You are not alone- poor aftermarket parts

My thread below is about to get highjacked with stories and comments about poor quality aftermarket parts for our classics. So I started this poor aftermarket part topic. It will likely fail.

Cheers Ron

I'm not working enough on my car anymore to be able to contribute (yay or nay) much to this thread, and a '92 Integra is by no stretch a classic. However, it does seem that some manufacturers are cutting corners that others aren't...or they are doing a better job of cutting those corners. Case in point? headlight bulbs. When ever I can, I try to stick with Hella brand bulbs as they seem to last longer. For that matter, I don't wind up blowwing a bulb on installation with Hella like I seem to with other brands...like Sylvania.

If you look at Moss Motors catalogs, you will often see parts that are marked "premium" with an equivalent part being marked "aftermarket".

Typically, the "premium" part is made in Europe or even the USA. The "aftermarket" parts are often made in India or China.

I mentioned in the other thread that I bought a brake light switch for my Spridget that was made so poorly, it was almost comical. I've seen distributor caps that are similarly hopeless (you can still get "good" Lucas caps....I think TRW owns the tooling).

The aftermarket brake rotors don't seem as good as OEM. If you have old rotors, better to cut them down (if there is enough "meat" to do that) or buy Brembo (not really that expensive).

Buy the better "Payen" gaskets (and not "aftermarket") if you have a choice.

Open a Mustangs Unlimited catalog. The cheap counterfeit parts are easy to find, just follow this rule: if it has a part number and a price, it's a cheap knockoff. Even the name brand stuff isn't safe, better make sure that Edelbrock Blue fuel pump is IN an Edelbrock box.

That's it, simple. I worked there for 2 years in the R&D department. The quality of parts that passed through there was appalling at time. And don't bother with "Premium" versus "normal". The premium arm rest pads came from the same bin as the normal ones, all that was different was the price.

And you don't even want to know about body panels...

And you don't even want to know about body panels...

I hear that!

We made sure our car insurance will pay for "real", factory sheetmetal and not parts hammered out by children chained to a coconut tree.

Hmmm, this brings up an interesting point. I wonder what % of classic American and European cars are now actually Chinese or Indian (or ???).

The Italian car parts had many problems but poor quality molded rubber parts caused more than their share.
I believe it started with original new old stock that were dried out from age and progressed to new aftermarket bushings and flex joints made with very low quality rubber. Although many of these inferior parts still are being shipped to customers, the better parts vendors are solving these issues and finding new sources. The computer forums are a great lobbying device when parts seller XXX becomes famous for their products falling apart. cheers Ron

I ordered an exhaust system (supposedly a performance item) from a Mustang specialist (it was so long ago I can't say it was M U or not). The body shop that put it on my car "said" they had problems with the fitment....makes me wonder now. And yeah, it was stupid to spend good money on a set of pipes any decent shop could have duplicated. "Occasionally" I am stupid with my (limited) money.

In the slant six world, while NAPA-Echlin parts are usually pretty good, their distributor caps are always ground off-center, with some of the terminals likely to hit the rotor. I once had a parts counter guy bring me three of them because he was convinced the first was a fluke, and they were all that way.

One other thing is that it seems most parts store rebuilt carbs are total garbage. It's at the point where a mechanically clueless teenager can do better rebuilding a carb in dad's basement than your average factory-rebuilt carb. I mean that literally.

Local parts store BMW guibo joint lifespan = 1 year of only autocrosses and 2 track days.

Replaced with Pelican Parts German made, name brand oem guibo. For probably less money.

Time spent under car removing driveshaft twice = not priceless.

Lately, I've had a tough time buying decent wheel bearings. I ordered a set from TRF for my Spitfire that were made in India. Of course the box says "Product of UK". Grease was made in Belgium. Not sure where the seal was made but they were crap. The part number sticker was deliberately put over the manufacturing companies statement to obscure it. Earlier, I had gone by a local bearing dealer to order Timken or Koyo bearings. They could not tell me the price at that time, but called later. The total was $138 for a set of front wheels bearing for a Spitfire. That's when I went with the TRF set.

I went by Car Quest the other day and a bearing for homemade trailer. They came from China.

The stories of bad aftermarket distributer caps that are not centered are common with the Fiats as well.
I have had better luck with local rebuilds but It depends on the quality control of the local shop.

Cheers Ron