Rock Auto - Cheap Chinese Parts

Can we have a cheap part discussion?

Got my first job and need a reliable car for it. I took out $500 of credit on paypal to pay $500 for a 98 honda crv from a family member. It runs great. Engine and trans are good. Ac/heat/cruise/windows/etc all that stuff works.
The only downside is that it has a bad shake on the highway unless you're not maintaing speed or accelerating.
It has a bunch of thunk sounds over bumps and feels swaylike. Also some humming noise.
Im not a mechanic like most people might be but Im pretty sure it probably needs stuff like ball joints, wheel bearings, tie rods, maybe struts and shocks.

Obviously im broke as fuck still but i want to make the thing safer to drive especially with winter here and we usually get some shitty snow/ice conditions.

Stuff like Mevotech/Ultrapower/SKP i'm looking are $15-25 where moog/acdelco are like $60+.
I want to replace everything in one go on of my 4-6 day weekends and cant afford to buy all moog/honda/acdelco. I see a lot of rbad reviews for the cheap stuff saying "only got 40-60k out of it in a year or two before i had to replace it".
Isn't that decent for a $20 part? If I could get a year or two out of the cheap stuff I'd be fine because by then Id probably be in a financial situation where if it needed replaced again I could afford the moog stuff or whatever.

Im at only $240 in my cart replacing everything wheel bearings, tie rods, sway bar links, control arms /w ball joints, etc. Using the cheap stuff.

What cheap brands have you bought and had good luck with?

>taking out a paypal debt to buy a car
jesus fuck how dumb are you?

Kek this

KYS OP

Do you have a better option?

I didnt want a dealership loan cause I didnt want something super over priced and any long term debt.
Its only $500.

I will work 20-30 hours a week thru February then 15-25 until November at $23/hr. I have no other expenses besides my $45/mo phone bill. I should be able to pay the $500 back really quick.
It kept me from having to go to a bank with a cosigner which is what I was told. My credit score is like 680 but i have almost no history so they want a cosigner for any loan I do.

$500 and I got a car I can pay back in the next month. It runs and drives fine for now I just want to fix the suspension stuff for long term ownership reasons. No bank debt. Can just do liability on the car.

wtf are you doing that has such weird part time hours for that kind of money? Depending where you're at thats good money. Sounds like you're in the rust belt by what you said about weather and most rust belt areas have low costs of living.

I guess I can see the merit of taking out a loan through paypal if the seller was cool with it. Avoids a lot of hassle as long as you pay it off quick.

I got on as a Relief Bridge Operator for BNSF railroad and yea im in Western illinois. Basically I sit in a small little booth on the bridge. It's not a toll way or anything like some are it's a train bridge on its own. So I just raise and low the bridge for barges. As relief I just work where they dont have the 3 main people working. Which amounts to 2-4 days a week depending on their rotation and usually its mostly always third shift for me.

Im 20 and never had a job so im pretty stoked on it. Was pretty much set to be an eternal NEET leech on the system but supposed to be a secure job and ill be first in line when one of the 3 main ones retire. No way to get on full time without starting like this and they have amazing benefits and retirement.

>mevotech
decent
>ultrapower
stay far away
>SKP
decent
>URO parts
nope

thanks, you reaffirmed what i had kinda found that mevotech is not considered great but its considered okay and acceptable for a beater car.
will go mevotech for most of it

Moog is not that great, and Monroe is shit

I'm seriously fucking pissed about hearing rockauto all the time.
It's like they literally pay people to shill them, and invest ALL their profits in advertising.
I mean, what the fuck. You don't see this for any other shit like vatozone or O'Reillys or even another online merchant like summit.

As far as using them goes, I tried finding parts through them, and their site sucked, so I've never bothered since. And Amazon is usually cheaper and they pay the return shipping if the part is broken if it's through prime.

Their site is stupid easy to navigate.
Are you retarded?

And why is it surprising people talk about them when they can get a lot more stuff often way cheaper than anyone else?

I'll use amazon but half the time its about 30-40% more and they dont have half the selection that rock auto does.

Amazon fucking sucks for looking shit up. You put in "2008 pontiac blah blah" and the first part that comes up you click on and its for the 94-98 or for a different model completely. OR their "THIS FITS YOUR VEHICLE!" is wrong half the time.

Never had an issue with a single thing from Rock Auto.

