BECK/ARNLEY Problems

[Trav]

BECK/ARNLEY it seems may have a new partner in ÜRO Parts. I recently bought a few parts for this VW i have been playing with on and off and have a problem with BECK/ARNLEY.
I bought a thermostat housing just in case as the original is prone to cracking, BECK/ARNLEY # 1470019 claims..
Quote:
Molded to match OEM design and maintain coolant flow per engineered flow pattern.
Made with high quality resin material, with increased wall thickness to withstand the harshest environments.


I received the part from Rock in a B&A box labeled "Made in China", upon closer inspection of the part it has ÜRO molded right in the part. The ÜRO part on rock is less than half the price and i avoided it because of their horrible reputation.
B&A is apparently reboxing cheap Chinese rubbish and doubling the price.

The next issue was with the CV Axle boots, Rockford doesn't make one for this so i got the B&A.
The outer looks great, OEM composite boot, "Made in Germany", German made grease, new clamps and correct double square nut. Now the problem.
It is a OEM part but they took a dremel to the OEM part# and VW/Audi logo and dam near burned through the boot, ruining the part.

The inner is just cheap Chinese rubbish, nothing more to say about this piece of trash. Its not worth the time and trouble returning these nickel and dime parts so in the trash they go and get OEM instead.
BECK/ARNLEY is now off the trusted parts supplier list in my book. If i wanted cheap .hit Chicom parts i would buy them on Alibaba for pennies on the dollar.

On a positive note. I needed a serpentine belt tensioner for this car, i see someone put a new belt on it but it still made noise.
Pulleys are in alignment so i checked the tensioner, its weak. VW list is $156 online price $126.

I took a chance and used the 35% off $50 code someone posted on BITOG and bought a Dayco that was in stock at AA.
First thing i notice is "Made in Germany" on the box so thats a good sign. The part # shows it is a German made SKF OEM Skoda Octavia tensioner (same engine and owned by VW).
A nice part and for $44 it was a steal!

I have no idea what is going on with parts these days, it seems you cant trust anyone on brand name alone you need to see the part in person.
I have to drive a good way to a VW dealer or i would just go OEM like i do for other makes.

Just an early morning PO rant.

 

[JHZR2]

Watch out, the Chinesium fans may take exception to your comments, claiming it to be a victory in lowering prices...

Stinks. Another semi-useful vendor now hit or miss.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Watch out, the Chinesium fans may take exception to your comments, claiming it to be a victory in lowering prices...

Stinks. Another semi-useful vendor now hit or miss.


I read this the other day. It makes me sick it really does. I will only post the quote as i don't want this to go political.

Quote:
"China's exports of auto parts went from roughly $7 billion in 2002 to almost $70 billion today,"


Something to think about every time someone pick up some cheap Chinese junk at Walmart, HF and others.

 

[tommygunn]

Beck/Arnley is usually better for Japanese cars. But of course, YMMV.

 

[eljefino]

Beck Armley seems to win at logsitics and/or distribution what they fail for in quality. If they don't have it, they get it "somewhere".

 

[Chris142]

ive never even seen beck arnley here.

 

[rshaw125]

Stopped shopping at NAPA years ago when they went Chinese.

 

[ThirdeYe]

I bought a bunch of Beck/Arnley filters from Rockauto for the Daewoo I used to maintain and if I remember right, those were Made in China also. The engine eventually ended up developing a horrible knock, but I don't know if the filter(s) had anything to do with it.

 

[Drew99GT]

Beck Arnley is hit and miss since they repackage parts for retail. Sometimes their branded part is a high quality OEM, other times it's junk.

 

[spavel6]

I made the horrible decision of purchasing URO Parts parts last year for 2 of my VWs.. 1 year later, all 4 ball joints are bad, along with ALL 4 of the tie rod ends..

That's a 100% defect rate. Unbelievable..

 

[Kool1]

I've used Beck Arnley motor and transmission mounts that were made in Taiwan. They looked great when installed; however, after less than a year of service the mounts were torn.

