Help replacing brakes on the 2020+ models

bruceb58 · April 21

On 4/20/2026 at 12:24 AM, Chuck FB said:

For the fun of it sometime I should go through the motions of pretending I am going to order them through Rock Auto as I know some time back I did a prospective order on something through them and by the time duty and shipping and dollar exchange was included, the price was 2 1/2 times as much as the initial price that someone in the states would be viewing. Which goes back to the price of the same GM pads here in Canada relative to various aftermarket pads.

Don't get me wrong as per the quality etc of the factory pads as I have nothing to complain with them so far but also have not towed with the truck yet. The other day I had swapped over from my winter tires to the factory tires and all the surfaces of the rotors looked perfect with no grooving other than some rust/staining shadowing due to the truck sitting for a while between uses and the salt causing slight rusting where the pads happened to be sitting. Pad life looks even from inside to outside pads so far but I only have 6000 miles on the truck. I haven't had any noise from my brakes so far and they act very smooth. I wonder if the 2025 model truck has a different compound compared to trucks built somewhat earlier that have experienced really short brake life or if its something entirely different at play with the system ( like automatic braking due to the cruise or stability system ) or a caliper issue that was causing the high pad wear.

Of course the CAD is 0.73 of the US dollar so right there, $120 US becomes $164. Not sure where the extra $140 comes from other than a special handling fee from the shipper. There shouldn't be any duty. Sales tax of some sort too.

Edited April 21 by bruceb58

Chuck FB · April 21

2 hours ago, bruceb58 said:

Of course the CAD is 0.73 of the US dollar so right there, $120 US becomes $164. Not sure where the extra $140 comes from other than a special handling fee from the shipper. There shouldn't be any duty. Sales tax of some sort too.

I am not sure now if duty is slapped on that or not as it depends on the product but there was a brokerage fee as I would have to make up a pretend order to see what type of fees it was adding but shipping was HUGE and even on some light items. Now there are tariff charges on some items as well but have not looked into that. Forget ordering heavy parts such as rotors or anything of any amount of weight as the shipping became beyond already insane.

Like when I ordered the paper manual from the printing company Helm, the manual was 50.00 USD, and yet by the time it was shipped up here it was if I am not mistaken just under 250.00 CAD.

Having a company shipping large quantities of an item through their regular shipping channels is one thing as its being shipped in a bulk way, but shipping an item on its own is where they really get a person.

davester · April 21

It just seems to be some distributor ripping Canadians off. I buy a bunch of parts for a variety of small equipment, as well as my trucks, and for some brands, pricing will be roughly the same, adjusting for currency, between retail price in the two countries, but for other brands, but similar parts, it will be 30+% more to buy it in Canada.

amazon canada is similar, some stuff is priced about the same, other stuff is just stupid priced.

I make a point of planning ahead, to buy stuff in bigger orders out of the states, so shipping is spread out over more parts, but I find it doesn't take many parts for savings to exceed the cost of shipping, generally I find about $100 of parts I'll be ahead.

Chuck FB · April 21

So I went onto Rock Auto and by the way its the CAD prices I had it list out as so there are no dollar conversions happening within the shipping portion. I did a few scenarios and this would be shipped through Canada Post which I suspect would be higher but that it would get it close to my location. I don't think Rock Auto or as deep into it as I did will give a break down of what charges there are other than the total delivery price.

First example is choosing all light items as a order of a few items together, set of spark plugs, engine air filter, trans oil filter, rear diff gasket, trans pan gasket. That added up to 228.29 in parts and the shipping was 156,94 for a total of 385.23

Second example, one set for an axle, GM brake pads that included the sensor for 174.41 and the shipping was 152.84 for a total 326.98

Example three, GM brake pads and again a set for one axle that did not include the sensor for 110.40 and shipping was 156.94 for a total 267.34

Example four and this is where the weight factor really shows up even more as its ONE GM front rotor for 139.06 and shipping was 379.40 for a total of 518.46 ... and again, ONE rotor.

So that shows what happens when one ships any weight to my address and no it does not come to my front door as I have to go and pick it up. I would have to see if they even ship by any other shipping company and to a shipping depot in the area or if this is all they are set up for, for a comparison.

davester · April 21

you must live in the boonies. I have choices of fedex, ups, and dhl.

and, depending on the parts, selecting different brands will change what warehouse they come from, so shipping gets consolidated.

and don't forget to use their 5% off discount code, it's always available.

Edit: and I think sometimes, I've even broken up one order into multiple orders, to get the parts I want to come from fewer warehouses, or if some items are bulky (like tow mirrors), to get smaller items shipped separately rather than in a really big box that costs more.

