New auto parts quality thesedays.

[Coldjensens]

Most steel comes from China. In part because they are happy to pollute their country in order to have the steel business. Unfortunately Chinese metallurgy is poor. They really don't care if stuff breaks as long as it keeps money flowing in. Outside of China it i nearly impossible to compete with Chinese steel prices. Keeping the process clean is costly. A lack of basically slave labor in more developed countries also impairs steel production. Not one person in 50 is going to pay double for something because it claims to have better steel.

Much of the problems with modern part quality comes down to steel or the lack thereof in the parts.

[eaton53]

Originally Posted by Don in Austin

Keeping up with what is reliable and what is not is an ongoing time-consuming project. That is why my shop is proud to mark up the parts we sell and does not install customer-provided parts.

Don in Austin

The shop where I take my Merkur has installed some parts that I provided.
He doesn't know where to get the unique parts.
If it's a Ford-shared part he obtains them... it's a German car, so that usually means Bosch.

It's worked out very well for both of us.
The car never ran better once he repaired a post-storage cooling system issue.

[turkey-head]

Parts these days are cheaper than ever... and quality is routinely iffy. But I remember back when I first started working on cars in the 90's... aftermarket parts weren't great back then either. Bottom-of-the-barrel stuff at places like Advance and Autizone has never been good quality.

But things have improved in that there's tons of information and tons of selection on the internet these days. With a lot of parts, you can find a dozen different options on Rock Auto. Then search by part number to see if it's cheaper on Amazon. Read reviews to see what people think of the part, etc.

A lot of times I'll go with a brand that I know is an OEM supplier. .Brands like Bendix, Moog, NGK, Bosch, Timken, SKF, FelPro, National, Gates, etc... they're generally pretty good. OEM-affiliated brands like Motorcraft and AC Delco ain't what they used to me... but still there are dealers all over the country installing their parts. Even their 'budget' lines are offered by some dealers. So they're not entirely junk... you just need to be choosy. A lot of times you can tell by the part number that an AC Delco part (for instance) is made by one of the suppliers in my previous list... in which case it's probably a good part if the price is right.

In a lot of cases (but definitely not all), OEM parts are best. So in places where quality really matters, I get the OEM part. But 95% of the time that's necessary.

[M3 Mitch]

A lot of European car parts are being made in Brazil, Turkey, etc. due to obscure EU rules against making parts for old cars in Europe. Read this on Autohaus AZ's website. That said the Brazilian and Turkish parts seem to work just as well as the old German ones.



One place you can get a superior part anymore if you are willing to pay for it is oil filters. Now that Mann has bought out both Wix and Purolator - if anything Mann has raised the bar for quality. That new Purolator Boss filter certainly seems to be a good one. That said I don't have oil analysis numbers to back up the idea that it actually is better.



I very seldom go "fishing" for a cheap part. While I am strictly a DIY mechanic, my time is valuable to me anyway. A good part is not any harder to install, sometimes easier, and generally will work better and longer than the chain parts store's bargain basement special parts.