Parts brands - OE Volvo, trusted aftermarket, and bad

[scot850]

I used Intermotor parts on my older RWD Volvos for 20+ year when living in the UK. Can't say I had any issues that I recall, certainly no worse than the faulty parts I have had from Bosch over that time frame.

I keep an eye out locally and further afield for NOS parts or the guy sold his car and no longer needs his spare for it. I found an NLA RHR door actuator for a P80 that way in Denver. Cost more to ship it than the part! It was still only about 1/3 of a new part even if it was available.
Transmission fluid is another case, as well as sparkplugs, another door actuator and more. Sometimes they are parts I can't use but then I pass them on at my cost price to others where I can.

Neil.

[BlackBart]

I was recently hunting down a timing chain tensioner for my Audi A4. Disappointing that it only has 35,000 miles on it. (maybe I price shopped that one, I'll have to dig up receipts and see).

So I found a couple of candidates. Prices are a crazy range of $100 up to $1000 for the factory piece. FCP had a Gates brand for a decent price....and in their product info it says it's Chinese! A GATES! I found another one from an old German name, BAP-MIC, did some digging, and it was purchased by the Chinese years ago.

Another quirk of parts pricing -
I also priced a drivers window regulator. In this case the FCP price is quite a bit higher than the factory price though dealers - that's weird.

[abscate]

I understand OE thermostats are now made in China, too. German ones are better than the Chinese Wahle.

Ok, I might have made that up

[abscate]

Parts Geek is pretty good at giving you all the options of available vendors for Volvo parts. You can usually tell which ones are discontinued, too, or at least suspected NLA ( No longer available)

[rrres]

Any recommendations for piston rings, besides original Volvo? I'm thinking about doing a piston-ring-job. Leaning towards Hastings or Mahle/ Clevite piston rings because of the price...but I haven't read anything about someone using them. I saw a recommendation for Grant piston rings and tried contacting them but never got a reply.

[abscate]

Any recommendations for piston rings, besides original Volvo? I'm thinking about doing a piston-ring-job. Leaning towards Hastings or Mahle/ Clevite piston rings because of the price...but I haven't read anything about someone using them. I saw a recommendation for Grant piston rings and tried contacting them but never got a reply.

There are so few piston ring jobs done on these cars here, at least, I can’t recall the last one.

OE Volvo piston ring sets are about 5x $60 , $300 total

[RickHaleParker]

Leaning towards Hastings or Mahle/ Clevite piston rings because of the price...but I haven't read anything about someone using them.

Mahle and Goetze are the OE suppliers for piston rings. Buy one of them and your getting the same thing as Genuine Volvo.

[slickdizzy]

I recently replaced the fuel pump in my 850R. Because I was in a rush and working in a not-ideal location (original unit failed with my car parked on the street in front of my apartment!) I wanted a complete assembly with the housing and everything. The OE Volvo unit was quite expensive and subject to a lead time so I decided to try ordering an Airtex unit (part # E8379M).

Much to my surprise the Airtex part was manufactured in Germany and not an Asian country like I was anticipating. It included a tank ring gasket in the box as well. The fit was 100% perfect and the unit has been running with zero problems since installation.

Given the orders of magnitude cheaper than OE the Airtex unit was while still being manufactured in a reputable area, along with the perfect fitment, I would not hesitate to recommend it as a quality aftermarket replacement.

[Goupil]

I need to replace the CV joints on my driveshaft, from what I understand the OE is GKN Lobro but they dont sell the joints.

Any have had good experiences with other brands ? I've found a good dozen, with prices racing from 20 to 100

[abscate]

Good experience with the URO air guide, the plastic piece under the radiator held up with two m6 lag screws

viewtopic.php?p=612094&hilit=P80+air+guide#p612094