Parts Made In China, Are They OK To Use?

country of manufacture has less to do with quality of the parts than the company contracts the foreign manufacturer.... "China" will manufacture anything you want and to whatever you specify. if you want cheap, they can do it, if you want quality, they can do it... But since quality costs money, lots of companies contracting then importing parts don't spend the coin for good quality nor good quality control....

Quite honestly it depends. I've had mixed experiences, but one thing to stay away from universally if it has china stamped on it is bearings. They don't ever seem to fit. Some of the other parts are fine; it might be good to post a question about a brand/part number you are considering buying here and see if anyone else has taken the leap prior and how it turned out.

Chris

Geez now you tell me! lol I just used some China made bearings for my idler pulley in my Jeep. Right now it works very well and is very quiet. Time will tell and I did buy some spares just in case. :-) Oh and they were very inexpensive too!

I also think you should tell us which parts you are thinking about. Brakes aren't something you want to take a chance on!!!!!!

| > Are they OK to use? | >

| > They look a little rough around the edges. | > If I used brake master cylinder made in China, I think I would replace | > it after 3 years. | >

| > Of course I had rather spend the extra bucks and get one made in the | > United States, Germany, Brazil, or somewhere else. | >

| > But the Chinese Master cylinder looks better made than the master | > cyklinder made in Mexico. | > TIA/ Thanks In Advance! | >

| | country of manufacture has less to do with quality of the parts than the | company contracts the foreign manufacturer.... "China" will manufacture | anything you want and to whatever you specify. if you want cheap, they can | do it, if you want quality, they can do it... But since quality costs money, | lots of companies contracting then importing parts don't spend the coin for | good quality nor good quality control....

Problem with China is they will make cheap parts and put good company names on the product.

A few years back the company I worked for sent some drawings off for prototype. Samples came back in a week with our logo etc and were fine met all specs etc..

With in 10 days (before we even placed the order) we found copies, including our logo and die stamps in the market. These were crap but our names were all over and we were getting angry phone calls.

yeah, heard that too... guess it pays to buy it direct from the folks that have it made... counterfeit parts are a huge money maker and I read an interesting article about how the aftermarket for other vehicles(Chevrolet and ford) are being over-run with subpar counterfeit parts now... their aftermarket had been fairly void of it until a couple years ago... vw's aftermarket has been plagued with crap for many years.... this is what buying on price creates...IMHO.

I tried to get a thermostat for my Mercedes 300TD wagon locally. We have Kragen and Napa in this county. Both had it in stock, Chinese. I bought German from auto parts world for half the price, and free shipping 'cause i needed some other stuff to make the minimum. I'm not trusting something critical to crap parts.

I recently went through 2 new Stant thermostats for my Nova, until I finally decided to fork out the dough for the more expensive model. Still Stant, but twice the price. That one finally worked. It's unbelievable that something as critical as a thermostat would not work out of the box!

| >

| > I tried to get a thermostat for my Mercedes 300TD wagon locally. We have | > Kragen and Napa in this county. Both had it in stock, Chinese. I bought | > German from auto parts world for half the price, and free shipping | > 'cause i needed some other stuff to make the minimum. I'm not trusting | > something critical to crap parts. | | I recently went through 2 new Stant thermostats for my Nova, until I | finally decided to fork out the dough for the more expensive model. | Still Stant, but twice the price. That one finally worked. It's | unbelievable that something as critical as a thermostat would not work | out of the box!

A few years back Tennessee or Kentucky ended up with a dead Congress critter when someone used a counterfeit (Chinese) part on a propeller. Took the NTSB a while to ID that it was a knock off.

damn.... One of my small work vehicles used to be a mazda B2200 pickup... same thing happened... bought the standard one, always open, never closed.... was a month or so(in the middle of winter) before i could re-do the job and I also bought the "best" one they offered... worked great.... but still worried me a bit since either they don't care about the quality of the standard one, or it is engineered to fail...who knows...

I don't think that we're going to be given much of a choice down the road. Years ago, people looked down on Eastern European and Brazilian parts but those are high quality compared to the stuff coming out of China. Andy

At a local watering hole a "Harley" dude I know went on a rant against foreign-made things. I made him a bet: "I will give you $100 each for every piece of American-made clothing you are wearing right now." He burst into laughter (spitting beer all over the place) and went for it. He finally quit the bet when he got down to his undies which were made in Honduras. Nothing whatsoever that he was wearing was made in USA.

Then I began to list the foreign parts on his Harley.

I bought a couple of locking type pliers (vise-grips) that were made in China. Just for fencing. Pretty light weight use. Broke the damned things the first time I clamped them on a wire. Never again.

And now I understand that the company VISE-GRIP is moving their manufacturing to China. I bought couple more pairs of them a few weeks ago as I knew they were still made here and good quality. Now if I don't lose them like the others I had.

Randy

you are cold John J or maybe he was! lol

Stanley did the same... they still hold some minor resemblance of quality, depending on what particular tool you are looking for.

Friends don't let friends use EMPI parts.

My Honda goldwing has a higher percentage of American made parts than a new Harley.

I bought a lot of welding equipment. In it was two heavy cast iron corner clamps, for holding things up to 2 inches thick at a 90 degree angle for welding. never been used, for good reason. The angles were way out on both plains, and the milling work that was done was really bad. They could have made the iron flatter with a hammer. I put them in the mill and squared them up, my two hours probably was worth more than what they originally paid. I just don't understand making a tool and then blowing the whole function.

I don't know which is worse: the Chinese companies that make the crap or the American companies that pretend they made it and put their [used-to-be] good names on it. You can usually get better stuff nowadays from the flea market.

This has little to do with cars. I repair and sell brass instruments and the ones from China are beyond crap. They fall apart waiting to be bought! They don't bother to solder very important pieces together, they just push them together and hope for no leaks. China just isn't ready.

LLB

As someone mentioned before me, in China you can order and buy any quality you want of a certain product. Even the same factory might offer different qualities, so do not blame the nation China for some importer/retailers greed and lack of moral.. I am not saying I'm happy about all thing being produced in China, but get your facts straight before slandering, from that we will all benefit.

J.