If traceability is important to you you should consider purchasing original equipment manufacturer (OEM) spare parts from an authorised dealer for the vehicle.

If OEM parts fail the manufacturer is liable for any loss incurred.

I heard one of the reasons RR Aero engines stopped selling engines was because there was too many dodgy RR spares on the market!

In the 1990’s I acted as the ‘entertainment secretary’ for the MES I belong and arranged visits to places of engineering interest. We once visited a local car component manufacturer, obviously now long gone, which was making camshafts and other parts etc. for well-known engine brands, Perkins, Rover et.al. At the end of the production grinders were three bins one marked with the branded product, one for the after market supplier and another for Del Boy Trotter’s car parts (not really, but you get what I mean). Every component was of exactly the same material, produced on the same machine and had been subjected to exactly the same quality checks. I would think that the branded product was sold at about three times the price of Del Boy’s for exactly the same thing.

In the days when I did all the work on my cars I once had a Volvo 240 with Lockheed brakes. The parts branded Volvo were twice the price of exactly the same thing branded Lockheed from the local car parts shop. I am afraid I don’t take much notice of ‘brands’, I just buy what does the job. I have just bought a couple of keyless chucks at a third of price of those branded Vertex and I would put money on them being produced on the same machine, in the same factory using the same materials just as the camshafts were all those years ago.

About 20 or more years ago a friend had a Volvo car, the rev counter stopped working he went to the dealer who wanted £75 for replacement part, another friend of the friend arrived, he said, these are fitted to Lada ( Russian made) £28. I looked in RS catalogue £3.50. Graham went back to the dealer to tell him the story, he said you don’t get the box in which the genuine component came in. The actual item was Hall device. John

A hobby horse I know, but I suggest relying on brand-names has been naive since Adam. Ancient advice: don’t buy a pig in a poke; when horse-trading, count Dobbin’s teeth; is that cheque real; let me see those dice;  bite golden coins;  is this good value, or am I conned into buying “reassuringly expensive”.  Can a watch bought in a pub for £100 really be a Rolex?

Brand-names have no permanent value.  Apart from fakes, they go up and down depending on the whim of the current owner.  Never been a golden age when brand-names were trustworthy.   Caveat emptor, then and now.

What works is buying from sellers who stands behind their products, replacing or refunding as necessary.   Ideally buying to a specification that can be checked and comes with traceable certificates.

Buying from an online marketplace specialising in ‘bargains’ is a tad risky.  Is it wise to buy safety critical parts from one?

Ebay did the right thing by Jon – he didn’t like the look of his purchase, complained, and they refunded.  This is how commerce works, nothing to do with brand-names.  We will never know if the brake pads were wrong or not.

As far as I know, no such thing as a reliably trustworthy quality mark. Be nice if there was, but my Fairy Godmother is hopeless.  Compliance Marks are more helpful than brands,  but they’re faked too.  And assumed to be something they are not.

There are many ways of separating careless buyers from their money!  We live in an imperfect world.

Dave

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26 April 2025 at 21:33howardb

Said:

On 26 April 2025 at 14:46 halfnut Said:

 

“Go with NGK brand these days”

Sorry – but NGK brand spark plugs are the brand most likely to be faked.

https://ktmtalk.com/threads/ngk-genuine-vs-fake-useful-

information.575955/

I had a faker when I ordered a plug from ebay.fr for a chainsaw, it wouldn’t start – only got a very weak spark from it, the resistor in the core was way out of value, got another plug from a local distributor, who was 1/2 hour away by car, instantly ok.

 

Yes indeed. Caveat emptor. As I said in my post, if you buy from an unknown seller on eBay you are more likely to get a fake. But as I said, my bad experiences are with Bosch plugs from a reputable local supplier of genuine parts. I’m pretty sure they were genuine.

We had a case, in the near east, of spurious parts turning up in genuine boxes.

A fitter at our dealership was saving the boxes and passing them to his pal who made the dubious parts!

Some copies were very good, but lacked the identifying marks which were only present on the genuine article.

Visiting one our suppliers we walked down the aisle between two lines. On both sides, identical parts were being produced.  One line, loaded the finished product into a “Genuine O E M Part” box.  The other into the producing companies aftermarket box.

