Detroit axle wheel hubs

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Apr 17, 2012
Messages
3,551
Location
West Michigan
Looking at optiona to replace a noisey front wheel hub bearing assemblt on an Olds Aurora annd came across these. My understanding is detroit axle is a solid company which makes oem parts but the price is less than half of comparable timkens. Has anybody used replacements parts from them? Are they worth it?
 
Interesting story, asand1, though it does sound pretty incomplete. Seems to raise more questions than answers; especially the country of manufacture for this brand (I know they have at least one maybe two plants in the Detroit area).
 
I got a wheel bearing from them for my olds silhouette van. Price was right, machining looked good (but we know how that shows little.)

I had snagged the ABS wire on my old one and needed the light off. This worked! Sold the van shortly thereafter so IDK how it did long-term.

I got it on ebay, of course, land of the sketchy car parts.

PS my box had no COO whatsoever on it.

They may also do business as "Dearborn axle."
laugh.gif
 
Originally Posted By: buck91
Looking at optiona to replace a noisey front wheel hub bearing assemblt on an Olds Aurora annd came across these. My understanding is detroit axle is a solid company which makes oem parts but the price is less than half of comparable timkens. Has anybody used replacements parts from them? Are they worth it?


I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

To answer a few from this thread, our wheel bearings are supplied by one of two factories in China. We have one which we own and one where we have been doing business with them for many years and staying with them because of their quality even though other Chinese suppliers are offering to us at a lower price, that often comes with the risk of lower quality.

Our Rack and Pinions, Axles, and Driveshafts are remanufactured in Ferndale, MI.

Dearborn Axle and Detroit Axle names are interchangeable, we operate under both names. We have been selling to the local market as Dearborn Axle for over 20 years and began transitioning to the Detroit Axle brand about 4 years ago as we went to a larger scale and began our eCommerce division. We plan to drop the Dearborn name over the next year or so and just be Detroit Axle all the way.

In regards to our website, we are building a better one! I have a team of 3 that is putting together the database of parts so that everything will be properly searchable and with the correct, clean looking picture. We took to many shortcuts with displaying our products in the past and now we are going to make sure we do it right!
 
I put a rack in from AA and it was defective. AA paid me $200 cash money a few days later for the labor.

Sometimes all it takes is to ask. I do have a corporate account if that makes any difference.
 
Last edited:
The only way I've seen labor paid, is if a shop bought and and installed the part, then that part failed. They can write up a labor claim and will get reimbursed up to a max amount per hour.

I would be very surprised to see any labor reimbursement on a customer supplied part.
 
Originally Posted By: another Todd
OK DetroitAxle, so what is your warranty on parts, lets say a bearing hub? If your part goes bad during the warranty will you pay the labor to have it replaced again?


Our Warranty policy is parts only for material defect. For Hub Bearings, the warranty period is one year. Suspension products are 90 days. Rack and Pinions are lifetime (activated when we receive your core). Axles are lifetime (a few select axles are with core return).
 
eljefino, when I was in the business (albeit a long time ago) our parts house would pay labor to replace defective parts. So basically, I was just asking if they took care of professional shops that used their products. From their reply, you can see they do not. Here is a quote from one of their replies;

"To answer a few from this thread, our wheel bearings are supplied by one of two factories in China. We have one which we own and one where we have been doing business with them for many years and staying with them because of their quality even though other Chinese suppliers are offering to us at a lower price, that often comes with the risk of lower quality."

Nowhere do they state that their products are high quality, only that they could be less quality with other suppliers. Their warranty is weak in my opinion, and there is usually a reason for that!
 
Originally Posted By: another Todd
eljefino, when I was in the business (albeit a long time ago) our parts house would pay labor to replace defective parts. So basically, I was just asking if they took care of professional shops that used their products. From their reply, you can see they do not. Here is a quote from one of their replies;

"To answer a few from this thread, our wheel bearings are supplied by one of two factories in China. We have one which we own and one where we have been doing business with them for many years and staying with them because of their quality even though other Chinese suppliers are offering to us at a lower price, that often comes with the risk of lower quality."

Nowhere do they state that their products are high quality, only that they could be less quality with other suppliers. Their warranty is weak in my opinion, and there is usually a reason for that!


