OEM quality.
etc.

And yes, I'm sure that many of the OEM parts come from the same factories in China.

My early experience with Autozone:
About 1999, I bought a light switch for my 1985 Ford
Turned that brand new, it was bad.
And I thought that there was something else wrong in the electrical system.
Call me a demanding tyrant, but I do expect a brand new part to work.
But no experience lately.


Thanks a lot

 

Most oldskool mechanics swear Napa has better quality parts than the other places listed. It does tend to cost a bit more.

For me, I order online if I can generally, but if I have to shop in person I try to buy known brandnames and not the house brandnames for these parts stores. If I am limited for options, i'd quicker go beck/arnley over say duralast or whatever the generic store brand is

 

Having worked at Napa for a number of years and done my fair share of mechanic work using parts from basically every different parts store, I can say that Napa does seem to have the better quality parts than the others. Autozone seems to be the lowest tier, especially their budget line and rebuilt electronic parts. I have had nothing but issues with stuff from them from suspension components to spark plug wires to "rebuilt" alternators and starters testing bad directly out of the box nearly 50% of the time.

For any electronic parts, do not even bother with buying a remanufactured unit from a chain store. Either buy a new unit, or do what I do and source an OEM unit. I will buy a used $40 OEM alternator and throw $40 worth of brushes and a voltage regulator in it before I buy a remanufactured unit from anywhere. Same for starters, distributors, etc.

All that said, I pretty much skip chain stores entirely now and order everything online. Fluids from the jungle website and I get basically any other maintenance or repair item off RockAuto or occasionally eBay.

 

Im with aradin.

Back in the day (circa 2010) the advance auto deals and coupon codes were so good that it was faesible to buy branded items there, like purolator, akebono etc etc with 40% off etc. But nowadays the price gap is SO much between them and online that i always go online.

The advantage of the in-person stores are when they run specials on fluids / rebates etc. Also if you are in a JAM and i mean a jam and you just need something in person asap, you know?

 

I am also in the process of replacing suspension parts one at a time and looking for quality parts. Last year replaced rear upper control arms and sway bar bushings bought from Amazon. I used TRW brand(made in Spain), thought they would be better but I already see cracks on rear upper ball joint boot. Recently, bought duralast front strut assembly(DIY) from Autozone, lifetime warranty so no worries.
My next projects to tackle this summer are front calipers seem to be sticking and need to do something about rear trailing arm bushings.

 

I tell people all the time .Lifetime warranty is great if you do the work yourself, but expensive if you pay someone labour charges to change everytime it fails.

Basically duralast lifetime warranty is great for a DIY person