When OEM isn't necessary

Post by **RyanGLT** » 15 Feb 2011, 16:36

I notice there are a lot of Volvo guys on the forums who talk about the dire need to use OEM or Genuine Volvo parts for their cars...and I can understand that most of the time, OEM is probably the way to go....

When I bought my 850 it needed a tune-up...I went to the store and bought non OEM platinum plugs (actually that was an accident, I don't care of platinum plugs in anything and find them to be a waste of money but they were in stock), Non OEM Rotor, and a Non OEM cap. I wanna say it might have been a BWD cap. That's been thousands and thousands of miles ago, and I haven't had a single problem. The cap didn't self destruct, I'm not having any misfires, etc..

So what is it? Is there any real hard evidence about HAVING to use the OEM 4 electrode Volvo plugs, or HAVING to use an OEM Bosch cap? The BWD cap that I bought and put on looked to be of the same quality as the original Volvo cap I took off. Same brown color and nice brass contacts.

discuss.....

-R.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 15 Feb 2011, 21:29

My experience began and pretty much ended with the purchase of my '94. I bought the car on eBay and flew into Indianapolis to pick it up.

Upon getting it home I immediately embarked on the beginnings of Stage Zero. I had been driving Chevy Suburbans for years and the Bosch Platinum +2 plugs and the old reliable Fram oil filters were a staple for the Chevys. The plug wires pretty much fell apart when I did the plug change so I "upgraded" to Bosch plug wires. I did, however buy the Bosch cap and rotor. I have never used anything else so I don't know how thew others perform. I did buy a cap and rotor for my son's car at either Advance Auto Parts or O'Reilly Auto Parts under some other name but when you opened the box it was a Bosch part.

By the time I was done the car clacked like hell on every start up and misfired like crazy.

About that time I found MVS and learned the error of my ways. I replaced the oil filter with a Mann filter (No more lifter clack), the plugs with the el cheapo Bosch Coppers and the plug wires with Bougicord wires (No more misfires) and life has been good ever since. Since I changed the plugs away from the Platinum +2s and the wires at the same time I can 't definitively put the blame on either one. The bulk of the blame likely goes to the spark plugs since they come out of the box with a 0.035 to 0.040 gap and you really can't change it. The Volvo white blocks love 0.026 to 0.028 on the spark plug gap and they get increasingly angry as the plug gap grows.

I have had generally good luck with the aftermarket PCV kits but others have complained of oil lines to the oil trap rotting away after using some of the aftermarket parts.

I have used aftermarket exhaust components that work fine (An OBX Racing header for my son's NA) - once you get everything to fit back together - The EGR line specifically.

The Scan Tech delta arm end links are working fine after several years. I had a long talk on the phone with the folks at eEuroparts before I placed the order and they indicated that it was one Scan Tech part that they had never had anyone bitch about.

Gates is fine for radiator hoses.

If you need a fuel pump a real Walbro insert works fine but it is kinda noisy - this is an area to be careful for counterfeit parts that say Walbro but they are really just Chinese junk in a copy of a Walbro box.

I am trying to think of aftermarket stuff I have used -- odometer gears from Jim at www.odometergears.com - they are not available OEM and even if they were Jim's are better and Hepu water pumps which work just fine.

I have used and am happy with Bilstein TC shocks and struts. I have also used and am not so happy with Monroe Struts but my son was home from college for the weekend and that was all I could get locally. They are better than completely dead Sachs/Boge shocks and struts, they ride OK, but the handling suffers. For me handling matters but for my kids, not so much since they don't drive nearly as aggressively as I do.

On stuff like control arms, sway bar end links, spring seats, and strut bearings the aftermarket stuff will work and you actually get good at changing them out after you replace them every 90 days or so.

Others will add to the list.

...Lee

Post by **jimmy57** » 15 Feb 2011, 21:47

Plugs: original were single electrodes. lawn mower syndrome brought on the use of the 4 electrodes in N/A and platinum with reduced face in turbos to reduce chance of fouling in situation that shouldn't happen to begin with. Engines ran fine with the singles for loads of miles before.
Cap n rotor: Some are equal or near equal to OEM. If you put crap high resistive wires on the non-oem you will force a cap failure as arcing inside the cap will result. It would result inside OEM used with crap wires.
I use any low cost brand of sugar or salt but I won't touch store brand ketchup.

