I'm going apeshit over this stuff. Finding knockoff parts that are being labeled as OEM, or "Ref to part #xxx". The line is becoming so fine that it's almost hard to tell anymore. I'm suspecting some manufacturing companies are spitting out real deal and then selling some on the side as well.

GM would cut off their nads for that... it's a breach of contract.

It's done all the time.

I bought a non-oem oem radiator. It was the same except the GM except that part was melted out of the molding. The OEM manufacturers all sell their own labeled stuff too.

I talked to the guys at Contemporary Corvettes a few years back.

They were selling generic wheel bearings... however, they were made by the same comp that did them for GM. GM found out and threatened to pull their contract. No more cheap and good bearings, eh?

Well I can tell you all that ZF has their bearings totally locked down as 'propriatary'.

Last engine rebuild I wanted to replace my tranny input bearing....I mean what? a $40.00 bearing??? Wasn't warn but I was new to ZF noise so I figured "just in case/safer than sorry"....anyways,actually contacted the manufacturer (thinkin Timkin or SKF?..can't remember) with the part #...THEY said..."Oh, that's a propriatary item...please contact 1-800 (ZF) blah blah...so I did. ZF (out of NY somewhere?) quoted $750.00 +++ for the "input bearing and gasket set KIT". Never did it of course.

Since then (4 yrs ago) I've learned (thanks to you all here at Guru) that ZF's are 'noisy' anyways. Has nothing to do with a (not) warn input bearing.

Years ago I used to sell and find wierd bearings as a living and truly did any 'due diligence' in locating a replacement brearing.

This one is truly a "one of" for ZF.

Good for them.

The pricks.

Many times they make the part to the OEM spec. The ones that don't meet the quality targets are rebadged as a different brand (which may not need to meet the same requirements) and sold cheaper.

The worse nightmare I ever encountered in regard to the whole aftermarket/OEM situation was a year plus restoration I did on a 1973 Jaguar E-Type. Everything is available for the cars but man does the quality differ greatly from source to source and from batch to batch of parts. I recall purchasing a tail light for the car 5 times over - 4 units were sub par or defective in some way out of the box. Of course every supplier touts the quality of the parts for these cars but It was a holy nightmare to actually find good parts. And then some retailers would have some good quality components but some of their other components would be crap so you had to buy all over the place.

Quote:

GM might, but it seems Dell does not care. I've been looking for a replacement battery along with a charger cord and I've the knock offs sporting the dell labeling.


What brought this up as the final straw, I was looking for a ipod cord for my alpine head unit, and the price was all over the place. From 5 bucks to 35.

oh, geez... Dell are sluts... I hate their hardware, too.

As for the the iPod cable? So many make knockoffs... not even funny.