AutoZone Duralast parts -- any good?

[Zs-ondabrain]

Like I said, I wasn't sure of the tone but no big deal, I answered the question anyways. Maybe I was 2 cups shy of my morning caffine.

I basically demanded the manager and told them I was gonna start sending them the bill for everytime I had to Swap out a Lifetime Warrenty Alternator. And at $90 an hour now a days, it's gonna add up quick. Luckily, the manager did'nt know how easy it is to do the swap in an open engine bay 240Z. So they gave me a full refund, tax and all.

I took the money down to Schucks and picked up a Bosch unit and have had it ever since. (A few years now)

Ain't no thang but a chicken wing.

Dave

[jr260z]

To sum it up---NO. There is a reason for the cheap prices, cheaply repaired or cheaply made parts.

For a back yard mechanic, who has a lot of time to keep swapping parts until he gets one that works, it may be ok.

In my shop absolutely no Autozone, NAPA, or Advanced parts are used. I don't have the time to do it over, much less have an irrate customer wanting me to eat the labor.

[sblake01]

You have a shop so that point of view makes sense. Buying stuff from those places is somewhat of a crapshoot. In the one case I mentioned earlier, I had no choice. I generally don't buy parts from the chain stores but I came out from work, the starter was bad and there was an Autozone in the same complex I worked in. I would have changed it out for an OEM starter had a problem developed but it didn't fail in the subsequent seven years I owned the car.

Edited October 21, 2009 by sblake01

[hls30.com]

A good many shops in my area do use Autozone parts-the AutoZone in my neighborhood has seven delivery trucks-and they do not do residential deliveries! The trucks seem to be at the store only when the store is closed. I have seen the trucks dropping parts off at shops all over town. As a matter of fact, that is what prompted my first visit to Autozone

Will

[zanthus]

Now since I work for a Zone competitor I'm required to say no. but if your looking to just get your car started and running again on the cheap with the expectation that you'll have to trade the parts out later on then they are decent for that. A lot of the shops that we deal with only use the Zone as a last resort. Some have had good experiences with parts some pretty bad. I think that they work in batches.

[bd3]

I used to work in one of the chain auto parts stores (part time weekend gig). In our particular store we had 2 levels of parts available. The ones you knew were most likely bad right out of the box, and the ones that would be back after a longer period of time. Lets face it. What kind of alternator can you really be getting for 24.95 + tax and core.

I did not purchase my parts from even my then employer. Of course you can get a bad one that is built by a reputable company. It happens.

The last time I had to have an alternator I took mine to a guy that had a company that all they did was rebuild alternators, generators, starters and electric motors. Probably not an option for most but once he rebuilt or rewound something, I never have had to replace it. The alternator that is currently in my antique Mercury was redone by him 15 years ago. Still going strong and 45k miles.