Many, many years ago, I used to make deliveries to the Ford Engine Plant in Lima OH. They made or make many well-known Ford engines including the 2.7L Ecoboost today or the 3.0L Vulcan (went in the Taurus, as I recall). I've seen truckloads of "DENSO" parts unloaded there to be used on the engines they made. Of course, it could have been ignition coils, spark plugs, any number of sensors, fuel injectors, and so on.
OE or OEM? Reminder to shop around!
- Thread starter edyvw
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TRW is the only supplier of suspension parts for M models. Other than that it is Lamfoerder. Both under ZF.
I found you BMW OE arm with the same numbers. It is on this link and you can enlarge photos. I could not enlarge on the phone enough to capture it properly.
M3/1M Rear Upper Control Arm Upgrade Kit
The most cost effective handling upgrade you'll ever find!
www.ecstuning.com
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Reminds of a time I bought a new dryer for the AC refrigerant loop on a Lexus - the Denso part was the same thing as the Toyota part. Just with an extra label.
if you’re lucky with some cars with replacement glass, the aftermarket piece might be the same as OEM with a etched or screened over OEM logo. I was in an Uber once. I noticed one of the windows had the same bug as OEM but the automaker’s logo was “rubbed”. It was a AGC Automotive piece, DOT 376. Supposedly Pilkington will do this as well for some cars it doesn’t make aftermarket glass from their Mexican plant but has supply from the OEM line.
Aren't all Toyota a/c system parts made by Denso?
Most, not all. In this case the OE Toyota part has no markings. The Denso one has a small silver sticker on it.
some models use Delphi Harrison components(now Mahle Behr).
Yup! My 135i has the TRW version arms front and rear. Bonus, the TRW versions even came with the hardware required for installation. Will be installing the TRW arms on the rear of my X-Drive E90 soon.
Just wish there was an OE supplier for the DISA valves available.
Just wish there was an OE supplier for the DISA valves available.
Just as another data point, a while back I needed a water pump for my 7.3l Powerstroke. Per one of the Ford Truck forums you could buy one from the OEM water pump supplier a lot cheaper than from International or Ford. I called this manufacturer and it turned out that the pump they sold to the public had a different and cheaper seal in it. I still bought it and it’s been working fine for years but it is not an OE pump even though it came from the same maufacturer.
I suspect it is a similar case with Bosch fuel pumps that are marketed as original equipment replacement pumps for 1/4 the price of an original equipment Bosch pump. I think the key word is Replacement. The ads don’t say it is an original equipment pump, they call it an original equipment replacement pump, and it’s probably a different pump even though both are Bosch pumps.
I suspect it is a similar case with Bosch fuel pumps that are marketed as original equipment replacement pumps for 1/4 the price of an original equipment Bosch pump. I think the key word is Replacement. The ads don’t say it is an original equipment pump, they call it an original equipment replacement pump, and it’s probably a different pump even though both are Bosch pumps.
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I'm skeptical that they would do this. Seals are cheap, plus now they have to track different production runs based on the seal used. Lastly, instead of buying 250,000 seals from the vendor and getting volume pricing breaks, now they buy 175,000 seals from one vendor - at less discount - and 75,000 seals from a different vendor.
Anyone bought replacement parts like headlight assemblies, at least from more well-known suppliers (TYC, for example), and noticed how identical they are ? I mean, down to every single feature including ones only used in the molding process (not actually used in the car). My son and I have bought some for our Honda cars and my impression is, TYC either is the OEM supplier or they bought the "molds" from the original OEM supplier.
My guess is that it's the same for certain TVs. The factory gets an order from the manufacturer for a certain number of items. Then they keep running the factory line to make extras for the aftermarket.
It's been 6-7 years ago for one car, a '99 Accord, so that car was 16 years old at the time. I can't see a manufacturer making "extras" way back in 1999-2002 (same part was used until '02) and warehousing them though, 
In the other case, it was a '12 Accord that our son replaced the lights on about a year ago. '13 was a new design so they weren't still being made by Honda in this case (or their supplier) except for replacement parts.
I've read that automakers "have" to make so many replacement parts but says who ? I'll bet they sell the tooling and let the aftermarket take care of it once the model's production has ended.
In the other case, it was a '12 Accord that our son replaced the lights on about a year ago. '13 was a new design so they weren't still being made by Honda in this case (or their supplier) except for replacement parts.I've read that automakers "have" to make so many replacement parts but says who ? I'll bet they sell the tooling and let the aftermarket take care of it once the model's production has ended.
German cars enjoyed the OES advantage for parts
i installed one of those Brazilian made Bosch pumps in place of a Walbro OE one. It seemed to work fine.
In the European car world, you can order a Behr(now owned by Mahle) radiator, cooler or thermostat and it was more or less what the car came with. The OEM vendor of German water pumps is more obscure(unlike the usual picks of Aisin/Yamada/Hitachi as Unisia Jecs or Paraut) but in those communities, it’s assumed Hepu or Graf made the OE piece.
The replacements for my mother's Sable were 100% identical, except for not having the Ford oval.
So, Hall.. You're not far off from what I found, I believe they were the supplier making it to Honda's spec.
When my 96 civic headlights started going bad, I checked with Honda and laughed very hard at their insane prices for a headllight assembly. I had to look for something reasonably priced! That led me to compare many aftermarket headlights that fit the Civic. The TYC caught my eye because it had the same reflector colors as Honda. No, for those who want to argue, they're not all the same color! The more I looked, like you Hall, the more the TYC resembled almost exactly the Honda factory assembly.
I began doing research and determine that at some point TYC was the supplier to Stanley which was the middle contractor who supplied the headlights to Honda. This is for US-Market Civics.. don't know who did the rest of the world.. Stanley never actually made them from what I could determine! Very strange. You could compare the stock molding numbers exactly to TYC. It's not unheard of because TYC does supply parts to OEM's.
I have found that my TYC headlights does have "hot spots" because the reflector is slightly different from Honda's.. That's fine with me. But it's probably due to contractual engineering/production agreements they had with Stanley/Honda.. I feel the TYC light actually is a more usable light instead of the generic flood Honda's always was! I can actually see the road at night very well, compared to the Honda's even when new and aligned properly!! People complain about the aftermarket but in my civic's case, TYC is a winner!
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