Fake Britian - BBC One today. Car parts
Discussion
Not all OEM parts are the lovely high-quality items that some people expect.
I needed to change the water pump on my car about 10 years ago and picked up a part from the dealer, complete with manufacturer branding. The fit was so poor that we went back for another to be assured it was the correct part. A good friend fabricated an extra bit to fit on the end and we still needed to drill a hole for the water to pass through... shocking. Shame this was before the days of cheap knock offs on eBay; it might have been better!
Mind you, it's been a while since I've got my hands that dirty... have parts improved for typical French metal?
I needed to change the water pump on my car about 10 years ago and picked up a part from the dealer, complete with manufacturer branding. The fit was so poor that we went back for another to be assured it was the correct part. A good friend fabricated an extra bit to fit on the end and we still needed to drill a hole for the water to pass through... shocking. Shame this was before the days of cheap knock offs on eBay; it might have been better!
Mind you, it's been a while since I've got my hands that dirty... have parts improved for typical French metal?
V8RX7 said:
As a friend who works for L Rover says
OEM parts are the cheapest supplier (who met the criteria) they could find.
The suppliers can also change throughout the lifespan of the vehicle
Land Rover of old would fit whatever parts they could find, had left over from the previous model so all kinds of variations would occur.OEM parts are the cheapest supplier (who met the criteria) they could find.
The suppliers can also change throughout the lifespan of the vehicle
With regards to genuine parts going out the back door of car plants it definitely used to happen in vast quantity and probably still does.
James B said:
I can speak from experience on the fake alloys issue.
We bought a used Audi A5 in Jan of this year that was running OEM 20" RS4 Style wheels. All original paperwork checked out and showed that was the option ticked at delivery.
Driving home in the car (London to Aberdeen) we felt something out of balance but put it down to a wheel out of balance.
Around Carlisle one of the tyre pressure monitors triggered so we pulled into a service station to refill. It was down a few PSI so I became wary.
We got to Lawrencekirk which is 30 miles from Aberdeen and about 500 miles into the journey when we had a rapid deflation of the same tyre at motorway speeds. Thankfully I was driving and not my fiance.
On removing the wheel it was clear why it deflated. It had a 4" long and 1mm wide crack in it running from inner rim towards the hub. The AA guy said he had never seen anything like it. We got the car home and removed all four wheels.
3 had evidence of cracks and one was flat spotted. I also noticed that while the wheels had all the usual OEM style marks they also had one more telling stamp. P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China i presume)
Chinese fakes.
The dealer that sold the car was horrified and was actually very decent indeed expecially given that we were now 550 miles north of him! A brand new set of genuine and round replacement Audi wheels were sourced and he took back the old ones to discuss with the trader that had passed the car to him.
A lucky escape for us I feel.
From now on I shall be removing wheels to check first before just believing the salesman.
Just editing to add that there is no suggestion that the car was supplied new like this. It's likely that the shocking state of the roads in the UK led to the original wheels becoming damaged and thus replaced with something more affordable. The issue was that neither the selling dealer nor I were aware as it would have affected negotiations somewhat.
keep checking the genuine ones as well once fitted.30% of sets of 20 plus inch wheels that come intoWe bought a used Audi A5 in Jan of this year that was running OEM 20" RS4 Style wheels. All original paperwork checked out and showed that was the option ticked at delivery.
Driving home in the car (London to Aberdeen) we felt something out of balance but put it down to a wheel out of balance.
Around Carlisle one of the tyre pressure monitors triggered so we pulled into a service station to refill. It was down a few PSI so I became wary.
We got to Lawrencekirk which is 30 miles from Aberdeen and about 500 miles into the journey when we had a rapid deflation of the same tyre at motorway speeds. Thankfully I was driving and not my fiance.
On removing the wheel it was clear why it deflated. It had a 4" long and 1mm wide crack in it running from inner rim towards the hub. The AA guy said he had never seen anything like it. We got the car home and removed all four wheels.
3 had evidence of cracks and one was flat spotted. I also noticed that while the wheels had all the usual OEM style marks they also had one more telling stamp. P.R.C. (Peoples Republic of China i presume)
Chinese fakes.
The dealer that sold the car was horrified and was actually very decent indeed expecially given that we were now 550 miles north of him! A brand new set of genuine and round replacement Audi wheels were sourced and he took back the old ones to discuss with the trader that had passed the car to him.
A lucky escape for us I feel.
From now on I shall be removing wheels to check first before just believing the salesman.
Just editing to add that there is no suggestion that the car was supplied new like this. It's likely that the shocking state of the roads in the UK led to the original wheels becoming damaged and thus replaced with something more affordable. The issue was that neither the selling dealer nor I were aware as it would have affected negotiations somewhat.
Edited by James B on Tuesday 7th May 13:32
my brothers powder coating company have at least one wheel cracked in the form you descibe but not as long. the inner rim does not have as much material on it as the outer rim (probably cost saving) and on such a large wheel running low profile tyres even a small bump or pot hole can deflect the wheel enough for it to crack.the crack is usually directly opposite where the ding in the rim is,and its the outer side that goes,which means it doesnt leak air until the crack gets worse.
certain types of tyre machine can also crack these bigger wheels when stretching the tyre onto the rim as low profile tyres have very little room for stretch in them when fitting.
this problem can and does happen a lot on oem wheels,so im surprised your AA bloke hadnt seen it before.
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