Aftermarket parts quality control... 

It's so aggravating to install new parts that don't work. You broke this issue down very well Thomas. I hope you're doing good!

This is one reason why we need you back to save us from this garbage. 👍

celebrate good times Thomas in the house 🤟

Great video! The parts availability/after market for car older than 15-20 years (depending on the model) is really when the downhill gets steep.

Absolutely Thomas. Genuine parts whenever possible. Or at least OE. So many hours of wasted time on effort dealing with aftermarket junk. Lessons learned.

I stopped buying parts from China. A couple of years ago I was working at Ashland doing some insulation work and I talked with a contractor who was an engineer. He said Ashland was looking to save money by moving one of their plants from Delaware to China. The savings was in labor and it was enough to save money even having to ship the product back to the US. As long as Ashland had engineers from the US watching them they produced an exceptable product but when they left and went back to the states the the product went downhill. Even name brand AM products use China to make their goods. Time to bring manufacturing back to the Americas. Good video. You are ranting to the choir. Happy Motoring.

Excellent education, warning, and solution! Thank you!!

I remember getting a filler neck rubber from JP group … it lasted for 6months ….. I then managed to source a NOS one and it’s still going strong

Excellent video!! U found and fixed the problem.

welcome back thomas! you should do a vid on scottys hand motions!!! yea common sense you get what you pay for......people cant seem to get that good diag

Good job Thomas, the same, but not the same😶👍🙏😎

Missed you Thomas 🫶

It's also pertinent here in UK where a lot of 'mechanics' just throw parts at a vehicle until it's 'fixed' . Just imagine the quantity of sub par parts that could end up in your vehicle. This is something my brother is facing right now. T3 auto that has what seems to be a seized engine. The specialist took the engine out ant the claim it wasn't seized. The van rolls so it's not the diff/gearbox/flex plate etc? They claim to have spent 17 hours diagnosing. After this my brother lost all faith in them and they put the engine back in. It did drive back home but after 20 miles and a brief stop, it was locked up again. Wasn't the starter either as that was taken out and the engine was still seized. Imagine they'd thrown in lots of dubious quality parts too. Van is still sitting on the driveway awaiting inspiration.

"Informative" was, I think, that first word you wanted. This is hardly a new thing--back about 30 years ago, I was helping a friend fix the brakes on a Chevy C10 squarebody pickup. Truck needed a new master cylinder so he'd picked a rebuilt one up from a major auto parts chain. We put it in and found we couldn't get it to hold pressure to bleed the brakes. Returned it, got another one, same story. Returned it, got a third, same thing. So we popped the circlip out of the end, out of curiosity, and found that whatever rebuilding house had been doing these things, had put the piston cups in backwards! Every one of those on the shelf must have been like that. We got a replacement unit from another auto parts store and it was fine.

Thanks for posting and sharing knowledge!

Hi Thomas! Same here in Europe. There is serious problem with quality. Lot of aftermarket parts are not working (sensors, coils, etc). I also see another problem with rubber quality. Suspension bushings cracking after few months, ball joints rubber covers cracks after 8 months since assembly. Producers no longer use metal rings to install and hold rubber cover on ball joint, they replace metal rings to thin rubber oring that also cracks in few months and water or sand is getting into the ball joint. Even producers like Lemforder making crapp now. Suspension parts from Lemforder made in Brasil or Turkey looks terrible just after you open the box. Tires also after 3 years looks very bad. They are still talks about ecology and planet saving.. how? Now due to probably some factory process eco/recycle guidelines I need to buy 3 sets of tires in 10 years instead of one. Is this the ecology they talk about so much?

As always very informative you are the best.

Good for you Thomas keep up with the videos.Have a Good weekend.

When i needed a new cv joint for my 2008 rabbit i bought the whole aftermarket axel on rockauto because it was cheaper and easier. It was absolute garbage, vibrated at 2800rpm on the highway. Ended up returning it and changing just the bad CV on the stock axel with an OEM part, smooth like new again. The aftermarket axel shaft wasn't balanced correctly.

Half the time I have to go with aftermarket or wait 3-6 weeks maybe. I'm still waiting for OEM manifold back exhaust that I ordered and paid for back in January.

Everything is that way it seams.

yeah unless its TEC pr OEM i dont mess with any RockAuto stuff. Most FCP, ECS or Worldpac (sometimes sketchy), Dealership nothing for me.

Thomas, I took a good look at my distributor cap and rotor. Cleaned the black off the porcelain… I don’t really see any cracking but there is considerable corrosion/carbon:something. I cleaned the rotor just enough to get its shine and the cap as well. It is wrong to put dielectric greas in this. I’m guessing no to the grease. And, does the rotor and the points in the cap actually TOUCH or do they come infinitely close to each other? Do you know if there are different types of spark plug/distributor wire ends? Not sure if I go the correct ones. Thanks Patrick

Thanks for the info Sir. I guess we get what we pay for more now than ever

Hello, have a question for you. Have you ever seen a mk4 1.8t have vibration in the ac lines by the expansion valve when the ac I turned on? I have that with a humming sound from the vibration. I had the system vacuumed and refilled about 4 months ago and it's been fine until about 3 days ago.

Everything is going this way since 2019 it got way worse, its basically pot-luck if you get a ok part or a dud. The car wizard starts to show this also started off with camshaft repair for jeep i think it was ,All duds unless you can find new old stock.

Looks like they peened the shutter wheel on rather than use a locating pin to save money and guarantee failure🤨

Rock Auto is getting too big for it's own good. Not the first time I've seen them screw up lately.

Hello sir!

Looks like a distributor from an old VW 16v engine.