Advanced Auto is new to my neck of the woods, but we had Carquest here for many, many years. They were always on par with NAPA in terms of higher end stuff I thought.

Now that we have the Advanced Auto brand, I picked up a set of clutch hydraulics since it's a "lifetime" warranty part instead of ordering the cheapos through Rock Auto like I used to do.

The first replacement worked like a dream but broke the plastic bushing that goes on the clutch pedal after 2 months. They wouldn't just warranty the bushing, so I traded out the whole assembly on their advice. The second one had a lower friction point and the pedal seemed a little stiffer, but it worked. 2 months later the bushing broke so I just bought a new bushing and didn't mess with it.

Today, sitting in a parking lot, I went to start the truck and the pedal just stuck to the floor. Line blew off the slave cylinder. Got a new one today and got to change it in the parking lot (luckily it happened at the barber shop and the barber let me borrow his car to get the part )

Pedal is like a dream again, but we're on #3 in less than a year when the old Rock Auto cheapest one available used to last at least 2.

Just wanting to share my experience in case anyone else is contemplating on where to buy these parts.

 

The plastic bushing failing so quickly/repeatedly isn't the fault of the Advance parts. That's a pretty clear sign that the stud on the pedal assembly is worn down. You can replace them once a week, and its just gonna keep failing, until you fix the stud on the pedal.
With that stud worn, even with a new bushing, you're not getting full travel out of the hydraulics and the clutch.
Look at the first pic here. I'll bet your pivot stud looks like that.:
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...c-bushing.html

 

When the bushing failed I checked the stud. I was ready to replace it or switch to the heim joint, but it looked fine. The failed bushings were an extremely thin, flimsy plastic. So flimsy I was surprised. The dorman bushing was about twice as thick and rigid, and it lasted for months.

The latest failure wasn't related to the bushing (it's still in fine shape). This was the hydraulic line blowing off the end of the slave cylinder when the pedal was pushed in.

 

I've had some odd luck with the hydraulics as well. First set wasn't bled properly as when it got hot I lost my clutch, and this set for some reason moans/scrapes when moving the pedal. The bushing used on them I wouldn't even consider a bushing, to me it is more like a placeholder.

Carquest was acquired by Advance a little while back, so I wonder if that will change their warranty (Granted I'm not sure what Carquest's was prior). At work we only have a 12month/12k mile warranty on perfection products.

 

After driving around some more today, I'm thinking the last set of hydraulics had a problem from the beginning. This new set up makes the clutch feel like a Honda and shifting into gear from neutral isn't any issue at all. It used to offer more resistance.

Word of warning though, Advanced Auto can only look up your "lifetime" warranty if you originally bought the part from that particular store. The parts list and history don't show up with your phone number for all stores, just the particular one you're standing in.

That means you have to carry receipts with you or get lucky and have the store accept your story and honor the warranty even if it's not in their computer.

 

Appreciate the tip. I was actually looking to have mine replaced if the scraping sound continues to worsen but wasn't sure I'd be able to make it to the one here in town or not. Makes sense though, we can look up limited information about accounts that aren't considered 'ours' at work.

 

I disagree. Technology is a wonderful thing. I had similar issues with NAPA years ago since some stores are corporate owned and others are franchises and the two can't talk to each other.

For all the negative things I can say about Autozoo, you can walk into any store in the country, give them your phone number, and they can look up any warranty on any part you have bought from them.

 

I believe I could have worded my response a bit different to help articulate what I meant.

I can look up your account by your account number/name (our POS is a bit outdated than your other parts stores), but have limited access to things such as statements for an account. To my knowledge I am able to lookup an invoice if you know the date and store, but other than that if it wasn't bought at our store I cannot look at the specific sales history. Again, though, that could be one of the circumstances where I am not high enough on the totem pole to know exactly how to do that.

For the most part we don't need to lookup invoices, as we do about 90% shops, 10% walk-ins. When it comes to defective parts, most of the shops have their original invoice for it (or at the very least the customer's work order) allowing us to lookup the invoice and get their part replaced.

I am sure that for Advance and Autozone it is quite different, as they mainly cater to walk-ins vs. shops like we do. I do understand the frustration it can cause though. I would have figured their POS would be a tad more synchronized than that. If I had taken the offer I was given at Advance, I would be able to shine some more light on the subject (given it was something I could comment on) but where I am at now is a lot better hours wise, so I'm not complaining there!

 

Been serving the #9021 on a silver platter for a few years now. Recently, after breaking the post from the clutch pedal, I hit up mcfadden dale, to rig a bolt. Used a "collar" bolt, and it's been great. never did break a birdcage, but broke that damn post a few times, and blown out a slave(Dorman) before.
.

 

I still buy them from Ford, also keep one in stock. some parts I don't price shop on.

 

That's kind of my point. I tend to do a bit of driving. If I want to favor a particular parts store, say like Advanced Auto, then I'd like to be able to stop in to whichever one happens to be convenient for my as I'm driving around. I also like to buy things in advance of when I need them when the situation allows.

I have over 555,000 miles on my truck, so I tend to drive around a bit. Having to remember which location I bought a particular part at for a truck that I've owned for 14 years is a bit tough.

That means I either have to carry all the receipts with me, or improve my memory quite a bit.


The pre-bled assembly I got from the Ford house didn't last as long as the one from Rock Auto. For some of the older parts, I believe Ford just rebrands aftermarket crap like all the others, it just charges more for it.

I keep a spare around too. Unfortunately I didn't carry it around with me when this one blew. Luckily I go to one of those old fashioned barbers where there are guys sitting around just to talk and they didn't come in for a haircut. And luckily the thing went pop when I was there. The barber just handed me his keys and said take my car to run to the parts store. It was also nice that his back lot where I park slopes downhill to a shaded area that I could roll back into instead of laying on the 100 degree concrete.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't ever go to Napa again based on that and how they treated me. Bought many things from them over the years and all it took was them not warrantying a torque wrench because the franchisee "couldn't find me" in the sys.

I do have to say about vatozone, make sure to watch them enter your lifetime warranty. I recently had a mityvac break and they couldn't find me anywhere.

On the topic of clutch hydrualics, 1. External hydraulics awesome and 2. I use Ford hydraulics but the pre bled setup has been not as good of quality lately. Received 2 that had a lot of air in the system.

 

Ah, yes I can see where that would cause some headaches. Thing fails on a cross-country trip, and you get a store that can't (or won't) look it up, you're then or the money for a new one on a lifetime warranted product. I suppose I have lucked out that my hydraulics only ever busted on me close to home or in Advance's parking lot.

I was actually looking for the receipt to my recent warranty for the hydraulics as the scratching on the master had gotten worse. Ended up I haven't found it in my truck's file yet, so if this happened father away, I'd probably be just as perplexed as you are.