Quality parts, sobering lesson on Zafira

[lisbon_road]

About two years ago, my wife's Zafira A failed the MOT on shredded steering rack gaiters.  They were shocking.  My MOT examiner, who is very good to me, sighed and said that he just couldn't pass them.  Fair enough.

When I replaced them - awkward or what - I thought that at 160K miles, I should do the track rod ends.  Why not.  Only a few quid.  Got them from ECP, can't remember the brand but I normally don't go for the cheapest.  (But in this instance, I can't remember).

Now about a year ago, I noticed some tyre wear.  Then the last MOT, he didn't fail it but advised verbally that there was wear.  Actually I thought he meant that the wear was the inner joint on the nearside, but it was the track rod end.  After such a short time.

Looks like my great idea of changing the parts wasn't so great, was it?

Fitted a new one which is Delphi, so should be a decent one.  I hope?

[sutty2006]

It’s strange you should observe this, about the lack of quality modern parts, but I can vouch for this. 
 

1. I bought my hatchback Manta in 2007, and I have put a little over 20,000 miles on it since then, with 3 different engines. I’ve replaced all the brakes, the rear axle, the suspension, gearbox too…. One thing I have never touched is the front arms and steering joints. Never had it tracked. And to be honest, it doesn’t need it as they aren’t wearing the tyres uneven. So I don’t plan on touching it. 
 

2. the Mercedes trucks I work on built between 2014-2019 have rear axle a frames with bushes in. Never a problem with them. But all of the trucks made 19- present those same bushes are falling to bits. Have they started using lower grade parts? Cheap shit? Sign of the times? 

[High Jetter]

3 engines in 20k miles is worrying tho

[RoverFolkUs]

Delphi is decent

Bet it was Q-Drive or something, before Starline, equally shit, invaded the shelves

Previous owner of my old Focus put a Starline bottom arm on it, failed the following MOT on a ripped ball joint gaiter so they're shit by all accounts!

That being said, it gets you through the MOT which is all most folk are looking for and they would rather not spend the extra on Lemforder parts or similar!

[somewhatfoolish]

If the ball joints are not exhibiting play I'd almost be tempted to pull back the gaiter, skoosh the grease out with carb/brake cleaner, regrease and refit the gaiter; better the devil you know maybe. With TREs failing in 12 months, did they have any grease in at all?

[spike60]

I don't think it's particularly a new problem, 10 years or so ago BMW E39 ARB links from ECP didn't last until the next test/8000 miles. The do usually offer a price/quality range, I guess you get what you pay for to some degree. I usually keep my cars a fair while so I'll price original manufacturer and better branded parts but sometimes still do the "buy shite, buy twice" mistakes. We have a couple of older Mercs and about half the time buy genuine, prices and availability are generally OK. W126 rear exhaust, S211 front pads and discs , gearbox service kit all competitive and delivered. 

Anybody tried making a warranty claim on Chinese stuff sold within the UK? Good luck. We tried to claim on a BMW E61 rear air bag compressor, 2 year warranty, fucked at 3 months. They won, they wore us down by going off on a tangent all the time. Replaced with an American Arnott one for triple the price. I fitted a Chinese rear wiper motor on the Merc S211, within 2 months it parks where and when it feels like it. Crap. But is one from a 15 year old scrapper better? Original MB £250 IIRC, mebby should have just manned up and opened the wallet!

[Rocket88]

Think that some of the cheap crap should be re-labelled “ it’ll get you through an MOT, but don’t expect it to last until the next one”…..

[danthecapriman]

It’s the rubber stuff that’s amazing me. Dust boots and the like. 
I bought a new set of replacement rubber dust covers and slider pins for my Volvo front callipers a few years ago from a specialist Volvo parts place. The old ones were all torn and manky but were nearly 30 years old. I fitted all the new ones and it worked fine so thought no more of it. 
About a year after I took the wheels off to check the brakes and the rubber replacements had all dry rotted! All had gone hard and brittle and looked like lace doilies! That’s terrible quality. And means after such a short time you’re back to square one and your callipers are filling up with dirt, moisture and on the way to seizing up. 
Must admit though, it seems to be more down to cheap shit from China. I bought some replacement rubber ball joint dust boots from Rock Auto in the US, made in USA and they’ve been spot on. Perfect fit and no signs of degrading yet.

[grogee]

I do wonder if there's a banned ingredient within 'rubber' (eg steering arm gaiter, TRE boots etc) that is now banned due to environmental reasons and we're suffering the consequences as a result. 

[barefoot]

Original carb on my T2 lasted for 28 years, the Bosal replacement lasted for less than two. Two years in which I'd had the original rebuilt by a little old bloke in a shed with thick lensed glasses & biro stains on his warehouse coat. As the van approaches 44 years old, the original Solex is still cheerfully doing its stoichiometric thing.

