I have an old 1995 Corolla Wagon that is just about to turn over to reach 300,000 miles on…read moreodometer. My rack and pinion went out. Because this part is rare, it was ordered (1 day delivery) from O'Reilly for $237 plus $119 core charge. O'Reilly had the cheapest price.
Well guess what ! I paid my mechanic $200 to install it, and the O'Reilly part was already leaking before mechanic took my car off the rack. My mechanic would not take it off, unless I brought him another one, so I had to buy another one without getting refund for the first one.
After another week went by, the second one was defective too. I had to pay another $200 in labor. You think I am gonna buy same part from O'Reilly a third time? Manager named Wyatt said he never heard of two defective parts in a row, in 10 years.
So Carquest has a new one, which Carquest says Toyota Dealer buys this one cos it is what OEM used. I have to pay $160 MORE for this new one, than the one I bought from O'Reilly, but no core charge on top of that, that is why it is so expensive. And it has to be special ordered and shipped. I had to pay for it in advance and wait 6 days for UPS shipping. And I had to pay for car rental.
When the part arrived, Carquest employee showed me the part in the box, cos of the 2 defective ones O'Reilly sold me. I paid $200 a third time to have this one installed, and after about 4 days, it is still working and not leaking that I can see.
I brought back the 2 defective ones to O'Reilly and they refunded my money including the core charge. I am submitting receipts for being out $500 in labor. because of the two defective rack and pinions in a row. Plus I am asking the manager to submit request for manuf. to pay me the difference between the O'Reilly one and the Carquest one that cost me $160 MORE.
I was told it takes MONTHS for manufacturer to process a labor claim.
Napa told me that O'Reilly and Autozone's remanufactured parts, they only replace what was wrong with it, the bad seal, not everything in the core. Napa says their remanuf. replaces everything in the core, whether it is bad or not. I don't know what to believe, but I did not buy from Napa because they wanted to charge me $18 for shipping, which Carquest did not.
I have purchased parts from Carquest in Phoenix, before, and I never had a problem, and sometimes, their prices are the best.
I will never buy remanuf parts from Autozone and O'Reilly again (I won't detail my Autozone bad experiences with remanuf electrical parts such as starters and alternators).
But I will continue to buy from Carquest and Napa. My car was disabled for 3 weeks, and Carquest made it driveable, finally.