Poor quality parts

[jakebullet]

Britpart for when you really hate having a reliable land rover.

[forddeliveryboy]

Are the filters with Britpart on them as bad? They're v cheap indeed, a lot of veg oil users fit their fuel filters at £2 a go instead of £10+ for others.

[Parky]

I have noticed that things like oil filters are made of much thinner steel than they used to be. I only use good brands like Mahle and the last ones I bought felt lighter and I could deform the filter body by squeezing it. Never used to be able to do that.

 

It's not a great problem as the oil still stays in but I can see them being a mare to replace as the filter wrench tears them to pieces......

[Sigmund Fraud]

Anything from mini spares, moss, Mx5parts, and my local motor factors will be dubious.

 

It puzzles me why people buy from such companies : they sell the same far eastern shite that's on ebay but for double the price !

 

NOS stuff is your best bet to be honest, even if they are 30+ years old... with one exception- timing belts!! Always go for something recently made if you can. Luckily, we seem to be pretty well catered for by companies such as Gates in that dept. 

 

+1 on this one... I recently tried to get a cambelt for my Megane : ECP sent me an SKF kit that was made in 2005, GSF didn't stock the correct part, local factors didn't want to know. An ebay search came up with the usual GROSSE-SCHWANZ (formerly WANG-QING of China) kits of dubious quality and an OEM Renault kit produced in 2003 !

 

In the end, I had to order from the friendly snail munchers of 'Mister Auto', in France, who had a fresh Gates kit in stock !

 

Britpart for when you really hate having a reliable land rover.

 

Surely, that means they're faithful to the OEM parts ?

[Station]

I always buy genuine branded stuff from the dealer. I don't care if it's overpriced, at least it'll last.

Unfortunately, you can't buy 'genuine' stuff on ebay anymore as the motor factors have cottoned on, and EVERYTHING is titled 'GENUINE OEM SPEC REPLACEMENT', when they are clearly shit. You can't search for genuine as you get 'GENUINE SPEC WIPERS' and 'GENUINE REPLACEMENT PART RUBBER BUSHES'

Anything that uses rubber will last a fraction. The top mounts on my Astra have been replaced so many times, due to the rubber breaking down and splitting over the space 1 - 2 years - this shouldn't happen.

[Station]

As demonstated here:

 

[lisbon_road]

(Sorry to be slightly off topic) much as I agree with the thread.

 

 Can you change those Astra mounts without taking the struts out?

[Grundig]

I think rubber components that were manufactured years ago were made with certain additives that have since been banned from use 

[Sigmund Fraud]

I think rubber components that were manufactured years ago were made with certain additives that have since been banned from use 

 

Call me a conspiracy theorist of Junkmanian proportions, but I think that market pressures and greed have far more to do with it !

 

Industries in western europe have certainly stopped using various abominable* ingredients, but I suspect they're still commonplace in countries where the vast majority of components are actually being made !

[Junkman]

I had some issue with Unipart vs. Mann oil filters with the Rover. There are indeed before and after 1976 filters, and they differ by the thread.

When cross referencing the Unipart to the Mann part number, you end up with the post - 1976 threaded one from Mann.

The parts guys didn't do anything wrong - the cross reference list is incorrect.

[Rusty_Rocket]

Hey Station- I have a '94 Astra GSi with its (original) cracked top mounts.  I'm doing a front-end rebuild this summer and have bought febi-bilstein top mounts. Do you think they will be worth fitting? Gen VX part is nla now 

[Timewaster]

As a spotty youth working in a Vauxhall parts depot I often spent a few hours picking the expired use by dates off the rubber parts....

 

 

Which had just been delivered from Luton!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I work in a BMW parts department. Over the last 10-15 years the quality of the cars has gradually decreased down to Ford/Vauxhall level so now you're getting fucked engines at 60k along with whiney diffs, manual boxes that crunch into second or won't engage reverse with the engine running, diff oil seals leaking, worn heater control buttons, blown air con condensers and compressors and shagged LED tail lights - all at four to five years old, and a lot at 2-3 years old. Shagged ECU's are also a LOT more common than they were.

I use quite a lot of ECP bits. Q Drive stuff is shit. Lemforder and Febi aren't bad but no matter what they say, they don't last quite as long as BMW originals that lasted 10-15 years.

I use Boge for shocks, Nissens for rads, Pagid for brakes and Febi/Lemforder for suspension, NGK or Bosch for plugs.