In the same plant, we visited the oil filter line. there we saw oil filters branded for our company, identical, apart from livery, to those supplied as “Genuine OEM” parts for loads of our customers across the world.

There were instances where we found a problem with a bought in part, and solved it.

Some of the spurious copiers  carried on making the original part, defect and all!

One overseas supplier, seemed to think that introducing a design change, without consulting us, or any testing was quite in order!  They were quite surprised when two of us arrived one morning, unannounced, to check their processes, and tell them the error of their ways, as our suppliers.

We did find find one manufacturer of “Spurious” spares, whose product was better than what we were fitting!

We did have one supplier who subtly tailored their product, with our branding, so that it could not be used on any competitor engine, and vice versa, although apparently identical.

In one instance, purely by chance we designed a part which was identical to one for a major high volume car manufacturer.  Our part, unplated,  would have cost twice as much as the plated car part, simply because of the volumes involved. So we bent our rules, and used the plated part!

Howard

On 26 April 2025 at 22:18 halfnut Said:

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<li class=”bsp-quote-title”>On

26 April 2025 at 21:33howardb

Said:

On 26 April 2025 at 14:46 halfnut Said:

 

“Go with NGK brand these days”

Sorry – but NGK brand spark plugs are the brand most likely to be faked.

https://ktmtalk.com/threads/ngk-genuine-vs-fake-useful-

information.575955/

I had a faker when I ordered a plug from ebay.fr for a chainsaw, it wouldn’t start – only got a very weak spark from it, the resistor in the core was way out of value, got another plug from a local distributor, who was 1/2 hour away by car, instantly ok.

 

Yes indeed. Caveat emptor. As I said in my post, if you buy from an unknown seller on eBay you are more likely to get a fake. But as I said, my bad experiences are with Bosch plugs from a reputable local supplier of genuine parts. I’m pretty sure they were genuine.

Halfnut illustrates another problem with brand-names, unjust damnation!  Having had a bad experience with one (Bosch) he assumes the whole company has gone to the dogs and recommends another brand (NGK).   When others point out that NGK plugs are widely faked, halfnut asks us to trust his anti-Bosch judgement “I’m pretty sure they were genuine.”

Dare I suggest halfnut’s views on this one are suspect!  He wrongly assumed NGK branded plugs are all good when they’re not and offers precious little evidence that all Bosch products are rubbish. Halfnut’s evidence is noted, but I’d need much more before condemning Bosch outright as he’s done.   His advice could be unjust, which is evil.  Maybe his dealer was conned into buying into fakes, or isn’t as reputable as halfnut believes!

Buying secondhand cars in the UK was a minefield before consumer protection, and the marque was no protection.   Cut and shut, clocking, body filler, gearbox full of sawdust, stolen, brazed repairs, re-cut tyres, refurbished write-offs, incorrect substitute parts, disc brakes skimmed paper thin, and bodywork repainted to disguise faults and theft.

Brand-names do not guarantee quality for many reasons.  They never have and never will.  And, whenever high-value items are bought and sold, sellers are tempted to make money by substituting cheaper if they can.  No surprise bad things happen when customers are desperately looking for top-quality bargains!

The main protection is choosing suppliers who stand by their products, not what’s printed on the box, or someone said on the web!

Dave

Well my Bosch garden strimmer is a heap of junk. When I rang to complain they offered to mend it, at my expense. Cheaper to buy a new one of a different brand. I know this is thread creep, but the more people know about it thd better.

The thing with car parts is that it works both ways.

A few years ago my Fiat car suffered a head gasket failure. I phoned the local pattern parts supplier to see if they had one, they did, so off I went to collect it. When I got there the assistant had to apologise to me “sorry, we had two on the shelf when you phoned but they have both just been sold”.

“Who buys two head gasket kits” I asked “The local Fiat dealer” was the reply……

Martin

Many years ago, we had batch of new buses delivered. The air compressor belts were already at full stretch.

I found that the belt used on one of the works lorries was the correct length for minimum adjustment

(There had been a misunderstanding between Ferodo and the engine manufacturer! Subsequently, we had to correct other mistakes (All denied; until the service bulletins were published a long tine later!) that they had made

We bought every belt along the south coast!  Six months later the local dealer delivered about 60.

We had messed up the Ford spares system, BIG time! But could keep our fleet on the road!

Howard