More Junk Parts

Joined
Nov 20, 2006
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31,192
Location
MA, Mittelfranken.de
To make a long story short I rebuilt an engine, replaced every sensor, nut bolt and screw as some idiot sprayed the engine compartment down with acid based wheel cleaner which destroyed all the plating on bolts and nuts, it even ate a hole through the throttle body and starter nose. Luckily I had a good one of these with low miles with a known good MAP.
I had to replace the whole air cleaner system as they bent the rubber into the throttle body and broke the air cleaner case causing a air leak.

I did not replace the MAF, started it up, let it run 20 min and changed the oil, drove it 50 miles and it ran perfectly until I stopped for gas. The thing would not stay running at idle with a CEL, the friggin MAF crapped out. I need one ASAP, AZ had some crap for $120 and Amazon a Delpi for $55.
Ok got the delphi installed it and got 5 miles before a CEL for a lean code, fuel trims at 18, another bad MAF. Not playing this game anymore I ordered a MAF from the dealer, he dropped it on my door the same day $140. The car again runs perfectly with 0 fuel trim.
These defective new aftermarket parts even from supposed good brand names are getting to me, it is becoming more common every day. Every other part exept the 6 stars (Cometic) head gaskets are OE and nothing failed. Rant over. LOL
 
It is getting really really bad.

One of my friends has redone 3 BBB alternators (on different cars) in the last months. All of them lasted days.

I installed a pair of aftermarket control arms on the Prius. They have 10-15k on them and the bushings are dried-out (and starting to crack); they sound worse than the OE arms with 100k+.

Most of the aftermarket pads lately are noisier than in years past. Something to do with the newer formulas, it seems.
 
I just got an alternator from Rock, nothing available locally only Cardone and BBB and a few used ones in poor condition so this one is a WAI global new Chicom.
First the pulley is too big, no big deal swap it with the original but then the case is slightly larger and hits the oil pressure switch, no good so I want to return it, friggin Rock charges me for the return shipping.
Ordered bearings, regulator and diodes but they are a week away minimum so a piece of crap used one is on for now, it works. This is getting too much.
 
our GLOBAL economy is killing the quality of everything as a vehicle is only as good as the "bean counters" allow + buying parts from the lowest bidder is common!!

The point of this thread is aftermarket parts are mostly junk and OEM is your best bet.

Are there any cases where an aftermarket less expensive part is better than the OEM part it replaces? Not functional but better.
 
Are there any cases where an aftermarket less expensive part is better than the OEM part it replaces? Not functional but better.
Dunno. I can’t think of any recent examples on late-model cars. Maybe some brake pads? But that is more of a pros/cons matter.

People used to say “aftermarket builds better than OE” but I think that statement may have been true several decades ago and was exclusive to certain brands.
 
That seems to be changing. Not all of the Lemforder stuff is good quality now, some are coming from unexpected countries of origin. There have been numerous reports of early failures in the Euro Tech group.
they exported a lot of their low volume stuff to deeza/whoever else is in turkey.

some of their motor mounts are made in india

still pretty good
 
That seems to be changing. Not all of the Lemforder stuff is good quality now, some are coming from unexpected countries of origin. There have been numerous reports of early failures in the Euro Tech group.
That is very unfortunate. I've saved a lot of money over the years using Lemforder parts on European cars.
 
they exported a lot of their low volume stuff to deeza/whoever else is in turkey.

some of their motor mounts are made in india

still pretty good
I installed a Delphi control arm into a Prius - made in Turkey by Deeza. Seems to be OK, but I’m ready to buy OEM. I’ve been shying away from some aftermarket chassis parts.

I haven’t had the misfortune to buy reman electrical, steering or calipers recently. However, my anecdote was with a power steering pump for a Subaru I worked on. The pump that was in there was leaking. More than likely a reman - not OEM(Hitachi/KYB/Showa makes a majority of Japanese non-Toyota PSPs). I went to an very well-regarded parts house I still go to this day. Cardone, painted black, remanned in USA. As soon as I started the engine, the pulley was wobbling. I took the pump back. I went to O’Reilly and found a Chinese reman. No paint, it looked very OEM-like. It worked off the bat.
 
That is very unfortunate. I've saved a lot of money over the years using Lemforder parts on European cars.
Their complete arms are priced very well compared to OE. But I recently learned that Mercedes sells the bushings for extremely affordable prices. The real Mercedes bushings will even have the slotted hole that the lemdorders often lack. It may be worth investing in the Mueller Kueps bushing press cup kits so that you can perform the job without a press.
 
I think the tough part is if you aren’t really up on some of these things like fuel trims or don’t really know anything about vehicles but maybe can change a part. How are they supposed to know the part they just installed is faulty. Now it gets brought to a shop and maybe the owner tells the shop such and such part is new or the minimum wage tech sees the new part and starts looking elsewhere for the problem assuming because the part is new it’s fine. Now this cheap part has cost the owner a lot of time and money and cost the shop time for diagnosis. This can make people shy away from the joy of car ownership and working on and modifying your own cars.
 
The point of this thread is aftermarket parts are mostly junk and OEM is your best bet.

Are there any cases where an aftermarket less expensive part is better than the OEM part it replaces? Not functional but better.
Very few that are less expensive. If the alternator wasn't over $600 I would put one on, I still may just to avoid all this messing around, if I can get it $400 its a done deal.
 
Their complete arms are priced very well compared to OE. But I recently learned that Mercedes sells the bushings for extremely affordable prices. The real Mercedes bushings will even have the slotted hole that the lemdorders often lack. It may be worth investing in the Mueller Kueps bushing press cup kits so that you can perform the job without a press.
I’ll take a look.

Thanks!
 
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