moreheads: be warned, the so-called free trade between Canada/US/Mexico has turned out to be a fabulous opportunity to make money - at your expense. For example, I ordered a Haynes shop manual (#3016) from Atlantic British to be sent to Vancouver 5 years ago. The manual cost $29.95 US but after shipping, exchange rate, GST/PST and 'Boarder Brokerage' fees, I ended up paying $90 Canadian! I have a reputation of never getting upset, but I blew my stack over this one! The final insult was the manual only covered D1s up to 1995 and had no info on the later engines. There was also no information on the 5 speed trans internals! Shite! Sorry..........got excited again.....
It also is critical to have the parts sent by the correct Courier - it must be the International version - get this wrong and you'll pay way more. I haven't figured out if the US Postal Service is better than the couriers but when the Canadian Postal Guys get there hands on your parcel, anything can happen. I've had stuff arrive in the post with no additional cost at all while other parcels (same size/value) get held up and you have to pay.
One final warning, Free trade (no duties other than GST & sometimes PST) applies only to parts made in the States or Mexico. Parts made in the UK are still subject to Import Duty. Make sure therefore you have the Shipper 'deal with this problem' right on the parcel or you will be screwed.
Oh yes, one more final warning after the final warning. It's expensive to send stuff back to the US. Expect mistakes to be made in shipping - here are two that cost me money:
1 ordered wheels from US and received 4 boxes labelled correctly but with the wrong wheels in them!
2 ordered oxygen sensors and received Bosch product that caused me to fail the local smog test. After $250 in diagnosis by dealer (said my ECU was toast) & independent shop (couldn't figure it out & gave up), I checked out the Bosch website only to discover I received the wrong downstream sensor!!!! It turned out that there was an error in the catalogue that the supplier was using. They replaced the sensor for free but I still had to pay for return shipping and another $40 to go through the smog test again.
Moral to all this... buy locally if at all possible even if it is more expensive. If you do order stuff from the States, find a place in the US to have the parts sent to and go down there to pick up the parts yourself.
PS I'm just about to return a set of off-road shocks that aren't what I ordered (they say "Gas" on the package but are gas-less units inside!). This time, only have to drive across town (there and back 60 minutes through traffic - bugger!)
Cheers.
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