That would be Lemfoerder. Complete with the two blue paint dots on the one side.

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Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (113k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
1993 300SD (291k)
1993 300D 2.5T (338k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (265k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K)
1985 300D (233K)

That's the free market for you and it's a fact of life that many companies are moving their production to China.

Companies with quality products will continue to control the manufacturing process so that they continue to produce a high quality products. They can do this and still save money by not having to pay pensions, polluting without regulations, reducing costs in labor and paying lower taxes.

If they don't, they wont be able to compete with companies who have outsourced to China.

__________________
With best regards

Al

...and they can pass the tremendous savings of not having to manufacture in Germany on to us. Notice how the price of the Chinese junk has fallen so much?

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

No they pass it on to the shareholders.

__________________
With best regards

Al

For the record. I've installed quite a few Lemforder parts on several of my cars in the past 6 months or so. Almost all of them were made in Germany (the non-German items were made elsewhere in Europe) and everything was top quality. To date I have had *zero* complaints with any Lemforder parts. They are OEM for many factory parts.

Febi had been decent but over the last few years they have been slipping. I generally avoid them when possible. Ditto for Meyle. Both are kind of in between the OE/OEM items and the complete junk like Uro/APA/FEQ.

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Dave
Boise, ID
Check out my website photos, documents, and movies!

I had a Meyle 'HD' motor mount fail on my 300SEL in just a few days.

Their tie rod and control arm boots are garbage now too.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

one word: NAFTA

it literally created ghost towns in the midwest.

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1982 300sd from craigslist $800 greased on one tank with NO CONVERSION in the Hot Texas Sun. (currently dead & awaiting engine damage investigation and/or longblock swap)
new daily: '03 vw 5speed jetta tdi wagon. bagged&chipped

If I were redoing a W123 suspension again, I would get Genuine Mercedes guide rod mounts ($112 each.) Some other MB suspension parts aren't priced too terribly, like idler arm kits and ball joints for ~$32 each.

Aftermarket GRM's are about $55 each, but if one fails the savings over MB parts goes poof. A meyle GRM started clunking on my 300cd shortly after installation.

It also might be a good idea to spray dust boots with plasti-dip to give a covering against oil leaks or ozone degrading the boot.

I'm kind of curious to see what happens when someone installs the W123 $290 front suspension kit from FCP/Ebay combined with 2 $30 URO guide rod mounts. The parts really only have to last a few years, and then it's the next owner's or junkyard's problem.

Three thumbs up.

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'85 300D, 'Lance',250k, ... winter beater (100k on franken-Frybrid 3 Valve Kit)
'82 300D, 'Tex', 228k body / 170k engine ... summer car
'83 300TD Cali Wagon 210k, wife's car

I wish i would have found that parts dot com website years ago. I never realized that oe parts could be had so cheap.

After owning my car for 6 years, I find myself replacing parts that I already replaced 5 years ago. All of them are aftermarket parts.

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Eugene

10 E63 AMG
93 300te 4matic
07 BMW X3
14 Ford F-150 Fx2

FYI, I think XXXX came into existence around 2007 or so? Prior to that there wasn't any option to get OE/dealer parts that cheap.

No worries though, MB is making up for it with major price increases. As of Jan-1 2013, quite a few parts went up 30-50%, some increased over 100% (more than double).



It depends what brand of aftermarket parts were used. The "good" aftermarket stuff will last just as long as OE. The "bad" aftermarket parts are false economy, as you are now learning the hard way.

me too, always have, keeping my fingers crossed that I always will!

I bought this kit when My Lower Control Arm Bushings went bad. At that time I was not knowledgeable of Quality issues and did not know what company Parts I was going to get. But, I needed whole Kit because I did not know what I was going to find wrong.
Every one of the Parts in the Kit are ÜRO Parts. Not one part or package has a Country they were made in.

I did not use the whole Kit as I only replaced what was no good. I replaced the Lower Control Arm Bushings and the Upper Control Arms and that was over 3 years ago. I have had no problems with the exception that one of the Upper Control Arm Boots has cracked those parts but I drive less than 5,000 miles a year.
Later I used the Rear Plastic Links that came in the Kit and I used one of the Plastic Lower Ball Joint Boots on My Stock Ball Joint and I am supposed to pull the other Boot and replace it also.

The ÜRO Ball Joints have a lot more metal on the OD that could make them much harder to press in.
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?t=275392

I also have ÜRO Motor Mounts and Radiator Hoses and have had no issues with them and they are over 4 years old.
However, I did the other fixes to get rid of the Engine Shaking soon after the time I installed the Motor and Trans mounts; and, that removes a lot of extra stress on the Mounts.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I recently ask an eBay seller where the Moog Upper Control Arms were made and the Seller said the USA.
The Moog Drag Links I replace on My Chevy Van are also made in the USA.

So that gives a little more cause for Hope.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

I'm 99.44% sure that Moog doesn't manufacture any parts for Mercedes. If they are offering parts for MB's, most likely they are reboxing someone else's parts, and it's highly unlikely they will be made in USA.