Be intimidated if you'd like.
My statement was in obvious response to your risible pretense that you possessed some magical knowledge or experience that I didn't in the subject at hand.
Nice strawman, no one has claimed that there is a reason to buy "cheap inferior aftermarket crap".
The reference was clearly to my decades long professional experience as an automotive mechanic.
Your implication that OEM is necessarily superior to aftermarket is laughably naive to anyone competent.
pointing out that you don't know what you're talking about is not a strawman, it's simply statement of fact based on your own words. if you don't like it, don't say stuff that can be so trivially contradicted.
apparently, that doesn't stop idiots thinking that because they paid more, they're getting more!
uh, i'm not. apparently missed the sarcasm.
if i can tell the difference between a quality oem rebuild and one made with inferior after-market components, then i apparently possess something you don't.
it's no strawman - you were trying to justify paying the same price for inferior aftermarket as oem.
so what are you now - an auto mechanic, or an engineering grad? you're not decades as a bachelors/masters graduate regressing to auto tech, thus you're clearly not one and probably not either.
i'm confused - when you said "I'd purchase (as I have, an untold number of times) a rebuilt, lifetime warrantied unit from one of the discount parts stores, Advance Auto Parts, Auto Zone, O'Reilly Auto Parts", i thought you'd actually shopped at one of those establishments and were advocating their product based on experience. clearly you haven't because if you had and you'd seen machine screws replaced with self-tapping, seen copper slip rings replaced with aluminum, seen rectifiers and/or controllers replaced with under-rated components, and seen chinese bearings, i'd have thought you, as an "engineer/vehicle tech" would know what you're looking at.
Whoosh! Two non sequiturs in a row. You must be so proud.
Apparently, you have.
If only.
Hardly, but it's demonstrably just too far over your head for you to comprehend.
Retired, as clearly stated and which you've already acknowledged.
Again, already recently and unmistakably stated. But given that you still can't differentiate that which wouldn't even begin to flummox a retarded ten year old in a hurry, what could possibly be the point of continuing a dialog with you.
Logic obviously isn't your long suit.
In that case at least, you're a master of the obvious.
As impossibly unlikely as it would seem to be, you're simply and incontestably becoming more and more ridiculously incoherent and less and less entertaining.
Yes, autoparts stores across the spectrum often carry the same rebuilds from the same places. This doesn't mean they aren't crap across the board. Today, not years ago before you got your degree, they are crap. It's crap at NAPA and crap at Autozone. The difference is that NAPA usually has teirs. Their more expensive stuff isn't the same stuff that's at the others.
I prefer OEM, I prefer rebuilding my own (and I've done it). But sometimes you're in a bind and just have to get the car back on the road now so the top of the line NAPA/carquest/etc stuff fits the need.
As to starters, on one car with an odd starting issue, I removed the starter, disassembled it, cleaned it up, found nothing wrong, put it back together and the problem went away.
The OEMs often farm out their rebuilds to rebuilders that also serve the aftermarket. Although the OEM rebuilds are IME much better done, they are still rebuilds and often not exactly the same as the factory orginals.
On another note Amazon.com does not deal with cores so it's a good place to get OEM rebuilds without having to give up your original. That said what they carry at any given time is a crap shoot.
The "lifetime warranty" or 1-2 year warranties are the standard sales pitch at places like OReilly's and Autozone. I've only noticed lifetime for alternators, but don't pay much attention. Bought such an alternator last year at OReillys. Cost maybe 50 bucks more than the low end rebuilt, and I figured putting a "lifetime replacement" on an alt means something in rebuild quality. GM alts aren't the best alts in the first place, and IME getting more than about 5-7 years out of them is doing good. We'll see if I use it. If it goes +5 years versus 3 years for the cheapo, and I don't even use the warranty it was still worth the extra
I actually had a counter guy at VatoZone recently steer my friend away from the cheapest line of parts when his alternator died (Cavalier, 250K miles, so obviously we were not shopping for quality or ultimate durability) even he admitted that the cheap stuff was garbage. In particular he mentioned that the 1-year warranty batteries seemed to have an even chance of leaking and destroying stuff even before the warranty was up. I appreciated his honesty, but really...
nate
Even the most casual observer could readily verify that NAPA, O'Reilly, Auto Zone ... explicitly list many of the same vendors for replacement parts on their websites.
Those I mentioned commonly have tiers today also. I've never advocated the use of the least expensive replacement parts sold.
