Did Rock Auto send me the wrong inner tie rods twice?

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
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The inners seem way too long
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
That was fun to find out in the middle of the job lol. Oh well, at least the outers are changed now. They were worse than the inners by far.

And I was all excited to tell you guys how I managed to change the tie rods without removing the wheels and having to get an alignment...
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
Yup, looks like you got TRI0003 instead of TRI0004. That’s annoying.

Their stock of tie rods must be a complete mess, this is the second time. I've placed a new order at PartsSouq for the inners now.

And now Rockauto wants me to pay the return shipping cost for it. I guess I'll file a dispute through PayPal and if that doesn't work I'll do a chargeback. There's no way the cost of returning misboxed parts is coming out of my pocket.
 

westslope

Wheeling
Is the shine off Rockauto.com? If the company makes stocking or shipping mistakes, it should cover all costs. EDIT: Apparently not, see G_T's excellent report below.

Let us know how the PartsSouq experience goes.
 
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General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
This is the first problem I've had with them and I've ordered tons of parts but this one really bugs me. It's bad enough I went through removing one one of the inners before finding out it was too long...maybe I should have measured beforehand but maybe they should keep their stock in order...

I paid about $30 bucks more for them from PartsSouq, shipped same day and will be here on Oct 1st. Sucks at the end of this debacle I still have to get back under the truck and fight with those inners again lol.
 

Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
Once had an issue where they sent the wrong valve cover gaskets. Looking at the part number it seemed the one they sent was one bin over from the correct one. Wonder if something like that was going on here
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
Once had an issue where they sent the wrong valve cover gaskets. Looking at the part number it seemed the one they sent was one bin over from the correct one. Wonder if something like that was going on here

Could be, what's weird is the box has the correct part number on it. Maybe someone knocked a bunch of them off a shelf and just put them in whatever boxes were there. I should check out the Titan forums and see if anyone over there has been getting Xterra inners.
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
My order from Parts Souq for the inners just got delivered and they're exactly what they're supposed to be.

Length measurements are correct and they even come with grease pre-applied where the boot clamps to the tie rod. Something else I noticed is that the TR's in RA order #1 were stamped Q25 and in order #2 Q26 but these have no markings at all on them.

The original inners lasted for 140k so hopefully these will match that lifespan.


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General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
Update:

Went to Paypal on Friday and reported the problem, before escalating to an actual claim they have a pre-claim period where the seller/buyer can communicate and try to resolve the issue. Waited until the end of the day and still no response from RA so I was just about to escalate it to a claim when I thought let me search one more time for an actual customer service email for them, and I found it on another forum.

The guy who listed it was no longer able to order anything from RA because he filed a claim, same circumstances as mine too. I sent an email telling them the problem, order number, etc and 1 hour later I got a reply. They asked for this info:
  • Your VIN
  • Your Original Equipment part number (the part number of the original part you are replacing)
  • Does your original part have 2 male ends?
  • Images showing the difference between the part you received and your original part
I'm glad I photograph everything because all I had to do was include that 1st pic in this thread along with the other info and 20 minutes later they replied with an apology for the clear mixup and a prepaid shipping label to send them back.

I don't know who Paypal actually sends an email to about issues but I think on the RA end nobody checks it, basically as soon as I got through to an actual human they recognized the mistake and made it right.

If anyone else runs into an order problem with them the email address to use is: service@rockauto.com
 

Comisar

Test Drive
I just had this same thing happen. Was boxed as TRI0004, but they are definitely way too long. Just filling out their return thing online generated a prepaid shipping label for me. Fingers crossed they don't do it again with the replacements.

3mrgn3I.jpg
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
I wouldn't count on them sending the correct part. If they screw it up again check out Parts Souq, even with the shipping it was the best price I could find on them.
 

MMac

Test Drive
My order from Parts Souq for the inners just got delivered and they're exactly what they're supposed to be.

Length measurements are correct and they even come with grease pre-applied where the boot clamps to the tie rod. Something else I noticed is that the TR's in RA order #1 were stamped Q25 and in order #2 Q26 but these have no markings at all on them.