[Dobloseven]

Son's just changed an ARB droplink on his partners A3 which hadn't lasted a year. 

[RoverFolkUs]

Previous owner changed the bottom arm bushes on my Focus for its MOT in 2017 and they're still absolutely perfect which is quite remarkable because cheap aftermarket ones don't tend to last more than a year or two on these.

Invoice is from ECP but it doesn't specify the brand unfortunately, I'd love to know what they were to have lasted this long

[Cavcraft]

Starline don't seem to have the best rep. Just for shits and giggles though (don't) try one of these if you need a battery

[Dave_Q]

2 hours ago, Dobloseven said:

Son's just changed an ARB droplink on his partners A3 which hadn't lasted a year. 

Droplinks were literally every year for MOT on my old mk2 Scudo, could be that the van was heavy on them but I also believe that the parts were shit too.

[Dave_Q]

I can only assume that the parts manufacturers moved with the market, it used to be that some brands were better than others but I'm sure it's been mentioned on here that Febi, Meyle et al have all started putting their badge on more or less any old dogshit.

I guess when your main competitor is unbranded stuff on eBay and 97% of people just buy the cheapest one you gotta give the people what they want.

Personally I try to buy stuff like this from a local factors that is popular with taxi drivers and just ask for whatever brand the taxi drivers use.

[Popsicle]

It doesn't appear to make a huge difference to me which make you use, particularly suspension parts/bushes etc. Yes I do more miles in a year than most, but nothing seems to last very long.

I'm doing a front droplink test on my Caddy at the mo, if anybodys bored enough to be interested! Its hardly the most scientific test, but its something to do.

 

Meyle HD droplinks lasted - 69k miles - 8 months

Lemforder droplinks lasted - 49k miles  - 9 months

El cheapo droplinks - 8k miles so far - 1 month

 

Sorry if this has bored anyone to tears.

[RoverFolkUs]

2 minutes ago, Popsicle said:

It doesn't appear to make a huge difference to me which make you use, particularly suspension parts/bushes etc. Yes I do more miles in a year than most, but nothing seems to last very long.

I'm doing a front droplink test on my Caddy at the mo, if anybodys bored enough to be interested! Its hardly the most scientific test, but its something to do.

 

Meyle HD droplinks lasted - 69k miles - 8 months

Lemforder droplinks lasted - 49k miles  - 9 months

El cheapo droplinks - 8k miles so far - 1 month

 

Sorry if this has bored anyone to tears.

No, this is extremely useful because you do a million miles a year, we can work out how long certain brands last quite easily without fitting shit parts to 500 cars and them all coming back a year later with the same thing worn out 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Popsicle said:

It doesn't appear to make a huge difference to me which make you use, particularly suspension parts/bushes etc. Yes I do more miles in a year than most, but nothing seems to last very long.

I'm doing a front droplink test on my Caddy at the mo, if anybodys bored enough to be interested! Its hardly the most scientific test, but its something to do.

 

Meyle HD droplinks lasted - 69k miles - 8 months

Lemforder droplinks lasted - 49k miles  - 9 months

El cheapo droplinks - 8k miles so far - 1 month

 

Sorry if this has bored anyone to tears.

Noway, perfect real-world long term test bed. Maybe you could get manufacturers to sponsor you?

[Popsicle]

5 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Noway, perfect real-world long term test bed. Maybe you could get manufacturers to sponsor you?

I'd love a sponsor, trouble is my feedback would probably end up with building a car/van like this.

 

[High Jetter]

So? 🤣

[Popsicle]

Well the drop link test I am doing on the couriering Caddy is complete and the results are in!

Drum roll please.....

 

Cheapo front droplinks are knocking already, lasted 3 months and 26k miles.

For comparison I got 69k from Meyle HD and 49k from Lemforder.

I'll be ordering some more Meyle HD ones next - unless anyone else can suggest any other brands - it would be nice to only have to change them once a year 😄.

[Ghosty]

Last year, that Civic Coupe I had got new Moog droplinks. They perished in two months without the car even moving.

Junkman has made similar comments about rubber quality...

[Popsicle]

1 hour ago, Ghosty said:

Last year, that Civic Coupe I had got new Moog droplinks. They perished in two months without the car even moving.

Junkman has made similar comments about rubber quality...

Thats not good I thought Moog stuff was supposed to be decent - don't think I've knowingly ever used them though.

[bunglebus]

On 05/03/2023 at 17:57, Dave_Q said:

Febi, Meyle et al have all started putting their badge on more or less any old dogshit.

Have they? That's a shame, I'd been trying to get Febi Bilstein parts if I could after a right debacle with the temp sender on the Lupo reading 70c when cold and about the same inaccuracy the other way on the Passat. Febi stuff on both sorted it and have behaved perfectly since