Using only OE parts

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A good friend and I were talking the other day and both came to a topic I though was significant.

OE/OEM parts on automobiles. What I am referring to is... when a part fails on a car, replacing that said part with only an OE/OEM part.

I would assume, while costs can be high, it would always keep your car driving and performing at its prime. I can only imagine that my troubles with my Honda Accord (that are now steering me into the direction of selling) have partially stemmed from replacing most if not all front end components with parts store aftermarket.

Thoughts?
 
If it's only a few bucks more, go OE. If aftermarket has a part that fixes a failing in the OE design, go aftermarket. If the part is prone to failure regardless of who makes it, I guess you can alternate and see which one costs less (cost per mile/month or similar metric).

I suppose on a beater that might not be around much longer there may be reason to go with whatever is cheaper.
 
There's no question that the people who design cars don't get everything right. The question is, if someone DIDN'T design the car, how likely are they to do a better job? If they did, how could I as an amateur even tell? And if I didn't like the way the designers did something, such that I'd want to change it with aftermarket parts... why on earth would I have the car in the first place?

That's why I always go for cars that are fit-for-purpose (and budget) from the factory, and service them with almost nothing but OE parts, with VERY few exceptions. Had the best luck that way, by far.


BTW, there's an important difference between OE and OEM:

OE = Original Equipment = The exact part that came on your car, or an updated version from the car's manufacturer.
OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer = The "same" part made on the same assembly line by the same company that makes the part for the car manufacturer. Could be identical, or could be slightly off.

Usually -- and with some notable exceptions -- OE has the best performance and quality control, followed by OEM, and then other aftermarket stuff. That's why pricing and warranty coverage -- again, with notable exceptions -- generally follow the same trend.
 
I avoid aftermarket whenever I can. Too much junk that fails a month later. I always hear the "lifetime warranty" bull from Autozone, but I could care less. What good is a lifetime warranty if you have to replace the thing every 3 months? I made a mistake buying a Duralast alternator for the Jeep. After the third one failed in less than a month I was ready to throw it through their window and tell them to keep it. Replaced with a Mopar one and no issues in over 2 years.
 
When it comes to parts like sensors, thermostats, radiator caps, water pumps, and a few others parts I will only buy OE.
 
I use OEM for Sensors and parts that I feel might require it.
I know for some of the cars I have owned and some of the current stuff there are aftermarket parts that fix thing that were not caught
during the production run.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
There's no question that the people who design cars don't get everything right. The question is, if someone DIDN'T design the car, how likely are they to do a better job? If they did, how could I as an amateur even tell? And if I didn't like the way the designers did something, such that I'd want to change it with aftermarket parts... why on earth would I have the car in the first place?

That's why I always go for cars that are fit-for-purpose (and budget) from the factory, and service them with almost nothing but OE parts, with VERY few exceptions. Had the best luck that way, by far.


BTW, there's an important difference between OE and OEM:

OE = Original Equipment = The exact part that came on your car, or an updated version from the car's manufacturer.
OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer = The "same" part made on the same assembly line by the same company that makes the part for the car manufacturer. Could be identical, or could be slightly off.

Usually -- and with some notable exceptions -- OE has the best performance and quality control, followed by OEM, and then other aftermarket stuff. That's why pricing and warranty coverage -- again, with notable exceptions -- generally follow the same trend.


Here's a few things you're missing. The people who design the cars design it to a certain budget with all sorts of compromises. The aftermarket sees the results of the failures and can design a better part. The manufacturer has certain constraints they still have to abide by. Case in point was sway bar links. Ford use to make them out of plastic. Meant they were weak and broke pretty reliability every 2 years or so. I got aftermarket metal ones. Didn't end up replacing them. They probably had to be plastic to keep the weight down. Same thing with their water pumps, at one point, they used plastic for the impellers. I'm sure that kept the weight down, but they tended to break and fall apart. Aftermarkets didn't care about weight restrictions or CAFE so they were metal ones. OEM all the time can be a flawed mentality. You can have the same problem with OEM tires, lousy grip or whatever issues due to CAFE. Aftermarket doesn't care about worse gas mileage.

But yeah, I'd agree with the OE push. It's funny with Mercedes, Wahler makes their thermostats and when you buy the part, the spot where you'd see the MB logo is burred out. Still an OE part, but cheaper because it's not OEM.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
There's no question that the people who design cars don't get everything right. The question is, if someone DIDN'T design the car, how likely are they to do a better job? If they did, how could I as an amateur even tell? And if I didn't like the way the designers did something, such that I'd want to change it with aftermarket parts... why on earth would I have the car in the first place?

That's why I always go for cars that are fit-for-purpose (and budget) from the factory, and service them with almost nothing but OE parts, with VERY few exceptions. Had the best luck that way, by far.