If I drove a Corvair I wouldn't buy a cheap fan belt unless I wore really comfortable shoes.

Post by **RyanGLT** » 16 Feb 2011, 06:36

LMAO... fan belts in vairs are a mystery. The cheap ones can be okay IF they stay down far enough in the pulleys...otherwise they'll flip off. The only problem I ever had with my belt on the Corvair was when my fan bearing was going out and causing drag that got worse as the RPM increased... After I changed out that bearing (and the idler bearing to be safe) I never had any other belt problems. There's a trick to how tight they should be.

Plugs in that car were finicky - mostly because Vairs run in the 275 degree range on a regular basis and they'll detonate instantly if the plugs are too hot, and then you're talking about holes in pistons, and other horrible things. I've been there.

Thanks for the thoughts on this guys. I just go crazy when there are so many options out there for some things and people seem to say OEM for no reason. As I said...I bought NGK platinums, a BWD Cap (that looked just like the Bosch cap), and whatever rotor they had. I didn't change the plug wires but I will soon enough. It's been running fine and getting pretty decent gas mileage.

Only problems I've had all winter is when the transmission is cold it takes a good few second to shift gears. I need to do another fluid drain n fill.

Post by **jblackburn** » 16 Feb 2011, 07:50

Only problems I've had all winter is when the transmission is cold it takes a good few second to shift gears. I need to do another fluid drain n fill.

That's actually completely normal. It holds onto gears longer to warm up the fluids/engine.

I'm a big supporter of the 'spend the money, do something once, and don't do it again' philosophy.
My experience for parts for this car where I've cheaped out and gone the aftermarket route has not been good. I used a door check (scan tech brand) before I knew any better - it broke again in a matter weeks. I tried a few alternatives on engine mounts, and they either failed quickly or I couldn't stand the vibration from the polyurethane things. On the other hand, I tried an OEM axle (at great cost!) and the damn thing needed to be replaced again in 20,000 miles. At least I got a refund on that one, as it was still inside a year.

For the majority of suspension parts, OEM or IPD heavy-duty products are the only way to go, and use good struts. Suspension work is a pain, and not something I'd like to repeat again soon after doing it once. For control arms, tie rods, etc, I don't think I'd touch anything other than OEM; I have 70,000 miles on my current setup and the thing still drives great.

For some things, there are great alternatives (R-axles being one of them just about everyone here will recommend). FAG wheel bearings are another that comes to mind. Brake parts have many different alternatives - some that completely suck (parts store stuff) and some that are leaps and bounds better than the dusty OEM ones (I'm very pleased with my Akebono's/Zimmerman combination on the front)

You're probably fine with a distributor cap and rotor - I can't imagine there are many ways you can mess that one up too badly. I changed the rotor in mine, but not the cap, as it still looked brand new. Spark plugs are hit or miss - I haven't owned it long enough to experiment around with tons of alternatives - the Bosch coppers work well and I have used two sets of those, but don't last more than 20,000 miles. I do that much driving in 6 months, so I have tried to find a different alternative. Autolite Platinums seemed to be working well for the past 8 months (they are super picky about the gap), but I got a misfire code just the other day when I stomped it to pass some idiot going 20 under the speed limit, so they may be done as well. Really, how is 20 under even possible?

For what it's worth, I have found most of the stuff for Honda products to be the same way - OEM parts are best. Except brakes. Honda (even on 2 Acuras) brakes are just absolute crap.

ChiNorm · Post by **ChiNorm** » 17 Feb 2011, 12:19

All these posts you read about using high quality parts, whether OEM, IPD or ?, is due to people's collective experience. They didn't just make this stuff up, they found these things to be true. If you have a Gen1 or P1 turbo, the 3 prong OEM spark plug is noticeably superior to most aftermarket choices, just to offer a single example.