"High Quality" is a very subjective term, which is why I avoid using it. There are many places that will sell junk parts and put "High Quality" "Performance" "Premium" or some other marketing term along side it. Compared to our competitors on eBay and Amazon, we have an equal or greater warranty policy. There are a few places that offer a Lifetime Warranty that are identical to their 90 Day or 1-Year Warranty parts and sell them at a higher price.

We aim to provide customers a good price, good quality, good policies, and good service. If we increase our warranty policy, we would need to raise prices to cover the costs of bearing that may go out a few years down the road that may or may not be to quality related. Doing so would put us out from being price competitive with other sellers.
 
I have purchased some wheel hubs for a friend's Olds Achieva from them that seemed to be OK, but he sold the car shortly thereafter. Their Yelp reviews though are VERY bad, I don't think they get many return customers.
 
I'm still trying to get my refund for a returned new defective part from Detroit Axle I purchased in Feb. I have several pages of emails from DT and Amazon. I have nothing good to say about DT. I would not recommend doing business with DT.

In my opinion and in my experience DT is a shoddy operation.

YMMV
 
I was looking for front hubs for a 2000 Mustang. Dealer part is $179. Motorcraft brand online is $79. Timken brand [number 1 rated and makes OEM parts] is $48.99 for one. Detroit Axle sells a PAIR of them for $48.25 on Amazon. That just sounds off to me. I won't buy any wheel hubs with less than a 3 year warranty. The original ones have 197k on them and they are 16 years old. Maybe Detroit Axle is like Harbor Freights brands like Pittsburgh Tools, Chicago Electric, and Central Pneumatic. They make these American sounding names to trick you into buying Chinese garbage. Anything from Harbor Freight is suspect. I refuse to deal with returns and wasting time with broken tools in the middle of projects. Maybe a tarp for one time use or a simple tool for one expected use but that's about it. Most of the stuff I buy now is name brand [Stihl/Husqvarna etc...] or used/old quality, proven reliable off of Craigslist. Even Craftsman hand tools are junk now; I believe they have two versions, a standard and a premium line...if that ain't [censored] I don't know what is.
 
Last edited:
Here's my take on DA's parts...

For most stuff-for the most part their stuff is good. Now you can't expect Moog type stuff, but for the most part it's nice bang for buck for those on a budget...


Their major fail- their quick struts. Two of my local dealerships (GM and Ford ) will not TOUCH these parts, along with a few good local indy shops. You know there is some issues when a shop would rather put DTA (also junk) before these...

Considered these for our Cavalier (4 basic type struts). Shocked when I dropped a friend off at one of the shops to find they were reaplacing the DA Quick Struts after less than 10k on a cavalier the same year as my wife's. While the roads are bad here in MI, even the cheap monroes should give you 30k...... I checked the struts too, as just don't believe what they tell me. Back ones weren't too bad-but the fronts were rough, with the driver's side mount having major issues....


While I've heard some good stuff about their other stuff ( like the ones made in MI)-doesn't look good for their struts....I would at least expect 30-40 out of mine....
 
Hey guys,
I just had a bad experience with Detroit Axle. I bought a pair of complete struts for my wife's car, and noticed that the brake line bracket was in the wrong place (had to bend it for the brake line to fit), and after the installation was complete, noticed that the front end sat 2" higher than normal (measured distance between top of tire to top of wheel well on 2 other cars of the exact same type to verify this). I kept the alignment fairly close, but after a couple weeks, she took the car to the local NTB (National Tire & Battery) for a real front end alignment. Without any prompting, they (NTB techs) commented that the car's front was sitting higher than normal. When I first contacted DA's customer service they gave me almost 2 weeks of back and forth before they acknowledged that I was a legit customer. Then they said that the "sitting higher" was normal, and that I should give it some time for the struts to settle ...so I did. After a few more weeks ...no change, so I contacted them again and asked for a refund. They stated that nothing could be done since I had already installed them on my car. They told me they want to work with their customers, but they did nothing to even try to help. Talk is cheap. I've since purchased (only 5 months later) another set of struts, and I have to eat the lost cost of the DA's.
For what it's worth, I advise anyone to buy from a reputable company. In the long run, what appeared to be a savings, turned out to be a headache, and lost $$ altogether. I will never make that mistake again.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top