Edited April 21 by davester

Chuck FB · April 21

2 minutes ago, davester said:

you must live in the boonies. I have choices of fedex, ups, and dhl.

and, depending on the parts, selecting different brands will change what warehouse they come from, so shipping gets consolidated.

and don't forget to use their 5% off discount code, it's always available.

That about sums it up, I am in a rural farming area and actually various store type companies that have an online presence as well such as Home Depot Canada as one example of various ones, they could not physically figure out how to ship anything to me which is totally retarded but there it was. Some of these shipping companies have no customer walk in depot as its all drop shipped and since there are zero companies that ship to my door step, they can't ship to me but also some stores don't have a system where it can get shipped to them so I am just SOL with companies that conduct business like that. A while back I got set up with Nick to be able to purchase Amsoil products as I figured out through the Edmonton Wearhouse since Amsoil happens to have that Alberta presence, they told me which shipping company they would ship to that I can walk into their depot and pick it up and last week I made my first order and was able to go to Loomis and pick it up. Amsoil must have a deal with the shipping company I would guess and if over a certain dollar value is purchased the shipping is free and even if the order is not up to that value its not some huge shipping fee, obviously its within Alberta for me and going to a location they commonly ship to. The funny thing is that Nick helped me sort all this out as I could see that the person who is or was locally as a dealer whom I spoke to once a few months ago was not on the same page at all as what Nick happens to be.

Actually I didn't realize that Rock Auto had a 5% off discount code that is always available, interesting. But the key or at least with the shipping method they automatically calculated on for me, very light items is what could make some sense to order from RA.

davester · April 22

For me, the one thing that is hit or miss from RA is the options they select for shipping. They normally mark packages as needing to be signed for AND that the address can't be changed, so they would come out to deliver it, I'm not home because I work during the day, then I need to go online or phone them and tell them I want to pick it up from their depot. Fortunately, more recently I've been able to badger them into allowing me to change it to pick up at a local depot before they try to deliver it, so it's both closer than their main depot and I can pick it up a day earlier.

davester · April 22

You couldd maybe make friends with someone or get a pickup location in a somewhat nearby town/city, and get it shipped there?

Chuck FB · April 22

20 minutes ago, davester said:

You couldd maybe make friends with someone or get a pickup location in a somewhat nearby town/city, and get it shipped there?

Yes, if I could pick a shipper depot like I was able to do with Amsoil and also in so doing skip the Canada Post theme, that would be interesting to see how the shipping costs would change.

bruceb58 · April 23

On 4/21/2026 at 3:46 PM, davester said:

and, depending on the parts, selecting different brands will change what warehouse they come from, so shipping gets consolidated.

What does the shipping look like when you give it a fake address in a big city in Canada...does it change much? Is it just your address that is causing the issue?

Do you know anyone with a business address that you can ship to?

Edited April 23 by bruceb58

davester · April 23

Chuck is the one living out in the boonies...

Chuck FB · April 23

11 hours ago, bruceb58 said:

What does the shipping look like when you give it a fake address in a big city in Canada...does it change much? Is it just your address that is causing the issue?

Do you know anyone with a business address that you can ship to?

That indeed gave me the idea to try an address in town, yes its a city but no one calls it that here but I digress. Now if that dollar figure is actually correct is hard to say but it gave three options as per two different shipping companies and one of them a shorter time frame vs a slightly longer time frame. Honestly I don't know how any of the times make sense in days as they claim 6 days delivery, it used to be more like 6 weeks to maybe eventually get something.

So I chose that same or similar rotor to give it the same weight theme as my last item I did in my other comment, so around that 140.00 Canadian funds for the one rotor and then will just list the shipping fee quotes on their own in order of price and time line. If that is factual, that is some vast spread of prices even with shipping and time line. There was only one quoted price on the Canada Post shipping and no delivery date was generated either. I keep wondering if there is something they are not adding because of the tariffs, surprise fees for that not being calculated as some changes with the US fees to Canada just changed the week following Easter although that may be more so shipping product TO the states rather than to Canada but its devastating some major companies in Canada and will wipe out a major portion of industry and jobs if that isn't walked back.

Warranty is always an issue when shipping items vs walking into a store front, even something ordered from within Canada could be a nightmare to warranty and these distribution sales companies know that and have full control over denying warranty.

April 29, Fedex, 62.89 CAD

April 28, DHL, 129.86 CAD

April 27, Fedex, 308.95

Edited April 23 by Chuck FB

davester · April 23

No, as far as I know, auto parts are handled under the usmca agreement still, and neither the us nor canada has changed the tariffs outside of that agreement.

bruceb58 · April 26

On 4/23/2026 at 1:34 PM, davester said:

No, as far as I know, auto parts are handled under the usmca agreement still, and neither the us nor canada has changed the tariffs outside of that agreement.

That's my understanding as well.