But, as a full on Pikey I have a stash of spares, good used calipers and stuff like that. So really, my motoring costs fuck all.

 

Quite simply - nobody can afford to make stuff the way it was made 15-20 years ago, either cars or parts. If they did, nobody would buy it.

[gordonbennet]

What pisses me off is when Chinese shit parts carry a Germanic sounding name instead of wunhunglow.

 

Just to be totally racist, i do not want to buy Chinese fuckin rubbish, i don't want and i aint having a Chinese washing machine with a well know German badge on the front, and i don't want any of their fuckin parts in one of my cars either, but getting bloody hard to know exactly what you have got or where it was made because the makers importers and sellers are nearly all devious twats.

 

I must have told this before but i was one of the original backers of Britain, i always bought things made here whenever possible, long before it became Maggies clarion call while she like the other traitors before and since signed EU treaties giving away our sovereignty.

 

About 20 years ago i needed a new microwave oven, and searched high and low for one made here, eventually at one of the high street sheds i found a Belling, resplendent in its Union Flag emblem plastered across the front...fuckin great i'll have it, but i'll have a look on the back before i pay just to check.... MADE IN FUCKIN CHINA...BOLLOX...stick it up yer arse, the girl was amazed, she said no one had ever asked her where something was made before (no wonder the bloody place is bankrupt), she probably and rightly thought i was a fuckin nutter.

[Squire_Dawson]

Reminds me of a case of fake (another hazard) parts ended up on the market, brake pads made out of cardboard pulp or something and super-glued to the backing. They were stamped 'WASSERPUMPE' - German for waterpump.

[PhilA]

Rubber bits these days have switched to having been made from vegetables, rather than dinosaurs. As such, the stuff doesn't last and/or rodents chew it to bits.

 

It's not just today though. Renault have a lot to answer for when it comes to the plastic parts they fitted to my car in 1986.

 

--Phil

[Rusty Pelican]

Rubber bits these days have switched to having been made from vegetables, rather than dinosaurs. As such, the stuff doesn't last and/or rodents chew it to bits.

 

It's not just today though. Renault have a lot to answer for when it comes to the plastic parts they fitted to my car in 1986.

 

--Phil

Modern rubber is truly shit , splits and rots in no time , i bought 3 crankcase breather hoses for my E30 a year ago , genuine Beemer , ones split already whereas the original lasted 26 years . fucking crap especially if the new Beemers use the same stuff 

[Rocket88]

I wonder if the "must recycle at any cost" craze has had anything to do with the plummeting quality of parts. Take rubber for example. If gaiters, hoses etc are being made from old tyres, used condoms and FKW, I would have thought that they wouldn't be as good as rubber that's been freshly harvested from Mother Nature..............

[Lankytim]

Sharp microwaves are made in Wrexham... Sadly I regularly deliver containers full of parts from the far east in there!

[Parky]

A friend broke the door handle of her Fiat 500. The hinge had broken and apparently it's quite a common thing.

 

I got a new one from Fiat, a genuine part that she managed to break three days later. The casting is particularly shite. You can see the air bubbles in the metal where it snapped. It's one occasion where a plastic one would probably be better. Garage swapped it without quibbling so I changed it again and I wonder how long this one lasts?

 

Have stopped using a local place because all the stuff they provide now is no name Chinese stuff. Fujitoyo filters anyone? No, thought not. It used to be Wix and Fram but they are charging the same for the crap

[cort1977]

I changed out the plugs on my Yank about three months ago with NGK plugs.   Looked at them the other day and the exposed parts of the plugs have gone rusty.   The car has never been driven in the rain in that time.  

 

Agree with comments above about both recycling requirements and that quality in general has taken a dive to drive down costs.   Part of it is probably a cynical accounting exercise that as cars are seen as more disposable they don't have to be designed and built to last as long.

[steve_earwig]

I suspect that,. in recent years, motor manufacturers have realised that they can actually make more from selling spares than they can from selling the cars in the first place. This is in the same way that printer manufacturers that used to sell ink to keep their products going have now become ink manufacturers that sell printers in order to use the ink up and create demand for more. All the rest is just maximising profit by cutting corners in the manufacturing process.

 

I notice that PSA have started listing cheaper parts for cars >4 years old in their parts catalogues. I asked my friendly spares manager at a Pug franchise in Zagreb about this and he pulled down a pollen filter in order to show me it was in fact a flimsy piece of garbage, then he screwed it up and chucked it in the bin. "Don't buy any, it's shit" he advised.

