Originally Posted by francotirador

Yes, it's true that purchasing OE Mercedes parts is one of the only ways of assuring the quality of any given part. However, purchasing parts from companies that are know OEM for Mercedes is another.

Lemforder is one of the best examples which comes to mind. Just this week I purchased some suspension bushings for my W126. One of the boxes is OE Mercedes and the parts have the Mercedes star and part number embossed in them. The other box is from Lemforder. The parts are absolutely identical with the exception of the Mercedes star being absent from the Lemforder parts.

I have many parts which have had the Mercedes star ground out of them. Those parts were obviously manufactured for Mercedes, but sold on the open market where they cannot use the Mercedes star. Again, they are absolutely identical to the OE Mercedes parts, but minus the star. Many electrical parts I have are like that.

Now, I have taken mostly all OE Mercedes parts off of my 1990 300SE which had only 62k on the clock when I purchased it from the original owner nearly a year ago. Not one of those parts has been Febi. The 4 original suspension shocks I changed were Bilsteins. The belt tensioner shock and the two engine shocks were all Stabilus.

If I find a part with "Febi" and the Mercedes star embossed in it I will report back.