Yes, we used to replace diodes, brushes, starter drives, solenoids, compressor clutches, master, slave and wheel cylinder kits ... as needed. But as such individual parts have become more difficult to easily come by, it's now common to simply replace an entire unit with a reman.
he said, from the safety of his sofa not workshop.
but you advocated "Advance Auto Parts, Auto Zone, O'Reilly Auto Parts", none of whom offer oem quality rebuilds. your recommendation was on the basis of their "lifetime warranty", which may sound good when you're paying $130 for an alternator, but in reality, you're getting $50 of crap and an $80 warranty which they're hoping you'll never use. any experienced professional knows it's better to pay $130 for an oem rebuild with a 12 month warranty that will never be needed.
"we"???
individual parts are very easy to come by. there's this thing called "the internet". it'll put you in touch with virtually any part you want
- if you actually know what you're doing.
but that's not what you meant to say - that it's EASIER to replace remanufactured units.
That phrase alone conspicuously excludes his ilk.
He should just admit the glaringly obvious, concrete fact that everyone else is already well aware, he doesn't now nor has he ever had anything of any value whatsoever to contribute.
he? or your royal "we"?
Yet another indecipherable, meaningless non sequitur. The deluded poseur isn't exactly what one would classify as a formidable, or hardly so much as even a worthy, adversary.
if you think you're addressing someone, like me, then address that person directly. otherwise all the above indirect nonsense means nothing. apart from showing the yellow streak down your back.
Well aware that he can no longer either garner nor be deserving of a personal response, he's developed stark "emotional problems" due to the fly speck's continually failing attempts to attract the child like attention that he has proven to so desperately desire.
don't be a coward. [and a hypocrite.] if you mean me, address your comments to me directly, not some ethereal "he" that is contextually incorrect.
A lot of times you can compare part numbers and you'll find that they are ALL using the same parts supplier but not necessarily all charging the same price.
Get a starter draw test done and find out how many amps it is drawing. It may well be out of spec now and will require replacement.
Well because of work and other pressing obligations I put off changing the starter, but when I got stranded at Home Depot today I wasted no time after getting a jump to pass by O'Reilly's on the way home and pick up a rebuilt, while I left the engine running and sure enough, the starter was the problem. The guy from AAA told me the battery was fully charged and it barely cranked enough to start with his battery pack hooked up. I knew all the connections were clean, so by this time there was little doubt, actually, none.
Well, anyway after wrestling the old one out and installing the rebuilt I put all the tools away, cleaned the grime off my hands and went out to savor the joy of a fast cranking, quick starting engine. Bingo! it started right up! Only problem was the starter kept cranking. I turned the engine off but the starter kept cranking! SH#T!!! I popped the hood and tried to yank off a battery cable, but I had cinched them both down tight. I ran inside to get the 1/2 inch wrench to loose the bolt on the cable. By this time it's dark and I didn't bring out the flashlight, so I'm fumbling around doing this by feel. Finally got it loose and pulled the cable off the post and the starter stopped spinning. whew!
So I put the cable back on the post, not knowing what to expect, but nothing happened. I leave the hood up and the cable loose on the post and go to try again, being ready to sprint back to the battery to pull the cable if necessary, but this time the starter motor disengaged. I tried it several more times with no drama. The engine started and the starter disengaged every time. Cool, but not cool. I disconnect the battery cable so as not to have to worry about the starter spontaneously starting.
I go to Google and look up 'starter motor keeps cranking' and found this not to be an entirely uncommon problem. The possible cause that appealed to me the most was that a new or rebuilt starter has tolerances that are tight, causing the solenoid not to disengage. This problem, I was lead to believe, can work itself out as the starter does its work . I thought maybe the minute and half that this one was cranking while I fumbled to pull the battery cable might have done just that. I'm hoping that's the case because that would mean no more work. But it seems just as likely from the symptoms that the starter relay was stuck. But this has never happened before, so I'm leaning toward the rebuilt starter as the source of the problem. But tomorrow I will pull the relay and pop it open to inspect the contacts for any sign of weld spots.
I'm assuming that the starter was cranking the engine after I turned the key off and not just spinning. The fact that it continued for so long cranking at a good solid rpm tells me I should have no starting problems for quite a while. But I am going to disconnect the battery at night until I feel comfortable that it won't spontaneously start :-)
I also see that this thread seemed to take on a life of its own after my last post. I have some catch-up reading to do!
Jack
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