NAPA doesn't make hoses. It's a rebadged Dayco / Gates / Continental / Some no-name Chinese-Korean-etc. brand.
NAPA Parts Have Really Slid Down Hill
- Thread starter MrkofXcellence
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I know some specific examples. The front wheel bearing / Hub on my Nissan's used to be OEM Timken - and the aftermarket Timken was identical. Lifespan was typically 100 - 200K. Timken switched manufacture to China and there has been a few updates on the boards with failures of these replacements already. Could be anomaly's. China can certainly build quality if they want. But speculation is that since these vehicles are now out of production there simply going to what's cheapest.
Similar - Cam and crank sensors and coils have always been Hitachi - and aftermarket were always Hitachi made in Japan. There now coming in a Hitachi box but now have Hitach's joint venture company in China's name on them. Again, they might be just great, but of course everyone is concerned. On those this is new - so too soon to tell.
I have said this before. Whenever a part is no longer used for production, the OEM's often accept an approved equal and they end up being no better than aftermarket. The OEM's no longer need to be concerned about factory warranty.
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My guess is its parts in general that is the issue NOT NAPA.
NAPA we all know has always sold the best of the best and as example The NAPA oil filters that were always premium made by WIX. Wix made a Premium oil filter many made in Gastonia North Carolina but NOW WIX is a Global / German Company with Filters now made in many 3rd world countries so in turn whats NAPA to do when the BEST products are no longer the product it once was?
My Harley OEM filter was once made in York South Carolina, that factory NOW CLOSED a few years back, My new Harley Filter is now made by Mahle produced in a factory in India.
NAPA we all know has always sold the best of the best and as example The NAPA oil filters that were always premium made by WIX. Wix made a Premium oil filter many made in Gastonia North Carolina but NOW WIX is a Global / German Company with Filters now made in many 3rd world countries so in turn whats NAPA to do when the BEST products are no longer the product it once was?
My Harley OEM filter was once made in York South Carolina, that factory NOW CLOSED a few years back, My new Harley Filter is now made by Mahle produced in a factory in India.
Primarily this was fiction and has always been. Napa might have been better than the other box stores, but you could buy better online, mostly for less. I completely understand the pro's using Napa because they needed the part right now (who also get a nice discount) but I never could find a good reason.
I used lots of Wix filters, mainly because they were made in NC - but they at no time were ever the best of the best. They might have been the highest value - when bought in bulk on RA - not from Napa. During that entire period the Fram Titanium or even Ultra were better - back when Fram made them properly.
NAPA filters (at least the Gold) switched from Wix to Premium Guard. And their oil is still Valvoline. The two big international brands most highly regarded on this forum these days.
Not embarrassed to say I regularly watch the South Main Auto Channel/SMAC and recently he's been finding issues with both new aftermarket Napa/Standard Motor Products and OEM parts. Been very frustrating for him. Years ago put on an SMP/BWD TDC sensor on an 01 Civic, worked great. I can only imagine how frustrated I would have been had I gotten it all back together only to find it still bad and throwing same code. I purchased the sensor from AAP.
Used to be the worry was only about aftermarket. Now OEM seems to be following suit. Techs like Eric O must be considering retirement or profession change.
One might think market forces or capitalism would incent a company to make high quality parts (no callbacks) and charge a premium.
They could but don't need to make the part in the USA. They just need to have people doing a lot of QA testing who cannot be bought off.
Car makers seem to be having a lot of recalls recently. And in some cases on federally required safety items. My 2015 pickup had a recall for backup camera this year. 10 years after vehicle was manufactured (roughly). They have got to be tired of the expense and damage to reputation. And may choose future suppliers accordingly.
You're lucky in that these weren't mandated until 2017-2018, so Ford could have excluded your year as well as 2016 models.
Pretty certain they would still had to include it. Its considered a safety device, and since the screen can freeze - if it froze and someone backed over someone thinking the image was still live - then Ford would most certainly be liable since it was a known defect.
Of course you shouldn't rely on the camera alone anyway but we know most do.
Seat belts aren't warranted forever (well, Honda does), so even if it's a "safety" item, there seems to be a time limit. I know many older cars got their airbags replaced (for free) across many brands (Takata) but that seemed to be because of the publicity that this issue got.
If the screen simply quit working or whatever - then obviously its broken and hence its out of warranty so its your problem.
The issue with the Ford recall is the screen would appear to be working - but was frozen. And Ford knew about it, and was reasonably frequent, or frequent enough. Therefore they were obligated to fix it or were likely be be sued.
If it had simply broken completely like your seat belt then the operator would know it was broken - no longer Ford's problem.
The Takata airbag recall was similar. The owner would assume it was working, but Takata had a pretty reasonable idea that it might not, or would send shrapnel into the occupant - hence they would have liability in the eyes of a court. If a big airbag light had come on and said "airbag not working", then it would probably not been there problem.
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The even nicer thing is (subjective) is the new camera seems a lot especially at night. I am thinking they used current video camera technology not 2015 video camera technology.
Subaru did something resembling a LT warranty on belts that wouldn't retract. But, just useless trivia.....
Napa parts went down hill 15 years ago. Now they sell the same garbage the other places sell but at a 30% higher cost. Their rebuild starters and alternators are absolute garbage and have been for a very long time.
Nothing like they were 40 years ago.
There is a where house about 100m SE of me. Whoever orders a part they pull the part and put it on the appropriate box. Be it Napa, AutoZone,etc
Nothing like they were 40 years ago.
There is a where house about 100m SE of me. Whoever orders a part they pull the part and put it on the appropriate box. Be it Napa, AutoZone,etc
I'd say 25 years ago. Used to be Echlin could be trusted to be "better" electrical stuff, but that stopped circa 2000 IMO
It is tricky, though, because the consumer tends to drive the market to low price parts. Still, I think NAPA could have taken a stand, but they chose to plop on their behinds and ride down that slippery slope with all the others.
I've said for, well, ALWAYS that I'd gladly pay a good bit more for Dorman if there was a commensurate increase in quality. Instead, Dorman would rather shave every penny and produce the absolute minimum level of quality possible -- just enough that it's not quite fraud. After all, the part mostly, eh, kinda worked.....for a couple days.
I had the opposite Dorman-> Behr/Hella coolant tank for a 90s BMW. Also had a Napa CV Axle with no cutter pin hole, swapped it for another at the store that had one. Napa is unfortunately just a less crowded Autozone now
Sad man…talk about a lack of basic quality control.
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