John Cowan wrote:
> Does anybody else have bad part stories?
John -
I fear you may have opened the floodgates. I regaled the list last
October with the story of the rubber diff stops (from Moss) that failed
after only 800 MILES - they were absolute sh*t. I replaced them with
competition ones from BPNW and have been thrilled. I also had a brand new
condensor go bad after 2-3 days which cost me $100+ in flatbed charges (I
forgot I had the one I took out in the trunk).
If you think this is a problem for the backyard mechanic, think of what
it's like for the professional - a customer entrusts him with their car, he
buys parts from (supposedly) reliable suppliers, puts them on the
customer's car and charges him for the part and the labor. Then the part
breaks. The customer's first stop is NOT Moss Motors or TRF or VB - it's
the mechanic! He's now expected to make good on his repairs. My
brother-in-law, a professional restorer of British cars, has had this
happen with increasing frequency. The really painful part is, no matter
how much or how loud he complains, THEY DO NOTHING. Oh sure, they'll give
him his money back for the parts, but he ends up eating the cost of the
labor for taking out the crappy parts and putting in replacements (and
occasionally the increased cost of the replacement parts).
This obviously begs the question Are bad replacement parts better than
no replacement parts? Since I don't happen to be in the middle of a
ground-up restoration, I can say no, but if I were to trash my car
tomorrow, I might change my tune.
As has been suggested on this list before, I'd rather pay a little more
for quality parts than to save a few cents (or even a few bucks) on the
unmitigated CRAP that is occasionally being foisted upon us. Of course, if
the financial status of the parts suppliers is as bad as some of them would
have us believe, the odds of that happening are slim to none. I'll stop
now...
Dennis Culligan / '76 TR6 CF57948U/ Highland ,NY / DNCULLIG@US.IBM.COM
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