I came of age wrenching on cars in the early 80s. You'd pull up a seat at the parts counter, ask for a radiator cap, and the parts guy would look through the book, and then ask you, aftermarket or OEM. If you asked what's the difference, he'd say "Price, mostly." The reliability of aftermarket parts was pretty good, and the loony Third World grade of parts was mostly confined to the J.C. Whitney catalog.

Now? I bought an aftermarket valve block on Ebay. It did not work at all out of the box. A Chinesium air compressor, from Arnott no less, failed after 20K miles. Troubleshooting it was maddening in both cases because I simply could not believe either part could be such junk.

THEY CAN'T EVEN GET A RADIATOR CAP RIGHT!

Amazon has subsumed all the dreck that used to grace the J.C. Whitney catalog pages. I bought a XAUTOHAUX radiator cap, for a not-low price, and after 1600 miles, there is coolant on my garage floor and dried white crusties in the engine compartment. I take a look at the reviews on Amazon, and there are more than a few people saying it has early life failures.

I bought a Vaio, hoping that the QC is there. It *seems* to be a maker in the same league as Rein and Mahle; Vaio made the door switch, which seems okay for now.

Even down to the simplest components, the quality is hit-or-miss. If you value your labor, stick with known quality manufacturers.

Unfortunately, one cannot even trust the guy at the parts counter. All the parts stores take their own chances with quality. CV axles, for example: NAPA sources theirs from a second tier manufacturer, charging first tier prices. Presumably they screen out the pure junk, but ... nothing compares to doing your own research. Even for a ten dollar part like a radiator cap. SMH.

 

Why didn't you just buy an OEM?

 

Integrity and Chinese parts are indeed mutually exclusive.

 

You can buy an OEM or OE one manufactured by Gates for less than $25. RockAuto and FCP Euro have a heap to choose from. Not sure there's any saving going Chinese on something like this.

 

Because I am a dumbass?

Besides that, I ASSumed no one could get a radiator cap wrong.

And I am lazy. Amazon makes you complacent.

 

FCP sells the Mahle, which they claim is the OEM, and is probably the safest bet. although I recently had an experience with an o-ring failure on my new Mahle radiator. Gates, which is of course a reputable manufacturer, is "OE Type" according to Rock Auto.

ffs it is two pieces of plastic, a spring, an o-ring, and a washer

insane

 

Gates make many of the parts as OEM. Pull the idler pullies off and youll see a Gates Stamp. From memory the thermostat was the same

 

I was worried about this, so I paid the extra $$ to get a diesel gas cap direct from Mercedes. Amazon was very tempting though.