[forddeliveryboy]

I changed out the plugs on my Yank about three months ago with NGK plugs.   Looked at them the other day and the exposed parts of the plugs have gone rusty.   The car has never been driven in the rain in that time.  

 

Try Nippon-Denso, I've found NGK plugs took a nosedive in quality a few years ago - shame, as I like their characteristics when working correctly. Could be partly down to the fact that I use an older size, though I suspect that more modern ignition systems care less about internal resistance than a points and condensor setup.

[gordonbennet]

Try Nippon-Denso, I've found NGK plugs took a nosedive in quality a few years ago - shame, as I like their characteristics when working correctly. Could be partly down to the fact that I use an older size, though I suspect that more modern ignition systems care less about internal resistance than a points and condensor setup.

 

Christ don't say that, i'm still recovering from the gruelling 3+ piggin hours it took to wiggle 6 old NGK's out of the Legacy and 6 new sods in, didn't reckon on doing them again for at least 5 years.

 

Job to know which is worse, you're lying on your back working uphill all the time so the blood drains away from your arms and they ache like buggery, but then less blood means less bleeding from the dozens of bloody scrapes and scratches on the backs of hands and wrists trying to work the buggers in or out via semi keyhole sugary,  washing hands after, yeaow that smarts.

 

Made of unobtainium the bastards were, circa £48 and now you tell me they're shit, sounds about my luck.

[twosmoke300]

Maybe ive been lucky but ive not had a faulty ngk plug yet and ive fitted hundreds of the buggers. Motocraft (motocrap) are terrible and always snap off in ford kas

[forddeliveryboy]

£48 for 6 is plenty more than I was paying for boxes of B7HS - just over £1 each or so. Take heart, they should be fine! twosmoke, one plug in four or six which has gone high resistance has little effect on a modern set up. A techie at NGK half-admitted this when he said they were 'designed to work in the current environment' and carefully avoided saying anything to suggest they're as good as ever.  I've found the longevity of Densos amazing.

[mercrocker]

Anything made for a Minor is either chocolate or cheese.   Went through TWO indicator stalks in a six week period.   Both from a recognised supplier.   I ended up forking out sixty quid for a NOS Lucas at Beaulieu Auto-sting but its been on there 8 years and should last the 40 plus years of the original.    Silicone water hoses - Shite.   Indian/Sri Lankan regulator boxes - Shite.  Windscreen rubbers - 4 years max.   Some of these items even claim to be made in England.   I suppose that's a bit like the British oven we bought last year or the Handcrafted in Stratford on Avon bicycles a few years before that.   Chock full of Wang-Dongery and sharp edges.   Thank God I don't drive anything with a cam belt....

[PiperCub]

Been lucky generally as have stuck to OE or OEM kit mainly - esp for my keepers. Recently had issues with recon brake calipers for my ratty hack Eunos - the supplier initially refused to believe there were any problems with the recon process (a UK company). Eventually once investigated they found several quality issues and gave me two new (not recon) calipers!

If offered el cheapo/never-heard-of-them company bits at any factors, I refuse to buy them and stick to what I know, my local m/f is pretty good in this respect. Agree with the above comments on ebay purchases, there's some real old pony on there. You can buy on price but be aware you might be doing the job twice.

 

Recall some years ago (may have changed now) a mate was restoring an MGB and wanted to either re-chrome or replace the bumpers, the former was very pricey so he bought new. What junk they were, I can't remember how many he sent back but they were awful, badly made, incorrect profile, razor sharp inner edges, kit-kat wrapper chrome etc.. (sometimes all of the above!). The comment from several suppliers was the same - people want cheap and won't pay for decent ones - which strikes me as total sales bol-x, quantity over quality. Eventually he had the originals re-chromed, expensive yes, but they look and fit perfectly. Maybe recon-ing the originals were possible is the way to go now.

[Vince70]

I'm so worried about this crap quality we see in car components these days that I'm sticking to the original components as much as possible.

 

That's why both my old bangers are on the original cam-belts at 14 and 19 years old

 

Or that's what I'm going to use as the sales pitch when it comes to sell them and I can't prove when they're last changed lol

[Honey Badger]

Example No1 M'lud.

 

 

See anything missing from the new part.......