Opinion on aftermarket "Uro" brand M103 fan clutch bracket?
 

does anyone have any opinions on the aftermarket part for the fan clutch bearing bracket? I am asking specifically about the Uro part that retails for around $100 online.

I'd stay far away from URo parts personally..


Febi/Bilstein is marketed as OEM quality. I don't like doing jobs twice!


Michael

URO-China=junk!

i should have heeded the warnings and paid the extra $100 to get the proper part for the febi version of 104 200 0528. the Uro part is absolute junk.

#1 the aluminum feels very cheap

#2 the hole for the tapered 13mm Y-bracket/oil bolt is too small. This caused me to knocked the small o ring out of place and I ended up dropping it into my timing case. luckily I could fish it out with a wire hanger.

I ended up having to take my drill out and widening the hole to fit the tapered bolt body.

#3 the hub for the pulley was too large. being out of spec, it was almost impossible to fit the clutch fan pulley. I had to do find extra bolts that were longer and used them to bring the pulley in.

#4 the hole for threading the upper smog pump bolt is not even close to alignment. when looking at it straight on, you can definitely see the misalignment which will require me to do more drilling to accomdate the smog pump.

i am stuck at #4 so far, but if I can get the smog pump in, I will post more failures with this part.

Hi John,

My name is Daniel Seeman from URO Parts and I'd love to get some additional information about your difficulties so we can find out what is going on. Our Quality Control team inspected the part you purchased against a Genuine Mercedes fan bearing bracket and here's what we found.

#1 the aluminum feels very cheap
The die cast material used to fabricate is ADC12 a very common material used for automotive parts, similar to A383 material. I also weighed the Genuine part and ours and they both weigh exactly 1.8 lbs.

#2 the hole for the tapered 13mm Y-bracket/oil bolt is too small. This caused me to knocked the small o ring out of place and I ended up dropping it into my timing case. luckily I could fish it out with a wire hanger.
I ended up having to take my drill out and widening the hole to fit the tapered bolt body.
All the tapped holes match the Genuine sample *(M6-1.0, M8-1.25,M10-1.5). However, we did find that one of the screw through holes is off by 0.8mm, which we are fixing as we speak. Please see image below.


http://www.uroparts.com/uro/pictures...1042000528.JPG

#3 the hub for the pulley was too large. being out of spec, it was almost impossible to fit the clutch fan pulley. I had to do find extra bolts that were longer and used them to bring the pulley in.
Our hub measures exactly as the Genuine, M35.02dia. (1.378”)

#4 the hole for threading the upper smog pump bolt is not even close to alignment. when looking at it straight on, you can definitely see the misalignment which will require me to do more drilling to accomdate the smog pump.
The through holes chord distance positions are within 0.25mm which probably is accounted for by the smaller hole diameter.
Not sure what he is referring to. Need additional information.

Thanks to your post we did find one hole that was off by 0.8mm, but couldn't verify the other issues you mentioned. We'd love to get item back that you received to do further analysis and make sure it is ours. Please email or PM if you'd like to get a replacement.

Best regards,
Daniel Seeman
daniel@apaindustries.com

i would like to send you the part, but i've already drilled out the other smog pump hole to make it fit and I don't feel like disassembling the front of my engine to retrieve the part right now.

the second hole in question is the one for the smog pump which is the lower left hole in that picture. it does not align with the smog pump when the lower bolt of the smog pump is installed and the smog pump unit is rotated up. I had to drill the hole upwards in order for the bolt to slide through.

I also bought the same part....similar to john's experience there was no way to fit the air pump... the area where the pump fits (m9.0 in picture) was thicker than the original mb part. when attempting to file it a bit and force the pump in, the part broke in half like a piece of plastic....i was still able to use the pulley, but had to bypass the air pump...your measurements are off....

Sorry for the delayed response, but I didn't want to respond hastily. We've now compared ours to a Febi and a Genuine and after extensive analysis cannot find a single thing different besides what was mentioned earlier. See images below.

http://www.uroparts.com/uro/pictures...e/DSCN0025.JPG
http://www.uroparts.com/uro/pictures...e/DSCN0019.JPG
http://www.uroparts.com/uro/pictures...e/DSCN0026.JPG
http://www.uroparts.com/uro/pictures...e/DSCN0027.JPG
http://www.uroparts.com/uro/pictures...e/DSCN0028.JPG

I would also like to mention that I looked up our warranty rate for our entire line of fan bearing brackets and found that our warranty rate is 0.2%. I can't imagine everybody out there is willing to re-work the part if it doesn't fit.

Without getting your part back there's no way to know it's even our part in question. We're a very easy company to deal with and had one of our distributors called with this problem we would have gotten the part back and a replacement would have been issued. If there's anything else we can do or you want to send the part back to us for a replacement, please let me know.

Daniel Seeman

Awhile ago I replace the fan bracket on my 190 2.6 with I beleive a Febi or OEM part, I did not have any issues with the repair or the Part that I bought. I do not have any experience with URO fan Brackets, but I must say that I am impressed that a factory rep would come out here to defend his parts.

Perhaps URO does have a QC issue with some of their parts, or perhaps there are counterfeit parts coming into the country. I believe that it is impressive to see that URO is taking a hands on approach to parts quality.

I am also impressed by the response, but I personally have had bad experience with their idle air hoses. Mine was rock solid in less than 4months and it cracked leaving me stranded as the car wouldn't start. I bought OE and it has not turned anywhere near as hard.

That exhibition is only to sell parts.......

The truth is they are knock-offs made in China & the quality is still questionable at best.

Aligning them with a screwdriver doesn't mean they will fit properly & that the bearing will last at all as well!

not to fan any flames or anything... but i agree, aligning it with a single STEEL screwdriver and 3 plastic pens proves nothing... the least they could've done to prove alignment was to get or fabricate long bolts and thread them all the way through the 3 parts. IMHO

I just bought a URO part and regret it. I also had to drill and enlarge one of the holes to accommodate the bolt, because it was too small. I'm not done with the installion yet, but mine did line up correctly with the smog pump. I'm waiting shipment of the pulley and the fan clutch, I hope they line up, as these are genuine parts. URO also makes the fan clutch but I didn't want to gamble with the cooling system. If I have any problems, I'm returning the fan bracket and getting a mercedes genuine part. Mercedes doesn't make new ones anymore, they only reburbish them.

I spent $25 in postage last month sending a Uro blower motor back. That will be the first and last time I consider this brand.

Two or three years ago I had never heard of URO parts. None my parts suppliers carried their parts. Now it seems there is a lot of this URO crap everywhere. As if they are mass manufacturing the W124 catalog now. I recall going through a few fan bearing brackets in 08/09 and I was getting Febi/Bilstein for ~$109. Now I can only get a URO bracket for $90. :(

Even a few years ago, I was hearing about the chinese outsourcing of Febi/Bilstein/Meyle and questionable QC. URO is definitely a step below Febi/Bilstein/Meyle while their pricing is nearly identical, and nowhere even close to dealership OEM parts.