OEM vs. Aftermarket Parts Discrepancies (1 Viewer)

[Leblet]

Hi all,
I would like to start a thread on people's experiences swapping aftermarket parts out with OEM. I am a parts interpreter that works in a tractor dealership and I am always interested in the differences between parts.
Often aftermarket parts are generalised and made to suit a wide variety of cars loosely and not yours specifically. This often leads to design flaws and and the part not proforming properly.
So if you've pulled a non-genuine part out of your car that looks quite different to the original I want to know about it no matter what is it!
I look forward to seeing some of your stories.

 

[Leblet]

I've got a few myself off of my HJ60 that I will share to start with. First up is the fuel filter. Even with good brands they still sometimes let you down. Ryco on the right, genuine on the left. Genuine is so much bigger and has alot more paper in it. The spring in the housing would have struggeld to puch the filter element up to seal with the face of the housing. The sealing washers that came with the ryco also weren't up to scratch as they were all flat faced orings, where the origional uses a half curved on to seal the bottom of the bowl properly.

 

[Leblet]

Changed the thermostat a while back. Thermostats are definitely one of those parts where they can pass it off as fitting many different models easily. As you can see they are quite Different with OEM on the left. Old one didn't seal in the housing properly, new one is a nice snug fit. Obviously quite different materials. The OEM weights about 4 times a much as the old one

 

[Leblet]

Once again filters are a biggy, old silver line oil filter vs. OEM. OEM has so much more filter paper in it then the other. It also has a proper plate spring on the anti drain back valve where the old one relies on the rubber seal. The gauge that the tin is made out of is also about double the thickness.

 

[Leblet]

HJ60 water pump and housing . This non genuine didn't even last a year before the bearings gave up and it was leaking past all the seal. The origional is cast iron which matches the block. The non OEM was alloy so I don't know how they expect it to keep up with the expansion rate of a cast block? And obviously the bearings weren't much chop either. The new OEM pump is beautiful.

 

[Leblet]

Another one that is not often mentioned is the Factory Service Manual vs other brands like Haynes or gregories. I know alot of guys on here swear by the FSM and that's good. To give you an idea of the quantity and quality of VECHILE Specific info in the manuals. The aftermarket has 20 pages dedicated to the 2H. The FSM for the 2H has over 300 pages of info on the engine. The other manuals also also often vauge and cover a variety of cars and don't go into the specifics of each one.

 

[Zjohnsonua]

Good thread. It'll be interesting to see some others contribute.

I gave up using general aftermarket parts long ago and moved to using OE suppliers or OE factory, so I won't have many photos to add. But even doing this I find discrepancies. Aisin and Denso are OE vendors, but the products they sell to the aftermarket are usually NOT the same parts they sell to OEs. Parts sold in OE packaging are generally held to higher quality standards, thus the Aisin pumps have the TEQ logo ground away and Denso coil packs will have the "Toyota" script ground away. These are essentially "factory seconds" that the vendor says are functionally good and they back them with their own warranty.

 

[Leblet]

Very interesting info zjohnsonua

 

[Leblet]

Another one, except I got suckered into buying non genuine parts, side indicators and park lights were to cheap to pass up. But the holes didn't line up with the car, I had to drill them out. And when I got them on all the lights started doing funny things when I tried to use them, so I took the covers off and found that they had been supplied with the completely wrong globes! So I put the correct globes in and now they work fine.

 

[barryson]

Very Useful information.