Pattern parts versus OE

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Defender110
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Pattern parts versus OE

Post by Defender110 »

Kitch wrote:You make me laugh with your OE/genuine parts religion :lol:
Pattern parts are sh1t , using genuine O/E parts is the only way to get a repair you can trust and have confidence in.
Last edited by Defender110 on Thu Jun 12, 2014 8:38 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by Kitch »

Defender110 wrote:
Kitch wrote:You make me laugh with your OE/genuine parts religion :lol:
Pattern parts are sh1t , using genuine O/E parts is the only way to get a repair you can trust and have confidence in.

Thanks for your contribution to this thread.
I've an LUK clutch in the 16v. It's lasted longer than the valeo one did! FAI headgasket is holding up well too. As someone who's worked in the parts trade, including factory visits, and then now runs a garage fitting parts its one of the few things in the world i'm qualified to comment on!

You have to be wary of crap parts, but at least half the pattern stuff out there is fine.
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by JayW »

I find the only pattern parts that are crap are the crap ones.

The vast majority are perfectly ok and I happily fit them, but if it arrives looking like sundays dinner on Monday morning after a fag and a large cup of black coffee, it goes back!

There are always the exceptions (GSF's strut returns for example), but that's the benefit of collective knowledge!
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by Kitch »

I can vouch for QH clutches being shite, but the timing belt kits are fine. Best advice i can give anyone is try Motaquip parts - PSA's own factor type outlet, and most of the parts are valeo/purflux/bendix etc in grey boxes. Half the price of main stealer prices.
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by citsncycles »

Don't use Motaquip points in a GS though - they only lasted 8000m and needed constant adjustment.
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by mat_fenwick »

Kitch wrote:I can vouch for QH clutches being shite
Out of interest, and taking this OT a bit, what problems have you had/heard about? Agree about Motaquip stuff and that it's not necessarily true that all pattern parts are crap. Difficulty is though (for me at least) knowing which are good - I may decide to try and pay a little more but how do you know that extra goes into quality rather than profit? I guess if you've worked in a factors you know which brands tend to get returned the most...

I do prefer to fit genuine OE parts where possible but I can't recall a time when I've actually paid full price for anything! There *can* be a difference in quality, even when the pattern parts are produced by the same people on the same production line in the same factory. Whether that difference is significant is another matter though.
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by Jaba »

It is evident to me that there are two grades of replacement parts. Top quality and then the others. Top quality often means top price too. For example GSF sell two grades of front wheel bearing but one is twice the price of the other at £40! First Line also do a cheaper line of replacement parts called Keyparts.

How do I know this ?? I have had a lot of front wheel bearings ( 4 to 6) that have failed after a year or two. So I only buy good branded ones now as it is a real pain to have to keep changing front wheel bearings. I have just bought a Keyparts one for my GTi to see if they are any good as I have a whining one on the RHS at the moment due perhaps to immersion in the floods this winter.

I don't buy unbranded lower ball joints now either. The joints are fine but the gaiters split after 12 months. I have just bought a replacement gaiter on eBay to see if these durable.......
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by Kitch »

mat_fenwick wrote:
Kitch wrote:I can vouch for QH clutches being shite
Out of interest, and taking this OT a bit, what problems have you had/heard about? Agree about Motaquip stuff and that it's not necessarily true that all pattern parts are crap. Difficulty is though (for me at least) knowing which are good - I may decide to try and pay a little more but how do you know that extra goes into quality rather than profit? I guess if you've worked in a factors you know which brands tend to get returned the most...

I do prefer to fit genuine OE parts where possible but I can't recall a time when I've actually paid full price for anything! There *can* be a difference in quality, even when the pattern parts are produced by the same people on the same production line in the same factory. Whether that difference is significant is another matter though.
The springing on them isn't great. The kits I've seen use fatter fingers on the cover and fewer of them, meaning heavy and lumpy pedal.
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by Defender110 »

Yep all the other forums I'm in are littered with posts of premature failure of pattern parts and as Matt has said how do you know which is going to be a good pattern part and a bad one? OEM manufacturers have to make their parts for the motor manufacturers to very strict quality standards imposed by them.
The QH exhaust silencer factory used to be just down the road from me and was a big local employer. It was common knowledge that they had two qualities with silencers made for motor manufacturers being made out of steel 3 x the thickness as those made as after market pattern parts.
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by Defender110 »

As for LUK Clutches they are a recognised German OEM manufacturer so I would class them as Genuine/OEM parts rather than pattern parts and I put a new LUK clutch in the TZD when I did the rear crank seal, turned out there was nothing wrong with the original clutch but I changed it anyway whilst I had the box out.
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Re: BX how safe?

Post by mat_fenwick »

Kitch wrote:The springing on them isn't great. The kits I've seen use fatter fingers on the cover and fewer of them, meaning heavy and lumpy pedal.
I thought you were going to say wrong bits in the box, or missing parts altogether! That was the biggest single problem we had when I worked there, and was about a third of all complaints on the clutch side. But what you say doesn't really surprise me - the start of the design process was to buy in an OE one, assume it was in the middle of its tolerances and copy it. Ideally using as many component parts that we were already making, rather than tooling up to make new bits if we could avoid it. Then we would test it (both on a test rig and a car) and if it worked, with acceptable if not identical pedal pressure, it would go into production.

Obviously the definition of acceptable is a bit of a grey area, and I can imagine that the cost of tooling up for a new part had some influence on whether it would be deemed OK or not, if borderline! There was also the chance of buying a rogue OE part in the first place, or one on the edge of spec.
Defender110 wrote:It was common knowledge that they had two qualities with silencers made for motor manufacturers being made out of steel 3 x the thickness as those made as after market pattern parts.
Again from my experience with water pumps from the same company, this was the case and IMO, understandable. It would be uneconomic to use exactly the same components (bearing, seal etc) for the aftermarket parts as for the OE parts, although the castings were the same. They had to meet the same specs on flow and longevity as the OE ones, but had complete freedom on choosing what (cheaper) components were used in the build. Changing anything on an OE part meant a lot of testing/approvals/paperwork and often was avoided unless it meant a huge cost saving.

For obvious reasons though, we didn't supply aftermarket parts until an agreed time after the OE contract had ended.
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Re: Pattern parts versus OS

Post by citronut »

i personally steer well clear of E*C*P after purchasing a pair of front suspension arms from them, at over £100 quid each for a customers Volvo V70,

the bush's completely fell apart within the year,

then i had a cat and lambda sensor for a 206 which had failed the MOT on the cat,

fitted the parts ( lambda sensor was in a Bosch box ) took it back for a re/test, the lambda sensor didnt even kick in no mater how hard the tester tried,
fitted the old sensor it passed the MOT,

i also have had not problem at all with Motorquip parts, and was told the other week by my cit dealer they can supply Motorquip at a reasonable price,

another brand i do trust if First line

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Re: Pattern parts versus OS

Post by KevR »

If I can get OE parts at reasonable prices I fit them. If I can't I fit what's available. It's not worth getting into a lather about, especially as OE parts for our older cars become harder to find....
The only truly awful pattern parts I've come across lately are the astonishingly bad parts available for Land Rovers - extremely cheap, but rarely last long enough to fit to the vehicle let alone do any miles, and if by some miracle they do last long enough, they usually don't work properly....
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Re: Pattern parts versus OS

Post by Defender110 »

KevR wrote: The only truly awful pattern parts I've come across lately are the astonishingly bad parts available for Land Rovers - extremely cheap,
Britpart?
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Re: Pattern parts versus OS

Post by KevR »

Defender110 wrote:
Britpart?
Yep, the dreaded blue packets....
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