If anyone is curious...
The B/A MC is made in Taiwan, and does look just a tad nicer in the casting--and it's painted. The O'Reilly's Brake Best Select is made in China, and the casting is rougher but has some nice machining. It is not coated. It's probably a toss-up.
The wheel cylinders I have, the Raybestos Professional Grade and the NAPA (Ultra Premium?) are 100% identical, down to the interior packaging and sticker, and both made in China. I could go shuffle them in a box and nobody would be able to tell which came from where.
I got a NAPA hardware kit and it's the nicest I've seen, and made in USA.
Originally Posted By: nthach
RA has treated me OK, but I buy minor things on Amazon and use dealer/parts store for things that are major.
Some of the Chinese stuff is OK, caveat emptor. You can't find an Aisin-boxed wheel cylinder or master cylinder?
I think Rock Auto is just fine, with some hitches. They seem to have good customer service.
Some of the Aisin stuff is pretty easy to find, but I haven't seen master cylinders or wheel cylinders. Water, oil pump, some of the electrical parts (lots of that is Denso). Internal engine parts can still be found by their original makers cheaper than Toyota. The dealer actually can get reman Toyota calipers, but there aren't many and they are over twice the cost. Rotors and brake pads still available. I'm going to call the dealer closer tomorrow about the MC, to see what they have.
I did find some Aisin wheel cylinders, but they were for a 4Runner and didn't look right.
Originally Posted By: Trav
This is what I keep posting here, if you cant afford to have the vehicle down don't buy from RA, if you have a problem its a friggin nightmare. I cant afford that, and neither can most of the folks here, it cost more in the long run than OE parts.
Look what OE parts from an online dealer or type the part numbers in flebay and look for a NOS one someone has left over for cheap.
Yup, I have definitely found that out. It's also fairly easy to pick the wrong part, because sometimes the descriptions are kind of vague and they have parts for multiple models all lined up. Fortunately, this is an additional car. Unfortunately, I'd rather be driving this truck to work than my 4Runner. Some of the brake parts you're not even saving much money--$4/wheel cylinder, $.50 for the MC, $20 maybe for a booster--not including shipping. Other parts, you save a ton of money buying online.
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
Originally Posted By: mehullica
Buy OEM & you'll have no problems
This.
I buy oem and oem only.
I agree on many things, but some things either don't matter, can be had OEM through different channels (OSK, TaiHo(?), Denso, Aisin, etc), or literally are no longer available through Toyota. The online Toyota dealer catalogs only go back to 1984 or 5, and even a lot of aftermarket parts only go back to 1985--which had a fair amount of stuff that is different. The only way I know of currently to find part numbers for this truck is to call the local dealer. Then I have to either be a jerk and get part numbers and not buy from them (kind of rude to waste their time), or pay their higher prices--sometimes much higher. I'd really like to get my hands on a Toyota parts catalog for it.
The Toyota parts counter actually told me to go to Marlin Crawler because Toyota just isn't making a lot of the parts for them anymore. A lot of the parts I have found, either through Toyota or the local parts stores, only show 2-3 stock for these parts in the entire country. NAPA had only I think a couple for each side front caliper, I may have got the last calipers from O'Reilly's. Not that they won't make more, but all the local parts stores only had a few left. The local import yard told me they haven't even seen a carburetor in years.