My uncle, who was a Buick mechanic for over 30 years, told me that it's hard to beat OEM. He told me this in 1980 when I was young and driving hot rods with high performance parts. I brushed off his statement but it stuck in the back of my head because of my respect for his vast knowledge and experience with cars. After many years of wrenching and using aftermarket parts and re-replacing failed parts for a second time, I'm starting to believe his statement.

 

[stephen9666]

I've bought three B/A CV boots recently and all three were either made in the USA or Germany. The USA ones were a slightly different material than the OE boots, but they look fine.

I've still had good luck with my B/A purchases, which have been quite a lot.

One good thing about B/A is that they have a very helpful and responsive customer service department. I've emailed them several times asking the country of origin of a part and they always quickly responded with the answer.

 

[HTSS_TR]

I bough some B&A parts for my MB E430 few years ago, all of them were OEM parts made in Germany.

 

[aquariuscsm]

OEM parts only for me.

 

[michaelluscher]

Dammit.

BA was my last hope in reboxed OEM supplier parts for my predominantly Japanese fleet.
They saved me so much time and effort by doing what they used to do, they even used to have rebadged A01 Honda filters for like $4.50 each?.

Just dammit. Now I'm back to having to find the OEM supplier myself, or fork over for OEM.
FML.......

 

[kschachn]

Hit or miss is exactly right. I bought some parts for my Accord, some of them were OEM parts (still in the Honda bag), but some were equivalent to white-box Taiwanese parts. You never know what you are going to get. As it turned out I ended up with one 555 upper control arm and the one BA arm. The 555 arm was still tight after 20,000 miles but the BA ball joint was very worn and making noise.

I also bought some BA suspension parts for my BMW and they wouldn't fit. The metal/rubber bushing part was a hair too long and would not fit into the receiver on the chassis. I returned them and bought Lemforder parts (which I should have done in the first place) and those of course fit perfectly.

But now on brakes they will often say what pad material it is. For my BMW they said it was OEM Jurid material. When I got the pads they were reboxed Jurid pads. The BA rotors I bought for both my Toyotas were made in Brazil and came in these totally cool plastic shipping containers. They have been on both vehicles for many miles so far and are working great.

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Beck Arnley is hit and miss since they repackage parts for retail. Sometimes their branded part is a high quality OEM, other times it's junk.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: stephen9666
I've bought three B/A CV boots recently and all three were either made in the USA or Germany. The USA ones were a slightly different material than the OE boots, but they look fine.

I've still had good luck with my B/A purchases, which have been quite a lot.

One good thing about B/A is that they have a very helpful and responsive customer service department. I've emailed them several times asking the country of origin of a part and they always quickly responded with the answer.


My prior experiences with them was also mostly positive. But 3 out of 3 junk parts and Chinese stuff looks like it might be a trend.
Removing the logo and part # from OEM is one thing but damaging the part to do is another, they had no problem leaving the ÜRO (AKA A.P.A. Industries) logo on the junk.
Seeing as they are online mostly, hit and miss is not a chance i want to take. Waiting for the parts is one thing but getting rubbish and having to buy from another source anyway really sucks.

 

[jrustles]

I hear ya Trav. Maybe 15 years ago B&A was the go to stuff for near/OEM replacements, now, it really is too hit and miss with them.

 

[sciphi]

Originally Posted By: kschachn
The BA rotors I bought for both my Toyotas were made in Brazil and came in these totally cool plastic shipping containers. They have been on both vehicles for many miles so far and are working great.

]


I had similar luck with BA rotors for our Fit. Brazilian-made pieces that looked and felt high-quality. No issues in the year they've been on there.

So, sounds like for Japanese OEM's, they're okay sometimes.

 

[01rangerxl]

That's the problem with the trend towards reboxing parts from wherever. It used to sometimes get you an OEM part, and sometimes still does, but it could also get you China junk.

I worked for a company that stocked a fair amount of B/A...saw a lot of made in Germany or made in Japan on the packages, but occasionally made in China too. B/A used to source from a lot of OEM suppliers and that was kind of their niche, but it seems like whenever you make a good reputation in the parts industry, the next step is to start sourcing everything from China and charging the same price. Just ask Moog.