WE live in an age when price rip-offs are common and the automotive industry is one of the worst offenders. Just about every part you buy has a price tag that is completely out of proportion to the costs of manufacturing, shipping and storing. Electronic components are invariably very much overpriced. Why would a moulded key with a few cheap electronic components inside cost a couple of thousand rand or an ECU cost more than a small laptop? Our government prides itself on not having price control, but this means a dealership can charge whatever it likes for a part and there’s very little the parent company can do about it.
When it comes to buying aftermarket parts it’s safer to buy them from a major spares outlet with a good reputation. They usually go to great lengths to stock only quality items and will investigate complaints if the part fails after installation. Avoid small hole-in-the-wall outfits, especially when buying tyres.
Many parts, and especially consumable items such as brake pads, tyres and spark plugs are available in different quality levels, as shown below:
SPARES CATEGORIES
1. Genuine factory parts are produced either by the manufacturer or for it by an outside supplier with full technical and quality control involvement by the parent company. These usually carry a quality warranty of only six months or so, and this often means that parts that deviate slightly from specification are put to one side and sent to the spares department. This practice is a necessary consequence of mass production. Such parts are not always identical to the parts installed in your car but usually perform just as well.
2. Parts made to the same standard as in (1) by the same plant, but carrying the part supplier’s label and not the manufacturer’s label. These parts are usually as good as the parts in item 1.
3. Parts made by a supplier that has no link to the motor manufacturer. The quality will depend on whether the brand is well established or not. Unknown brand names or parts made in countries that do not have a flourishing motor industry should be avoided.
4. Parts that are just plain inferior. These are usually badly-designed and made from substandard materials. The only way to spot them, apart from the low price, is to examine the packaging and the finish very carefully. Most of them will have cheap packaging, the tell-tale signs of rough machining and even small rust spots because adding a protective coating is expensive.
BUYING BRAKE PADS
One should be especially careful when buying critical safety items such as brake pads. These are available in any of the above four categories and if you’re not buying pads from category 1 or 2 you’re taking a risk.
A brake pad is not just some friction material bonded to a steel backing plate. A good brake pad design must be capable of stopping the vehicle in the shortest possible time without overheating, fading, squealing, chattering or chewing the disc. It should also last as long as possible. This is such a tall order that most modern brakes pads can only match the first three criteria, but fall short on the last two. The major reason for the shorter pad and disc life on many modern cars is the movement away from carcinogenic asbestosbased pads in favour of low-metallic or ceramicbased pads.
Up to now, European manufacturers have tended to use a low-metallic friction material that offers excellent braking but tends to be noisy, wear out in 20 000 to 30 000 km, chew the discs and cover the wheels with a black deposit.
Japanese manufacturers prefer a ceramic base for their pads. These are quieter and cleaner than the low-metallic ones, and provide a more consistent feel, i.e. one that doesn’t change when the pad gets hot. These pads are kinder to the discs and tend to last longer in gentle use but wear out just as quickly under severe application.
Aftermarket pads range from the very good to the very bad. Some of the cheapest are made of such sub-standard materials that they should be banned, but the well-known brands are usually worth buying.
In Britain, some cheap brake pads have been found to contain compressed grass, sawdust and even cat litter!