BTW, there's an important difference between OE and OEM:

OE = Original Equipment = The exact part that came on your car, or an updated version from the car's manufacturer.
OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer = The "same" part made on the same assembly line by the same company that makes the part for the car manufacturer. Could be identical, or could be slightly off.

Usually -- and with some notable exceptions -- OE has the best performance and quality control, followed by OEM, and then other aftermarket stuff. That's why pricing and warranty coverage -- again, with notable exceptions -- generally follow the same trend.


+10
 
My train of thought is that most of the time I can buy OE on the internet for less than any parts store sold brand.

I consider myself an avid DIYr and have yet to find anything as good as OE for my domestic vehicles. Her Volvo on the other hand is another story. Lots of good stuff out there for cheap.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
I would say OEM are Usually higher quality.


Here is another dirty little secret OE suppliers and OEM do not mean that company actually produced that particular part for any company. They may for example made a window crank handle holding clip for GM years ago but have not a LCA for anyone, yet their advertising claims they are an OE supplier. Not 100% false but certainly deceptive.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
There's no question that the people who design cars don't get everything right. The question is, if someone DIDN'T design the car, how likely are they to do a better job? If they did, how could I as an amateur even tell? And if I didn't like the way the designers did something, such that I'd want to change it with aftermarket parts... why on earth would I have the car in the first place?

That's why I always go for cars that are fit-for-purpose (and budget) from the factory, and service them with almost nothing but OE parts, with VERY few exceptions. Had the best luck that way, by far.


BTW, there's an important difference between OE and OEM:

OE = Original Equipment = The exact part that came on your car, or an updated version from the car's manufacturer.
OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer = The "same" part made on the same assembly line by the same company that makes the part for the car manufacturer. Could be identical, or could be slightly off.

Usually -- and with some notable exceptions -- OE has the best performance and quality control, followed by OEM, and then other aftermarket stuff. That's why pricing and warranty coverage -- again, with notable exceptions -- generally follow the same trend.

Cars are bundles of compromise.

No reason not to use the aftermarket to swing the compromise towards your preferences vs the preferences of the masses or government.
 
I've seen someone mention on this board that if the labour costs more than the part, it's worth it to go OE.
I've also seen someone mention on this board that the aftermarket part can be a copy of a flawed first revision of an OE part that never gets updated, I believe the example was a fan clutch on a F150 or Chevy Trailblazer. When you buy an OE part from the dealership 9 times out of 10 you get the latest revision, at least you can tell by the part number.

I'm with roofless on trying to upgrade with aftermarket performance parts. Suspension is the one place where 90% of the time you can get better quality/performance. Struts, springs and mounts, sway bar end link bushings, control arm bushings, etc can be upgraded for the same price or cheaper as OE. There are exceptions, my car has OE Audi TT control arm bushings and I put OE rear axle bushings in my old Golf because the aftermarkets were not recommended.

I'd also say 10-15 years old and 200000+ kms depending on the car and condition is about where I start thinking about using aftermarket parts. I just changed a coolant elbow on my car that is known to break on the 1.8Ts. The consensus is that you replace it with a metal version, but it was $100+ CAD and I got a Gates from Rockauto for $40.

One thing that is nice about euro cars is that the OE parts are easy to get reboxed. Any of those German parts companies (Lemforder, Sachs, etc) usually produce good stuff. Beck/Arnley seems to have improved the quality of their parts, too. They might have gone back to reboxing OE parts like they did in the past.
 
Warranty is often the feedback system automakers use to gauge the quality of parts. For automakers it is 3 years. For aftermarket it is 1 year.

I'm glad Rockauto gives us a choice in the level of quality. There have been times I went with top shelf parts (OEM), and other times where middle-of-the-road was fine.
 
Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
There's no question that the people who design cars don't get everything right. The question is, if someone DIDN'T design the car, how likely are they to do a better job? If they did, how could I as an amateur even tell? And if I didn't like the way the designers did something, such that I'd want to change it with aftermarket parts... why on earth would I have the car in the first place?

That's why I always go for cars that are fit-for-purpose (and budget) from the factory, and service them with almost nothing but OE parts, with VERY few exceptions. Had the best luck that way, by far.


BTW, there's an important difference between OE and OEM:

OE = Original Equipment = The exact part that came on your car, or an updated version from the car's manufacturer.
OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer = The "same" part made on the same assembly line by the same company that makes the part for the car manufacturer. Could be identical, or could be slightly off.

Usually -- and with some notable exceptions -- OE has the best performance and quality control, followed by OEM, and then other aftermarket stuff. That's why pricing and warranty coverage -- again, with notable exceptions -- generally follow the same trend.


