Buyer Beware: Febi Suspension Parts - Page 10 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Stretch · #**136** 10-02-2013, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsxr

...
Has ANYONE here ever opened a box and said "oh awesome! this part for my Mercedes was made in China!"?

I don't think that many people are really worried about it - it is now normal. A lot of stuff is made in China.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsxr

...

When the end user has been warned that a particular brand of part (i.e., Uro, APA, FEQ) is notorious for extremely poor quality, and the end user willingly chooses to ignore the warnings and buy that brand anyway, and then is upset when the part fails in a short perioud of time... that is entirely the end users' fault. It sounds like you are placing some fault on the manufacturer of the junk, but that is out of our control, other than voting with your wallet: If nobody bought the junk, they'd be out of business. But people do, so they aren't, and PT Barnum was right.

No I am putting all of the blame onto the manufacturers.

Let me make that perfectly clear.

If manufacturers produce junk that is not fit for purpose it is their fault.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gsxr

Correct. However, once "bad" organisations (coughUROcough) have been identified, it's amazing how many people choose to ignore the warnings. *shrug*

True. But after the word gets out, if somone knowingly buys a late W124 LCA and the ball joint fails a few months later, they also lose their right to whine about it. Now if they didn't know, that's a different story.

The / your / our warning system isn't fool proof.

I encourage feedback through the forum - I started a thread about Febi rubber parts years ago - people who read this forum may want to hear about the troubles that we have had with certain parts...

...but at the end of the day - when you are giving advice - you have to give the advice and then let it go. There's no point getting angry or frustrated with people BECAUSE THEY WON'T BLOODY LISTEN!!!! Sometimes they won't.

I do encourage people to vote with their feet. But at some point or other some people are in a position where they have little choice but to make what others may think to be more risky purchases.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerryvz

GSXR is 100% correct.

...

I disagree that he's 100% correct.

I think you do to because you've just written this =>

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerryvz

...

People who are new to MB parts and who don't know better are largely exempted from this, though even they should know from comparing prices that parts that are 10-25% the price of factory or qual aftermarket prices are too good to be true.

And there is NO excuse for otherwise reputable vendors foisting g that crap on their customers. I don't want to hear their excuses that they are forced to carry it or their catalog system leaves them no choice (but they ALWAYS steer their customers away from it). My position on this is clear and black/white: if you are a parts vendor, and you know that URO and that type of part is crap, and you carry it in your catalog & offer it to your customers, you are unethical. This even goes for otherwise "good" vendors like Auto House A Z dot com & others.

There is no excuse for knowingly selling garbage to customers. It is greed pure & simple.

Yep!

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerryvz

...

Furthermore, and I hate to say this, but if people don't have the money to properly maintain their cars, and knowingly buy inferior parts to save money, not only are they gambling with their own & others' safety but they should not be driving an MB.

Actually in my experience the costs of restoring / rebuilding / owning a Mercedes is reasonable compared with say an old British sports car or a 10 year old lesser European vehicle such as a Renault or Citroen. All cars are expensive. We're not going to start the "get the bus" argument are we?

[Deep breath]

Have you noticed that both of you are focusing of brand names that are not Febi?

I have never bought any of these brands that you have mentioned - I try to avoid the cheapest brands because I want to lengthen the period of "graceful failure" that I mentioned in an earlier post.

The problem with Febi - the original subject of this thread - is that they often price their parts in a price range that is in a "reasonable range". When their stuff lasts a few hours or comes out of the box broken that's a real pain in the arse...

Stretch · #**137** 10-02-2013, 01:49 AM

Oh I forgot to say buyer beware again!

(Just in case some people aren't listening)

vstech · #**138** 10-02-2013, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay_bob

Depends on the part.

VStech and I just redid the multi link rear suspension on my 300TD. We used the Meyle kit from Pelican. The parts were marked Germany (on the part itself) and appear to be of decent quality. The word China was no where to be found on the packaging or the parts.

please note, they did not say MADE IN GERMANY, they were just marked,

MEYLE GERMANY... like the company name is MYLE GERMANY, nothing to denote WHERE the part was made was included...

vstech · #**139** 10-02-2013, 07:31 AM

Hmm, I just noticed my post count...

gerryvz · #**140** 10-02-2013, 07:55 AM

Febi is 100% a re boxer of other manufacturers parts. They DO NOT manufacture parts themselves. Febi is Russian Roulette ... You do not know until you receive the box what you will get. It could be good stuff (for example some OE or TRW stuff) or crap made in China.

The company's name is "Febi Germany" and it is (although based in Germany) designed to mislead unsuspecting buyers into believing that it's re boxed parts are all made in Germany. This is ethically questionable in my opinion. Many people even here see "Febi Germany" and believe the best, when they shouldn't.

Meyle is another case. They manufacture parts and also rebox parts. Meyle also claims to be an MB OEM. though I personally have no evidence of this. Perhaps they could make some small screw or washer for MB so they could make this claim. However, they are NOT a major MB OEM who makes major parts or sub assemblies for MB.

Meyle also misleadingly uses "Germany" in their name and on their boxes. But Meyle quality has slid precipitously / alarmingly in the past 10 years. More and more stories of their parts failing prematurely are cropping up. I have personally seen evidence of their rubber door seals not properly fitting MB vehicles (nearly as well as MB OE rubber seals do).

Meyle makes an "HD" line of a few parts like 124 upper strut mounts that they claim outlast & outperform MB OE original parts. The jury is out on this. Many many more of their parts are made in China and have been proven to be cheap and inferior.

Personally, I will not patronize these ethically questionable purveyors of parts who misuse their company names in a deliberate manner to sucker unsuspecting buyers into buying their parts.

