This weekend's maintenance on the 2014 Soul involved an oil change, tire rotation, front brakes and replacing the cabin air filter. The oil change was uneventful as usual - grabbed an OCOD and some Valvoline 5w-30 off the shelf.
I wish I could say the same about everything else. I went to NAPA to get front pads, hardware, and rotors along with the cabin air filter. The Napa Gold cabin air filter didn't fit properly. It measured the same as the OE filter I removed, but was assembled differently - the edges were glued to the pleats on the Napa filter while the OE uses a process similar to the one Champ uses on their Ecore oil filters to attach the end caps. There was excess glue on the Napa filter that squeezed out during manufacturing that stops the filter from sliding in to the tray smoothly. I'll admit it is a tight fit with the OE filter as well... but air filters are supposed to fit tight and the aftermarket suppliers should account for this. I ordered the ProSelect version and will see if that fits better. Not sure if it is a design issue or just a manufacturing defect. The glue job was worse on one side than the other, so I'm thinking it was just poor quality control.
I also had issues with the brakes, specifically the hardware that shipped in the box. The pads and rotors fit perfectly, but the hardware was sized incorrectly - looks like it was made for a larger caliper. Thankfully rust isn't an issue down here and I was able to clean and re-use the OE hardware (which looks and works perfectly), at least for now. It will be interesting to find out if it was a case of the wrong part being in the box, or just an outright sizing issue from the supplier.
Does anyone have any inside information on how aftermarket suppliers confirm compatibility of parts? Do they actually test fit parts to all cars they spec the part number for? Or do they base sizing and design using the OE part specification. Obviously all the stores base their parts catalogs on data given to them by their suppliers.
I guess I could go back to buying OE parts... but that means waiting / parts or going out of my way during the week when I'm in a larger city for work since there aren't any Hyundai or Kia dealers down here. On the other hand, the guys at the local NAPA seem nice and I would much rather support a local business. Hopefully this is an isolated incident.
I wish I could say the same about everything else. I went to NAPA to get front pads, hardware, and rotors along with the cabin air filter. The Napa Gold cabin air filter didn't fit properly. It measured the same as the OE filter I removed, but was assembled differently - the edges were glued to the pleats on the Napa filter while the OE uses a process similar to the one Champ uses on their Ecore oil filters to attach the end caps. There was excess glue on the Napa filter that squeezed out during manufacturing that stops the filter from sliding in to the tray smoothly. I'll admit it is a tight fit with the OE filter as well... but air filters are supposed to fit tight and the aftermarket suppliers should account for this. I ordered the ProSelect version and will see if that fits better. Not sure if it is a design issue or just a manufacturing defect. The glue job was worse on one side than the other, so I'm thinking it was just poor quality control.
I also had issues with the brakes, specifically the hardware that shipped in the box. The pads and rotors fit perfectly, but the hardware was sized incorrectly - looks like it was made for a larger caliper. Thankfully rust isn't an issue down here and I was able to clean and re-use the OE hardware (which looks and works perfectly), at least for now. It will be interesting to find out if it was a case of the wrong part being in the box, or just an outright sizing issue from the supplier.
Does anyone have any inside information on how aftermarket suppliers confirm compatibility of parts? Do they actually test fit parts to all cars they spec the part number for? Or do they base sizing and design using the OE part specification. Obviously all the stores base their parts catalogs on data given to them by their suppliers.
I guess I could go back to buying OE parts... but that means waiting / parts or going out of my way during the week when I'm in a larger city for work since there aren't any Hyundai or Kia dealers down here. On the other hand, the guys at the local NAPA seem nice and I would much rather support a local business. Hopefully this is an isolated incident.