Second week of December, the almost 30 yr old radiator in my Dakota, said NO MORE!! And split the top tank (there's more to that story, maybe I'll tell it another time)



I placed an order thru Rock Auto for a radiator, radiator cap, and thermostat. These three items, even with shipping, was still cheaper than what I could find locally for JUST the radiator (no surprise there).

The radiator came from one warehouse, the remaining parts from another. Much to my surprise (especially considering the holidays) I had everything on my doorstep in three days. Great!

BUT there was a problem. I ordered everything specifically for my Dakota, but, somehow between my computer and their warehouse, the cap and thermostat got switched to 'generic' parts as 'no specific model' was listed.

Think I coulda crammed this into a 3.9 thermostat housing?



Honestly, I probably didn't catch it on my end. About a week went by before I returned the parts, which was just before Christmas. I thought for sure it would be over a week to process the refund, maybe even two, but I got my refund yesterday. I'm happy.

If there is one (minor) complaint I have is, how do you use a discount code with Rock Auto? Last two orders, with known good codes, they haven't worked. I am supposed to be putting them in the referral box, correct?

Now that the temps have returned to normal around here, I need to get busy.

Just thought I'd share some good news for a change (maybe even funny).

Those plastic radiator side tanks that Chrysler has used give out long before they should.

The design of the plastic to aluminum crimp is defective in my opinion.

Does this failure happen on 1990+ Toyota, Honda or other brands?

I just ordered some things yesterday from Rock Auto. I believe the discount code goes in the box that is "how did you hear about us" or something like that.

That's what I thought. (I couldn't remember the exact name)....

That is where it goes. Keep in mind some codes can only be used just once.
(I.E.) Some times a code may have been used and then when shared the code that is no longer good.
Other codes are good for a time period and can be used multable times by as many as know the code.
I have had both in the past.

I have another Dakota radiator story. I have had several 87-96 Dakotas over the years. Current one is a 96 4wd 318.
Last week my radiator blew. After a couple of days of topping it off to get to work and back I tested it, yeah leaking at the plastic/aluminum seams. I still had the one I'd put in my 92 (which is now probably 4 Toyotas) up in the attic so I stuck that one in the 96. I had replaced the one in both the 92 and the 96 around the same time.
So I went back to O'Reilly's to see if we could look it up as they have Life time warranties on both of these Dakota radiators I have. We found the one from when id replaced the 96s radiator back in 2016. I have a free one coming today or tomorrow.
The kicker...... The exact same radiator I bought in 2016 for $114 is now somehow Worth $248? HOW????

That new one will find a home in the attic for now since I still had the one I'd pulled from the 92, to get me by.
But especially when I seen the price on the screen, I wasn't throwing away $250.

"The exact same radiator I bought in 2016 for $114 is now somehow Worth $248? HOW????"

The radiator I ordered cost $158.79 with a 12 month warranty. My entire order with tax and shipping came to $242.xx but that was with wrong parts so the total was probably closer to $210 or so. I was quoted a little higher than your price from O'Rileys and that didn't include tax.

I'm kicking myself a little because my original radiator has a boogered up trans fitting, and I thought about buying a new radiator when I got the truck almost 7 yrs ago, but it wasn't leaking, so I just got in the habit of checking the trans fitting from time to time. If I remember correctly, I saw a price of $99 back then.

My tank didn't separate from the aluminum, it just split across the front of the tank.

Oh well, hindsight and all that........

Well since the one I had in my attic out of the 92 that I no longer have/ wasn't that old when I parted ways with that truck, and it was the same as what my 96 takes, and is doing the job, I'd have made you a lot better deal than even what RA charged you for that one.... Only problem being, the 19 hour (one way) drive from my part of IL to your part of TX.....
I know it's 19 hours because I made that drive once, about 8-9 years ago.
That was back when my son thought he wanted to go to that SAM (school of automotive machine) that's in Houston. We went down to check it out.
Strangely, there's a radiator in the story of our drive down there
I hit a deer with my Durango on I-57 before I got outta Illinois on the way down there, down around Salem IL///we limped off the highway and luckily there was an O'Reilly's near the exit, I swapped out the trashed radiator in their parking lot and continued our trip

O'Reilly's told me my new one would be in this morning, I haven't made it that far yet... Had to go check out someone's car that works with my wife as soon as I got home from work before I could even sit down...

Glad you had a good experience with RA but for me it still doesn`t cancel out the bad ones I had. Poor packaging, poor customer service, wrong item and they wanted me to pay to return, etc.

I've had good luck buying a powerstop brake kit from them among other things

Never had any of those issues.. Don't know anyone who did. Been buying from them for years. So I'd say you are an outlier.

Been buying from Rock Auto for many years..
Their pricing is the lowest, plus the discount.
But...
Key points are to make sure about the right part and check carefully the shipping costs, if the parts come from more than 1 place this can add up..

Just my $0.02...

I have an 87 Chrysler Conquest that I like to mess around with. RA had some life saver deals on some rare parts when I first bought it. There is lots of parts no longer made for these cars and RA had some key ones I needed. I also bought several things on wholesaler close out that were CHEAP but when they arrived they were wrong. They were cheap enough not to even bother with the return, the time and effort to return them would have cost me more time than it was worth.