The original inners lasted for 140k so hopefully these will match that lifespan.


H7MPKtX.jpg
n32l3Gv.jpg

Well I just ordered these from RA. I know it's a gamble considering the errors made recently. Couldn't pass up the price and the fact that they'll be at my door in 4 days. Do you remember what size hose clamps were used for each side of the dust boot?
 

IM1RU

Skid Plates
Supporting Member
Location
SLC, UT
Well I just ordered these from RA. I know it's a gamble considering the errors made recently. Couldn't pass up the price and the fact that they'll be at my door in 4 days. Do you remember what size hose clamps were used for each side of the dust boot?

If you are careful when removing the OE clamps, you can actually reuse them.
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
Well I just ordered these from RA. I know it's a gamble considering the errors made recently. Couldn't pass up the price and the fact that they'll be at my door in 4 days. Do you remember what size hose clamps were used for each side of the dust boot?


I went to Ace hardware and bought some Tridon stainless hose clamps that I believe were 3 inch.
 
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kryter

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Aurora Colorado
I just had this same thing happen. Was boxed as TRI0004, but they are definitely way too long. Just filling out their return thing online generated a prepaid shipping label for me. Fingers crossed they don't do it again with the replacements.

3mrgn3I.jpg
didn't have a problem with RA all 4 replaced and ready for destruction plus maybe its a sign to titan swap
 

jsexton

Need Bigger Tires
Location
Lewis Center, OH
Another guy I know had this problem in reverse recently. Ordered hitachi Titan inners and received xterra inners inside the Titan inner box. Probably a more of a hitachi issue rather than a rockauto issue.
 

MMac

Test Drive
Well I hate to report this, but RockAuto sent me the wrong Inner TR's. I could tell it was the wrong one by the size of the box and confirmed with a tape measure. @General_Tarfun warned me, but the price was worth the gamble. Napa has a 15% off deal going on, so I'm going to settle on their lifetime warranty Inners. They look almost identical to the Hitachi Inners. Now to deal with getting a refund from RA.
 

MMac

Test Drive
Another guy I know had this problem in reverse recently. Ordered hitachi Titan inners and received xterra inners inside the Titan inner box. Probably a more of a hitachi issue rather than a rockauto issue.

Yeah the labeling on the Hitachi boxes are Xterra part numbers, but inside the box are Titan Inners. Makes a lot of sense if it's an error on Hitachi's end, considering there are multiple cases of this problem now.
 

AlbatrossCafe

First Fill-Up (of many)
Location
Western WA
Simple math. There were more Titans than Xterras. More spare parts. Lower cost.

No way. I find it hard to believe that the # of Titans & Armadas was more than the number of Xterras, Frontiers, and Pathfinders. I started to look it up but there is a lot of summation that would have to happen...
 

General_Tarfun

Sliders
Location
Atlanta, GA
No way. I find it hard to believe that the # of Titans & Armadas was more than the number of Xterras, Frontiers, and Pathfinders. I started to look it up but there is a lot of summation that would have to happen...

I honestly do see a ton of Frontiers around here and very few Armadas or Titans. That's in a city though.
 

westslope

Wheeling
I was curious so I tried to look up sale numbers. Source: 2019 US Auto Sales by Model Analysis

Frontier sales year to date are more than double Titan and Armada sales combined. Looking at past sales, Xterra sales exceeded Frontier sales in 2005 but not after that. For the most part Frontier sales outpaced Xterra sales by a factor of 3:1.

Nissan Xterra – US – By Year

Year sold
2005 73,447
2006 62,325
2007 51,355
2008 33,579
2009 16,455
2010 20,523
2011 18,221
2012 18,679
2013 17,766
2014 16,505
2015 10,672
2016 38
2017 1


Nissan Frontier – US – By Year

Year sold
2005 72,838
2006 77,510
2007 64,397
2008 44,997
2009 27,415
2010 40,427
2011 51,700
2012 59,672
2013 62,837
2014 74,323
2015 62,817
2016 86,926
2017 74,360
2018 79,646
2019 67,649
 
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