>Use RockAuto's superior catalog for part numbers/manufacturers on your shitbox
>Google those part numbers and buy them on Amazon Prime/eBay for less money or quicker shipping

Rock auto paid for my return for a borken part

How's Danville?

Half the time = no matches.
Especially when you get to these off brands op is referencing.
I flip cars pretty much for a living doing basic fixes which usually means a lot of suspension and steering components. For better or for worse I use the cheapest stuff on rock auto. Usually if I want to go with something on amazon I'm spending 20-30% more.
Also spend enough on rockauto and ask about a frequent customer or business discount as a frequent buyer. They'll give a 5% code to pretty much anyone. Be a frequent enough customer and get a 10% code like I have. the 10% code is pretty good about taking off enough to cover the shipping.

I'm in Quincy

When getting suspension parts, I always go with OEM.
You always have to think about it when you look at a part.
Like really think about it. If this thing snaps in half at 90mph, will you be killed. Will other innocent people be killed.
If it's a control arm, it has a lot of metallurgy to it for strength and longevity, which the Chinese cant do.
Ball joints, they're annoyingly hit and miss. They're so common that you can get aftermarket companies that are really good at them and they are like OE or better, but there's also a flood of Chinese crap that also suffers from cost cutting in the manufacturing process.
Flexible bushings are simple and the Chinese can make them just fine, but OEM ones are usually just a couple more bucks, so why not.
Shocks don't pose a life threatening issue if they fail, so just go by you get what you pay for. I wouldn't worry about getting OEM for that unless it was cheaper.
Springs, again, stick with OE. You can also go used from a junkyard.
Struts, I mean come on, look at how complex they are. You're best to rebuild them with OE parts.
For bearings, just go with a name brand like bower, Timken, ect.

>go on Rock Auto for struts for my car
>they only sell Bilsteins

Right, had it backwards. Long work day.

Better than being in good old Decatur. Enjoy that all you can eat garlic bread at la gondola for me.

Adding to what you said:

Tie Rod Boots: OEM unless you want to spend time/effort trying to fit a $5 cheaper aftermarket one originally meant for 6 different other cars.

Tierods and Balljoints: OEM or high-end Aftermarket. The original Honda one probably lasted 150-200k miles before actually getting play in it. A aftermarket one probably won't last half as long before clunking on every bump.

will do, honestly surprised to find someone else in the shit hole that is Illinois that isnt chicago

Chicago is the biggest shithole.

Decatur is getting better, but still a shithole as well. Best downstate town is Monticello, hands down.

Do any muddin'?

A little. Ill admit im pretty backwater. Im actually just outside of quincy. We just have some land and I mess around in a busted up 93 sidekick sometimes. no title or anything so thats why ive never had a car. We just fuck around in the woods here.

For the most part though I just sit around leeching from my dad and society playing video games until I got this job.

Eureka, IL here

Not too much of a shithole. Depends on your hobbies. I will say this though, Peoria, Beardstown, Decatur, Chicago, Canton, East St. Louis, and Carbondale are shit, especially Beardstown and Canton, not good

Kankakee is awful, second only to Cairo.

Shop somewhere that isn't shit

man, you got your first paycheck yet? I know the railroad companies pay a bit better cause the gubbermint taxes the shit out of you guys

Bought the FCS struts for my nephews 1997 Saturn; 1 year later they work just fine. If someone has a 2 decades old vehicle, get the cheapest parts for the learning experience alone. How long does anyone expect a 20 year old auto to last?

Wrong! Skankakee is all nogged up. Karo is rednecks only.

Try to use the mevotech ttx ball joints they are 30 and 40 upper and lower per side. But they will last you way longer than the 20 dollar trash. Balls joints i would get mid tier stuff it isnt fun to redo them. For the rest of the things you can afford to cheap out. But ball joints pretty much hold your shoes.

Everything I've gotten from rockauto has been the cheapest parts, but is higher quality.

Centric brakes are better than acdelco and shits a fraction of the price. My brake pads are lasting forever, my rotors don't look disgusting yet, and they never squeal (paid $5 more for shims).

I want to replace my control arms on my WRX because im an idiot and rally the car, should i trust mevotech arms? i was looking at superpro control arms but they are so bloody expensive after converting them to canadian pesos

Bring car to mechanic.

Bring pizza.
Mechanic makes you a list of what the issues are, you repair, mechanic enjoys pizza.

Don't forget the discount code.