I won't even get into URO, FEQ, APA, Trucktec and Hamburg Tech with this post. They are at the bottom of the food chain. Their owners should be drawn & quartered and / or put in the stocks for a good spell of time.

Cheers,
Gerry

Stretch · #**141** 10-02-2013, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerryvz

... Their owners should be drawn & quartered and / or put in the stocks for a good spell of time.

Cheers,
Gerry

All "makers" of dodgy parts should be horse whipped and made to eat the crap they've made.

charmalu · #**142** 10-02-2013, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gerryvz

Febi is 100% a re boxer of other manufacturers parts. They DO NOT manufacture parts themselves. Febi is Russian Roulette ... You do not know until you receive the box what you will get. It could be good stuff (for example some OE or TRW stuff) or crap made in China.

The company's name is "Febi Germany" and it is (although based in Germany) designed to mislead unsuspecting buyers into believing that it's re boxed parts are all made in Germany. This is ethically questionable in my opinion. Many people even here see "Febi Germany" and believe the best, when they shouldn't.

Meyle is another case. They manufacture parts and also rebox parts. Meyle also claims to be an MB OEM. though I personally have no evidence of this. Perhaps they could make some small screw or washer for MB so they could make this claim. However, they are NOT a major MB OEM who makes major parts or sub assemblies for MB.

Meyle also misleadingly uses "Germany" in their name and on their boxes. But Meyle quality has slid precipitously / alarmingly in the past 10 years. More and more stories of their parts failing prematurely are cropping up. I have personally seen evidence of their rubber door seals not properly fitting MB vehicles (nearly as well as MB OE rubber seals do).

Meyle makes an "HD" line of a few parts like 124 upper strut mounts that they claim outlast & outperform MB OE original parts. The jury is out on this. Many many more of their parts are made in China and have been proven to be cheap and inferior.

Personally, I will not patronize these ethically questionable purveyors of parts who misuse their company names in a deliberate manner to sucker unsuspecting buyers into buying their parts.

I won't even get into URO, FEQ, APA, Trucktec and Hamburg Tech with this post. They are at the bottom of the food chain. Their owners should be drawn & quartered and / or put in the stocks for a good spell of time.

Cheers,
Gerry

Life (Parts) is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.

I bought a Slave Cylinder for my Datsun PU several years ago from Kragans, (O`Rilleys) and they had one for $10 and one for $27. So I asked to see both of them. one was in a plain white box, and the other was in a Raybestos box. they were both in a plastic bag with the exact same part # on a piece of paper in the bag. so Raybestos is a reboxer also. I bought the cheaper one.

Charlie

zorecati · #**143** 10-02-2013, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vstech

Hmm, I just noticed my post count...

For the love of all things great and small!

Doktor Bert · #**144** 10-05-2013, 03:58 PM

Starting to see a dramatic increase in the number of Meyle parts made in China of late...Hmmmmmm.

I recently acquired a 95 BMW 525i and I am buying genuine BMW parts for it too. SSF and IMC have a lot of Febi/Meyle/Lemforder parts, but I prefer to use parts from the maker whenever possible...FWIW

NC-Diesel · #**145** 10-06-2013, 12:17 AM

Well eventually places like China will eventually get to the point the costs are comparable to here. I always wondered what happens when the elite run out of places with "cheap labor".

Diesel911 · #**146** 10-06-2013, 01:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NC-Diesel

Well eventually places like China will eventually get to the point the costs are comparable to here. I always wondered what happens when the elite run out of places with "cheap labor".

But, within China there is not a free market economy. For the most part their Government can decide the Wages and the price of goods.
In theory they could keep the Wages needed to pay the Workers by keeping the cost of items they need to live on like Food raised in China and Shelter down by Law.

But, the big complaint here is not where the items are made but the Poor Quality of the Items. In the case of this thread that is because FEBI is no insisting on that quality.

India is up and coming and Africa is extremely undeveloped as a labor pool.

layback40 · #**147** 10-06-2013, 01:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diesel911

But, within China there is not a free market economy. For the most part their Government can decide the Wages and the price of goods.
In theory they could keep the Wages needed to pay the Workers by keeping the cost of items they need to live on like Food raised in China and Shelter down by Law.

But, the big complaint here is not where the items are made but the Poor Quality of the Items. In the case of this thread that is because FEBI is no insisting on that quality.

India is up and coming and Africa is extremely undeveloped as a labor pool.

First it was Japan, then Taiwan, then Korea, now China, next India, then Africa. We also have some eastern block countries in the mix. Eventually it will work its way back to every one.
Its not the cheap labor thats the problem, more so the quality of the raw materials they use.

colincoon · #**148** 10-06-2013, 01:03 PM

Update on my LCA's:

Went to Mercedes today to pick up the replacements, and only walked out with one. I guess they sold one out from under me for some reason. Oh well, I'll pick it up on Tuesday.

I can already tell that the official MB part is of much better build quality. Seems to weight a few pounds more, looks like the metal is thicker, and the ball joint itself is of much higher quality.

I'm about to go swap out the one that I did get and I'll take pictures of the two.

gerryvz · #**149** 10-06-2013, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colincoon

Update on my LCA's:

I'm about to go swap out the one that I did get and I'll take pictures of the two.

Very interested to see the comparo between the factory and aftermarket parts.

colincoon · #**150** 10-06-2013, 04:06 PM

Here are a few. I still have the passenger side to do so if anyone wants more pictures let me know. I was racing the clock to get this done. Still have to go adjust my camber/caster.

The Febi ball joint was dry as a bone. The Mercedes ball joint appears to be made by TRW.