Have you ever had problems with a Febi fan bearing bracket on an M103? I purchased one to install that was supposedly manufactured in Germany. I read somewhere that Febi was an OE supplier for the bracket to Mercedes, but I don't know if that's true.

Does anyone know who the OEM for the M103 fan bearing bracket was? Has anyone had any problems with a Febi/Bilstein fan bearing bracket they installed new in an M103?

I had one Febi straight out of the box where the flange was pushed way back allowing the pulley to rub badly on the front of the engine. The replacement Febi has been fine so far, 50,000 miles/2 years or so.

I generally don't have many issues at all with Febi/Bilstein/Meyle stuff.

Thanks for the response.

That bearing bracket replacement is not something I want to do twice because of a defective and/or poor quality bracket. I normally bite the bullet and purchase OE Mercedes parts in cases like this. However, even my cost is $260 for an OE one from the dealer. The Febi bracket that I purchased cost half of that.

Has anyone else had any experience with the Febi bracket?

I've had it in my 260E for about a year now, smooth, quiet no issues.

I've had good experience with Febi/Bilstein products so far.

I bought an APA (Chinese manufactured) water pump for one of my M103's. It doesn't seem tp pump enough water around at idle speeds - higher operating speeds is O.K. If changing the water pump wasn't such a P.I.T.A. I would be changing it out for a better brand.

I thought Bilstein was an OE manufacturer for MB? I think a few of my parts that are original say Bilstein on it, I've also seen Veritas. As for the Febi brand...are they merged or a subsidiary of Bilstein? I remember getting a part (can't remeber what), but it was yellow and red and it said "Febi/Bilstein" on it. I think a belt tensioner, but I'm not sure.


Also, I've had a few parts that I used from Uro parts, but no complaints yet. I'll keep you all posted.

i tried to go back through my records and see if i had any uro parts..... i couldn't determine.... but i know i have avoided uro rubber parts...and i think my fan bracket is febi.. i know that is not uro... i bought the fan bracket about four years ago...

i know i have uro something..... but it wasn't for a critical part.....

the only "part" problem i had was that someone once sent me a fan clutch that was the wrong part..... they replaced it with the correct one.....other than that.... my replacement parts from various sources over the last 7 years have been very reliable....

i have never replaced a "replacement" part..... at least not yet.....

Hey Lee: Thanks for your post.

Do you know who manufactured the original fan bearing bracket that you replaced?

hope , don't know it..... i am sure it was original to the car... it was for the 1989 300ce

FYI
 

Here is the direct contact data for URO.

APA Industries, Inc.

2130 Ward Ave
Simi Valley CA, 93065
Phone: (805) 955-9699
Fax: (805) 955-9692
http://www.apaindustries.com/uro/

From the front page of that website. OH GOD.

this thread seems to have gotten attention lately.

after modifying the uro part to fit, I haven't had any problems with the bearing itself. But then again, it's only been about 7000 miles.

I still wouldn't buy it again though after the crazy fitment problems.

As you stated, seven thousand miles is obviously not much. If it were 70,000 miles that would be a different story. However, I still wouldn't do such a labor intensive job like that and install a URO part.

I'm concerned about installing a Febi part and I probably have no reason to be. My car only has 75k on the clock right now and the fan bearing bracket has given no symptoms of being near failing. I just like to do a lot of preventative maintenance, especially on parts that could leave me stranded and/or cause major damage.

I received my new Febi fan bearing bracket today. The casting has nothing embossed in it at all. It just has "Febi Germany 11949" lasered into the top of it. I thought it was just stamped there, but the rep I talked to today said it was applied with a laser.

I called Febi because the part just seemed suspiciously devoid of any markings that would have been applied during the casting process. All other cast parts that I have seen have been embossed with the manufacturer and usually the country of manufacture.

The Febi rep told me they did not have their own foundry and sourced the cast part from another company. He said they then put the assembly together at their facility. In this case he said that facility was in Germany.

I asked him why the box and/or the part didn't mention the country of manufacture. Their boxes just read "Febi Germany." I have a number of their parts and none of the boxes say the country of manufacture. He stated that according to U.S. law there's supposed to be a label on the box which states "made in____." Well, just from my experience I can see someone is not following the law.

I also asked him about counterfeit Febi parts. He stated he has not had any problems at all with counterfeit parts here in the U.S.

US law states that the country of manufacture must be marked on the package or on the product (visible when purchased) so that the "ultimate consumer" knows where its from. The country of manufacture is where most of the cost is added, in this case "Febi Germany". It's not where all the components come from. I'd suspect the casting itself costs well under a dollar.