Better auto parts?
 

In my quest to get at least the mileage out of replacement parts equal to OEM, I come to many dead ends.
It's all from cheena and they are all inferior.
Advanced, NAPA, whoever.
It's all far east junk.
I find myself standing at the Honda parts counter for wheel bearings @ 200 bucks each.
I know they can be had for about 60.00 in line, but I also knew that for exp, they would go for about 20K, and I would get to do them again and again!
Brakes
I bought this last set from Power Stop, thinking they might be better, they may be,IDK yet, but again, they came from the cheena place.
That was disappointing!
I thought for some reason they were domestic.....
If you folks know where to get parts equal to OEM, let's let each other know .
That, is my rant for now.
Thanx!!

years ago on my 2001 Ford F150, I replaced the front rotors at about 120K. I went through that several sets made in China, trying to find a pair of that would not warp. I finally bought Ford rotors and those were made in China.

I suppose there are some good things that come from China, but a lot of it is made from Chineseium.

Herro Afterburn 549,

I am interested in what gets posted here.

The Chinesium parts are by and large junk. Cheap junk. I try to get AC Delco or GM parts when I can. I just replaced the plugs (NGK) and plug wires on my El Camino. The wires were just 42 bucks from NAPPA. The old wires had been in place for 87,000 miles, so it was time.

I don't mind paying more for quality parts, but finding them is the challenge. I can go to the Porsche dealer and order a new coil for my 85 911. It will be the garbage silver coil that is 50-50 odd of bad from the box. I had to find an old German made black coil used from the 1980s to get a quality coil. To get a coil with all the proper voltages the DME computer wants, is a real challenge. I will stick to my 40+ year old German made coil.

I was gambling that maybe I am the odd man out with these bad parts. In my conversations with many people over the past 5 years, I think the cheneeese brand has even got worse, if that's possible?
Sorry you folks have experienced this also.
In my many mistakes, I bought a bunch of parts for an older Honda, all front-end stuff from a place called Detroit Axle. (about 5 years ago)
Talk about JUNK!
The tie rod broke while my wife was driving!
It happened in a parking lot . That was a blessing!
I checked the other stuff, struts and ball joints and all, it was all crap!
Must have junk out of the box!
Nice sounding name "Detrloit Axle" , but is cheeeneeese crap.
We need a tariff to get some better parts!

For front end parts, try for Moog parts. Many of them have lifetime warranty.

Do yourself a favor for a Japanese car buy Akebono pads. OE supplier and absolutely killer street pads. They are somewhere between OE and Autozone pricing.

For the rest of the stuff, just bite the bullet and get OEM, it's worth it. Not worth dicking with aftermarket consumable on a driver that has to be reliable

rjp

Im pretty sure moog went the way of the do do a few years back also . Still same great warranty and same pretty blue and yellow box, but I do not see any quality difference between them and anybody else . I have warrantied as many moog wheel bearings as I have cheap brand. I frequently see the same blue bootied ball joints in Moog boxes, that come in Carquest boxes, and Napa boxes .
Quality parts are a real conundrum in this industry now . Nothing sucks quite worse than getting burned on a bad sensor , or any part really, and having to, at a minumum do the job over, but I have had cases, where I replaced a part, and the car still didnt work. Spent hours going back in and root cause diagnosing the problem , only to find I got a bunk sensor from Advance .
Carry on

yeah, i have never found an aftermarket that is as good as original equipment. even OEM parts from the dealer are aftermarket parts re-branded in many cases.

I think sometimes, you can still source quality parts from "
OE " suppliers . Id like to think that you are getting dealer quality parts, at a reduced cost, but if you are buying them online, still a good chance you will get fakes.
I wish I had a quick local source for quality parts, but for my day to day grind, I have to use the box stores , and dealers
For bigger jobs, I can wait a day or two to get quality stuff from vendors like Pelican ( see what I did there )..

I thought Akebono was a Sumo wrestler.


Back to the subject: when I had my IMS done on my 996, I told the mechanic to replace any wear items while the engine was out. Did they listen? Uh NO. I get the call, "while we were test driving after the job, your AOS failed". Me: isn't that a wear item? Why didn't you replace a $75 item that is located at the back of the engine???

They took the engine out and did the AOS. The second one only lasted a couple of years before it let go. During my research of how to DIY, I came across several comments that allege the AOS has a very high failure rate, some right out of the box.

The car sat for a couple of years while I did the job. During the project, nearly everything in the engine bay made of plastic broke. Heck, if you just looked at some piece of plastic, it broke.

Touch wood, all seems fine now a few years on. IIRC, I got a Porsche boxed part this time.

I run Akebono's in my 5000 lb Mercedes, and have been very happy with them for years. Almost zero dust, great braking.

I need a starter and I'm in conundrum. Oem mercedes is $400 bucks, reman Bosch half that but who knows....

For the last 5 years I have failed to see why Moog is even in business peddling their junk.
Others are allowed to like them.
I remember when they used to advertise that their parts wear "IN not out"
Now they wear out, and I get to do the jobs over and over for free.
SO.....I qujit them.

I LOVE those pads. Used them on my E55 and couldn't believe how well they worked all around. Silent, clean and effective even when driven hard on street. 100% Confidence.

I seek them out for my other cars but alas, they don't have many Brembo or Baer fitments.

I bought a Bosch alternator, I bought the official Bosch refurb I had in my E55 as well. No problems in 24K miles. Would do again FYI. I think they even throw in tow coverage if it leaves you stranded. I'd do a starter, no problem myself.

rjp

I almost never buy from Amazon or EBay, that’s guaranteed crap. I have pretty good luck with either buying improved aftermarket parts, like brake pads, or OEM suppliers like Mann, Mable, Lemforder, etc. For domestics I have pretty good luck with the FLAPS brands that have a reasonable warranty, normally they are at least decent quality. Buying the cheapest rarely ends well.

China can make good parts, but they cost more so they don't bother because everyone wants cheap.
I go to the dealer because I only want to do the labour once.

I agree with above -- The amazon / ebay stuff is no where near the savings once you do it several times over !
Next
I am sure you guys know about the proliferation of counterfeit parts on amazon and prolly ebay.
It is not like it is EZ to tell either!
There are several youtube videos from even a spark plug company showing how to tell the minute differences.
The only difference most of us will know is - the parts don't work very well, or very long!

I haven't so much as looked at the brakes on our CR-V since buying it new in '13. From reading this thread I guess I'll have to cave and go to the dealer to get parts when I get around to it.
To make it easy I thought I'd just get new rotors, pads and flex lines, stainless just because. It's got less than 60k miles on it now so I'm not pushing the limits on them yet.

Ebay and amazon are peddlers of counterfeits in oem boxes. Look at how the faa controls parts, defaults are simply just buy from trusted suppliers…


I buy everything on rock auto. Gives me the list of brands and pictures of the parts. Often times the parts will have country of origin stamped on them. Little due diligence goes a long way.

Moog is still relevant as people are simply replacing parts on a rusted out tub that might only last another 20k miles.

Or reselling and it’s the next owner’s problem. lol