One ofthe biggest challenges in the auto repair business is getting our hands on goodquality parts.
It’sgetting more difficult these days and can even be downright dangerous.
Cheapcar parts, often from China, have flooded the U.S. market in the past 15 yearsand the quality is hit-or-miss.
“Every timeI work on a car, the easy to find part is a Chinese part” said Brayan Salazar –Owner of Bridgewater Motorworks in Bridgewater, NJ with over 20 year experiencein the car repair field. “The quality part is more expensive and I usually haveto wait longer to get it.”
Thecheap parts in the auto repair industry are commonly called “white box” parts.They are usually made in China and are less expensive for a reason,
We havefound the parts will not last as long causing early repair failure. Motorworksoffers a 3 year /36,000 mile warranty. Brayan stated, “The only way I can give a goodservice, a great warranty and not havepremature repair failure, is to use good quality parts.”
Goodparts sometimes are hard to find. We recently have found quality brands ofparts that have cheap parts inserted into the quality brand shipping boxes.
Weoften hear from customers. Quality parts are too expensive. I can go on theinternet and get it cheaper. Thecustomer is correct, but what we have found is wrong parts being sold, a waittime for shipping, computer says it’s an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer )part and ends up not the case and when the part is wrong or goes bad it is almostimpossible to return or warranty.
Due tothe influx of cheap parts on the automotive market. Many repair shops includingMotorworks will not install customer supplied parts. We often find the wrongparts ordered, extremely cheap parts and we can’t warranty the repair. It never fails that a customer supplied partfails and the shop that installed is blamed for the failure. Customer supplied parts make quality customerservice impossible to achieve.
Look atonline review sites such as Yelp and www.consumeraffairs.com and you’ll finddozens of customers citing faulty car parts manufactured by Chinese companiesthat stranded people on highways, led to accidents and near-accidents.
I recentlyspoke to a shop that he went through eight alternators for one particular carat a national car parts chain before finding one that worked.
As ifit wasn’t difficult enough to tell the difference between good and poor qualitycar parts, there is a recent rise in counterfeit car parts. Many of these partsare available on sites like eBay is further complicating things.
Counterfeitparts often look like one that bears the trademark of a legitimate and trustedbrand, but was produced by another party and is usually not made to thespecifications of the original equipment manufacturer.
Theseparts “represent a grave threat to public safety,” according to theIntellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, which is part of U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The U.S. Federal Trade Commissionplaces the value of the counterfeit car-parts sector at $12 billion a year.
Aseemingly endless string of prosecutions on counterfeit parts includes two Washingtonstate cases from 2013, involving the online sale of counterfeit airbags fromsources in China. It’s a product the center considers potentially extremelyharmful.
“Someof the most dangerous counterfeit products involve the explosive elements of airbags that can literally explode in the victim’s face during an accident,” thecenter states on its website.
Tires,brake hoses and brake fluid are among 13 items of motor-vehicle equipment forwhich the federal government enforces minimum safety performance requirements.Certification of compliance is shown by the symbol DOT, for Department ofTransportation, on the outside of the part’s box or container.
Brakepads are not on the list. The only requirement the government has on brake padsis the amount of metal in them, because the government has determined that thedusting from brake pads that contain a non-ferrous metal, such as brass orbronze, gets into storm water runoff and negatively affects fish.
So nowthey’ve got certifications for the brake pads being eco-friendly but not forbeing DOT approved. So that’s more important now, is the eco thing, thanactually being government approved to stop your vehicle.
Customerswant cheaper parts because they don’t want to spend money on car repairs,Brakes are the most important item on a car and everybody handles them likesuch a trivial thing — oh, it’s just brake pads, right? No big deal.
“Well,there’s a huge difference between a $20 brake pad and a $60 brake pad.” Says BrayanSalazar
Headvises customers to go with original equipment manufacturer brake pads —usually made by the original supplier though often also in China — rather thanthe cheaper aftermarket, or generic, brake pads.
That’swhere you should not compromise, is on tires and brakes
Have anyquestions, please feel free to call or contact Bridgewater Motorworks at 908.218.9100or bwmotorworks.com
