Good news to report to everyone. I received the replacement Mass Air Flow Sensor MAF over the weekend from RockAuto, and the Denso box was in perfect condition. After I opened the Denso box, the MAF was in its SEALED clear plastic envelope! This MAF was for HER 2014 ES350, not my LS. Regardless, it is "Made in Viet Nam, Fait a Vietnam, Hecho en Vietnam". While I was inconvenienced, I gave RockAuto a chance to correct their errors without further out of pocket expense on my behalf, and they did. All's well that ends well.

 

I'm sorry you had to go through this.

I recently bought some plugs from Rock Auto across the world, and only to have those plugs fail prematurely (200km) and have my mechanic let me know they were defective/not right for the 3UZ.

I bought an OEM Denso MAF locally, and it had markings that it was made in Vietnam as well. No issues so far.

 

I order from Rockauto all the time, and have never experienced poor service or any damaged parts that have been shipped to me.

Maybe it could be a regional issue? I know they have warehouses across the United States, so it’s possible that some of their warehouses aren’t as careful when packing parts.

Whats great about Rockauto, is not only are their prices much cheaper than anywhere else for the most part, but they sell brands that you can’t get at your local auto parts store. And if they do, Rockauto prices are always lower than say Napa, or Autozone in my experience.

 

No. Nothing like on Amazon. I was even curious when Rockauto was a new business and contacted some of the companies themselves that commonly have counterfeits made (Timkin, Denso, NGK to name a few) and they informed me that Rockauto is one of their licensed dealers.

They are very good for Aisin parts, I'll tell you that much!

 

this is great.

I am using the Aisin Timing Belt Kit TK-021 from Rock Auto. Feeling more confident after reading your post.

 

I ordered Rotors pads and new hardware from them no issues fast delivery

 

Don't order the DAVICO 18390 Y-pipe from RockAuto for these reasons:
1) Extremely poor quality hand-held welding, looks like a high schooler's first time welding something. My first Y-pipe had a 1 inch long gaping hole in the welding
2) The Y-pipe is shipped without a box, meaning the poor quality welds and the catalytic converter are banged up all the way from factory to your address. You can hear pieces of welds and catalytic converter banging around inside the pipes
3) The right-side of the Y-pipe is angled incorrectly - left-side bolts on fine, but if you bolt the right-side of the Y after, the rear center will not line up with the rest of your exhaust system. If you try to bend the pipe to make it work, you will flex your front right-side catalyst so hard that it will likely break after a few road bumps. If you bolt the left side and the rear center, the front right-side flange is off by a full inch and comes in at the wrong angle.
4) RockAuto has a strict do-not-try-to-make-it-fit warranty - if you modify the defective parts, you void warranty. I had no choice since my old leaking exhaust was off the car and unable to be reattached, so the only option to getting my car out of there the next day was to have the shop cut off the defect and fabricate a fix. No compensation from RockAuto due to this modification even though it was clearly a manufacturing defect that should be covered under structural/construction warranty.

Find yourself a Magnaflow 24169 instead of the DAVICO 18390.

Aside from that, I order from RockAuto relatively frequently. I've even ordered parts from RockAuto after this recent Y-pipe fiasco, and I still strongly recommend them. Their selection of high quality aftermarket and occasionally stock OEM parts, low prices, and customs/duties-included all-in shipping to Canada is great.

Some of the LS430 parts I've bought from RockAuto over the past 11 years and highly recommend: NGK 94279 Ruthenium spark plugs, Akebono and ADVICS brake pads, Denso engine air filters, Strongarm hood lift supports, Toyota YZZD3 oil filters, AISIN TKT021 timing belt and water pump kit, Denso 197-6030 MAF (in box, sealed, authentic), radiator replacement parts (splurge on the Aisin and Mahle parts), Timken wheel bearings, Lisle tools (11000 brake bleeder wrench, 48020 caliper hangers, 13410 wire brush), Quality-Built BR31601G fully anti-rust coated brake rotors, MevoTech Supreme upper control arms..

The radiator I ordered arrived banged up because they didn't secure a small part inside the box and it banged around all the fins during shipping. Through RockAuto's automated warranty system, I got a 100% refund without having to send the radiator back. Same with when I was replacing 6 faulty fuel injectors in a Honda Accord V6, and 1 of the 6 remanufactured injectors was also faulty - no hassle automated online warranty system got me a new injector in no time.

RockAuto's automated warranty system failed me with my recent DAVICO Y-pipe, but manually emailing them sorted it out very quickly (for the problem I had with the first pipe pre-installation - incomplete welding). No luck upon emailing about the replacement pipe having a different construction/design defect, so I've emailed DAVICO to let them know about their problems in manufacturing quality.

My favorite places to buy OEM parts, in order: Amayama, PartsSouq, MegaZip (who sources from Motors Head Japan, parts-sale.jp)

 

The only thing I will caution about based on your post are the Mevo Tech upper control arms. I've learned an extremely important lesson about aftermarket Upper Control Arms, on 2 separate occasions I'd installed aftermarket upper control arms and one of those brands were Mevo Tech, on both occasions the control arms failed(neither lasted a whole year), and both times I was very fortunate the car was only turning "slowly" and the ball joints snapped out of the sockets, needless to say I could have lost my life or took someone else's or both had this situation occurred while going at a higher rate of speed. I learned my lesson and will NEVER again replace critical suspension parts with cheap aftermarket parts. These parts are highly inferior to OEM's and definitely not made to specs. I ended up buying the OEM's from Amayama and have been a happy and "secure" camper going on 10 yrs now. I know people want to save money whenever they can, but this is something that's definitely worth spending the extra dough. Especially when your life could depend on it. Just a thought.
Cheers.

 

I agree with LS400FAN , any aftermarket suspension pieces are a huge gamble. They're cheap for a reason. The few times I've bough aftermarket suspension components, they last about a year, or less. OEM or nothing is how I operate now

 

@LS400FAN Can you look up the part numbers of the MevoTech UCAs that failed on you? Can you also find country of origin on the order sheet/packing list? I would love to add these to my DO-NOT-BUY list.

Re-emphasizing that Amayama, PartsSouq, MegaZip (wait for 20% discount or order direct from Motors Head Japan) are my go-to for OEM parts, and RockAuto (with 5% ClubLexus or 5% off codes) only if you want authentic aftermarket parts. I definitely recommend OEM over aftermarket parts - extremely few aftermarket parts have a better design than the part installed at the factory.

The only parts I can think of that have a better aftermarket design are hood and trunk struts (FIGS trunk struts going strong 14+ years now, my StrongArm hood struts on year 6 and still strong). The OEM trunk struts failed in under 7 years and hood struts failed in under 15 years.

Maybe we should start a running list of aftermarket parts that are actually better designed in terms of quality and longevity (disregarding price) - there can't be that many. When you start factoring in cost of the parts vs replacement intervals of OEM vs aftermarket, and factor in risk of life/death in case of failure, then a couple more parts can be added to the list..

 

Hey Stan,
it's been over 10 yrs since I bought the Medvo Tech uca's and replaced them so I have no idea about the sn's or where they were manufactured I just remembered they looked "cheap" and did not fit perfectly in the mounting brackets, I literally had to widen the mounting brackets for them to fit. That didn't help the car's alignment I'm sure. It was not just Medvo Tech, I had tried another after market brand a year before that and it was also a piece of junk. Fine if they are working for you, I would just keep that in mind if something doesn't feel right when making turns or just simply driving, and make sure your front end alignment are within specs. Good Luck.
Cheers.