Oem Or Aftermarket?

[paulmars]

What are the best brands for:

front disk brakes
wheel bearing seals and grease

2003 tacoma with 68k miles on it. 2wd, 5 speed. 2.3L engine. No options except the enhancement package (AC, allow wheels, painted bumpers, and 2 extra front speakers).

No short trips under 5 miles. Rarely driven on the highway. No off roading, no mud. Although many of the roads here are packed shell rock and very old worn out asphalt. West central florida. 3 miles from the beach. Most times its just used like a car. very rarely anything heavy transported, although seven times since 2003 I loaded her up to and maybe even beyond the rated capacity.

Finally I need new front brakes and will repack the front wheel bearings at the same time. Once in 14 years not too bad, huh? Should I go OEM or are there equal or better quality after market parts available.

tks,
pa

 

[kennythewelder]

You kind of get what you pay for. There is nothing wrong with after market parts, if you don't buy the cheep stuff. The after market performance is better than OE a lot of the times but, for what you are using your truck for, OE is all you need. As for the autozone, Oriley, and Advanced, house brand, I avoid these cheep parts. I always ask for the more expensive parts. There is always a more expensive part that will fit, most of the time you have about 3 or 4 choices. I also avoid anything that is rebuilt. It is worth the extra money for a new part. I like Oriley the best, then Advanced, then Autozone, but thats just me. A lot of this has to do with the people who work there, but I find that Oriley has a little better parts, but like I said, that's just me. As for greese, I have no preference there, any wheel bearing greese is ok with me. Most of these (parts included) meet OE specs.

 

[toyotafan]

Aftermarket can be cheap pieces of junk or they can be better than factory specs, you just get what you pay for. Seems that for like-quality it used to be half-price for good quality aftermarket parts, but these days it's about 80% of the cost for those vs. factory OEM on one of the larger factory oem parts websites online.