They aren't my favorite place to shop for sure. I really dislike the shipping thing, in a few cases I bought more expensive parts because they came form the same warehouse as other parts and made the overall cost the same or less than buying the cheaper part. Kind of ridiculous but it worked.

I don't buy a TON of parts from RA, but I've heard the 'horror' stories.

The previous issue I had was when I had my '93 Caravan, (dang, almost 10 years ago....... ) I had bought new, assembled struts for it, and they were BAD. There was no mistaking the parts were bad. But, with little effort, they took the parts back. I didn't want to take a chance and get the same brand, so I stepped up to a better brand and had to pay the difference.

With this current issue, since they couldn't determine who screwed up (I'm not 100% sure either) they had me pay for half the return shipping, which didn't seem bad to me.

As long as local parts houses charge 2-3 times (or more) for parts than RA, I will continue to use them.

Playing with the shipping is one thing that gets me about rock auto. Usually I end up buying what I need locally because it ends up being cheaper. Plus their return game is a hassle. I bought body parts from them once, dodge truck frame mounts to be exact and they looked like someone made them in their backyard. They wanted me to send them back at my expense and the they'd decide if I'd get a refund or not. It wasn't worth doing that. Other times I've gotten things like fan belts that looked like they came out of an insurance claim and were older then the ones I was replacing. I've never bought parts like that from them since.
But when age or potential insurance damage won't affect the part and the shipping price game works on your favor it's the best online place to get decent priced parts from. Unless Amazon has it.

In my experience they all have a problem.

Most often the plastic cracks right where the tank make the 90 degree turn out towards the crimp or near it. I would guess the plastic and aluminum expand and contract differently and as the plastic age hardens it cracks.

The aluminum & Plastic radiators have about a 10 year / 150k life expectancy regardless of make or model. After that it's borrowed time.

In a 12 month period I replaced about 20 radiators and all but two of the new ones were purchased from from RockAuto because of the price. The Rockauto Quality was fine but the price was between $75 and $150 cheaper from Rockauto.

I have had 2 problems with Rockauto.

One was a rebuilt power steering pump came in dead. Owner wanted the car back and couldn't wait for the new pump. They said get a new pump and they would bring it back. RockAuto said at that time I had to send the old one back before i get a replacement. OR buy another one and eat the price of the first one. I think that policy has changed.


The second problem I had was a "Prefilled" A/C compressor kit that came in with no oil. Big warning sticker across the compressor ports said "Prefilled with 6.2 oz of oil, DO Not add oil to the system."
I trusted the sticker but it had no oil. When it came back it was so full of metal filings I had to strip out the dash and replace the evap unit when it came back. There was no cleaning it.

Rockauto sent me a replacement kit with the same part number but the Big warning sticker said "Prefilled with 5.1 oz of oil, DO Not add oil to the system."

I Contacted GPD who made the compressor kit and they said it was prefilled and it must have been something else. I sent them the pictures of the parts boxes, compressors and stickers to show them their quality control. Crickets, they never responded again.

I will NEVER BUY A GPD product again. I have installed more compressors than I can remember and the only one I had a problem with was that one.

Aside from that I have had decent luck with Rockauto. Lately thought the local parts prices are coming down or Rockauto is going up.

Like I said glad it is all good and it you have had good luck that`s cool. Most of the issues I had were some years ago when I first started buying from them. I still have the master cylinder that was in a beat up box and was wrong but since they wanted me to pay to ship it back I just kept it. Just saying for me it`s not my first choice for sure.

Like I said glad it is all good and it you have had good luck that`s cool. Most of the issues I had were some years ago when I first started buying from them. I still have the master cylinder that was in a beat up box and was wrong but since they wanted me to pay to ship it back I just kept it. Just saying for me it`s not my first choice for sure.


Like I mentioned, my last 'problem' was almost 10 yrs ago. From what little I do buy from RA, it seems they've gotten a little better with packing. When I was buying parts for my Caravan, parts were just hocked into a box, no real padding, reinforcing, whatever. My most recent order the radiator was well packed (wasn't flopping around in the box), and even the smaller box had bubble bags to hold things in place. But was the 'improvement' an overall RA thing or just dependent on the warehouse it came from? I dunno.

I usually buy hard to find parts or things the local place doesn't carry from Rock Auto as well as air filters and headlight bulbs. Shipping does suck sometimes, but I compare prices at Autozone and it's still cheaper.

I've had excellent service from RA. The have really mastered the art of drop shipping by offering such great prices. I rarely if ever buy the cheapest part they offer but its nice to have tat option. Psst......buy your favorite name brand of oil filters in bulk from them. Line your garage wall with wiper blades, cabin air filters and brake pads from them too.

I haven't ordered from the but there a good sponsor for car shows atheist for us.

i have had pretty good luck ordering stuff from them.
i just have to watch the shipping-go-round, and be sure to find a discount code that works.
their parts are just as good as anyone's, and the couple of times i had a minor problem, it was painless to resolve it.
your mileage will vary.