Here's a few things you're missing. The people who design the cars design it to a certain budget with all sorts of compromises. The aftermarket sees the results of the failures and can design a better part. The manufacturer has certain constraints they still have to abide by. Case in point was sway bar links. Ford use to make them out of plastic. Meant they were weak and broke pretty reliability every 2 years or so. I got aftermarket metal ones. Didn't end up replacing them. They probably had to be plastic to keep the weight down. Same thing with their water pumps, at one point, they used plastic for the impellers. I'm sure that kept the weight down, but they tended to break and fall apart. Aftermarkets didn't care about weight restrictions or CAFE so they were metal ones. OEM all the time can be a flawed mentality. You can have the same problem with OEM tires, lousy grip or whatever issues due to CAFE. Aftermarket doesn't care about worse gas mileage.

I did take care not to speak in absolutes and repeatedly mention exceptions.
wink.gif


I used to own an E36 M3, so I'm well acquainted with parts that sucked from the factory and were fixed in the aftermarket. I'm also running a couple of non-OE parts on my current car because I made a careful decision to change certain things about the car (and accept the negative consequences).

The point here isn't whether exceptions exist; the point is the overall trend, which is clear -- and on which you and I seem to agree.


Originally Posted By: Wolf359
But yeah, I'd agree with the OE push. It's funny with Mercedes, Wahler makes their thermostats and when you buy the part, the spot where you'd see the MB logo is burred out. Still an OE part, but cheaper because it's not OEM.

That's funny.

AFAIK, whether it's completely equivalent to OE depends on why it's not being sold as such. If it was a production overrun that was still within MB's tolerances, or if Wahler just used the same (or better) tolerances themselves, then it's equivalent. If it wasn't suitable for the MB brand because it somehow fell outside of their tolerances, then it may not be.

Either way, still a dang sight better than a parts store special.
 
Something which hasn't been mentioned is quality control (QC).

A product can be mass produced. Hopefully the line sees some QC. Some aftermarket parts are simply those which failed one or more checks.

If the line is big enough, there'll be a supply of aftermarket stuff right off the bat.

With rebuilt stuff (CV axles, brake calipers) you have the problem of wear factors being ignored. The bearing carriers in CV joints wear.
Other items like alternators are subject to just plain cheap parts-bearings, brushes and freewheels can be real shoddy.
Water pumps and fan clutches are pressed-to-set and really only have one life unless LOTS of money is spent rebuilding them with adequate QC.

We might see a name ground off an actual part if it was decided to be "off-branded".
We see names ground out (or filled in) in molds and or castings when the required number of years of support by the car company ends and the supplier keeps making them.
 
Originally Posted By: d00df00d
AFAIK, whether it's completely equivalent to OE depends on why it's not being sold as such. If it was a production overrun that was still within MB's tolerances, or if Wahler just used the same (or better) tolerances themselves, then it's equivalent. If it wasn't suitable for the MB brand because it somehow fell outside of their tolerances, then it may not be.


I've been wondering about that recently. Are the parts with the OE logo scratched off made to be sold as private label, overruns or were they out of spec by x%?
 
I always check the OE price (the telephone still works in 2018), often it's surprisingly just as good a value. For my RAM truck, the dealer has the best prices on oil filters, period (about $US 3.50). Had I not checked, I would have not known that.

Another trick I find useful for OEM is to take advantage of enthusiast discounts. For Chevy/GMC parts I bought a membership in the local "5-6-7 Club" which is good for 10~20% off the entire dealer inventory of parts, same with the RAM who sponsor the local Circle Track (and sell a lot of high performance 3rd party parts at very competitive prices, Edelbrock, etc) so I bought an associate membership to the local race association and get 15% on everything aftermarket they stock (they will also bring in anything from the performance catalogs they can sell from, so it doesn't have to be Chrysler).

I really like "% off everything" deals in general, saves a lot of time and it's the bread-and-butter parts that you end up spending on anyway.

If it's not, then I might go for a third-party part. As always, beware the very lowest priced part for 3rd party as it may be substandard, so you have to do an apples-to-apples comparison.

If you've got the time to wait, just about every OEM has a high volume dealer you can find on the 'Net that will offer OEM parts at low margin prices.

I am not one to put much on the length of a warranty. If it works for the first month, it should work forever (or whatever "forever" means on a wear part). I've never actually returned anything in my life except for very quick failure (can happen to any manufacturer) so a warranty past a year means nothing to me. If the part fails too quickly over the long term, you just go on my "Never Again" list and that's that. That list is short, though (Timex and Swiss Army watches are on it).

A lot of the time I will look at upgrading when replacing parts, or the project itself is an upgrade (eg calibrated suspension system or the supercharger I put on the Miata) so it's not relevant as a stock replacement doesn't meet the desired spec. But those are not low-cost 3rd party parts in any case.
 
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