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I have replaced a Dorman all-in-one front wheel bearing/knuckle drop in part on an RX450h three times now. Sure it may carry "lifetime" warranty but.......I am going to kill this part, I am glad I had the customer keep the original knuckle since I am done dealing with this and am going to press a Timkin bearing into it like I originally wanted to do. Labor costs were the original holdup but now I am done offering warranty replacements since I HAVE NOT BEEN PAID FOR THE LAST TWO.
I am literally going to remove this part and shoot it with a .50 BMG APIT round as soon as I get QUALITY parts for the OE knuckle and put it back on the car. This subpar junk part will never taint a car, ANY car, ever again. Thanks for listening to my rage.
Last edited by Striker223; Sep 13, 2022 at 06:14 AM.
sadly sub-par parts will always flood the aftermarket if there are folks willing to buy them. what was the failure point that you can conclude? just curious.
Originally Posted by Striker223
I am literally going to remove this part and shoot it with a .50 BMG APIT round as soon as I get QUALITY parts for the OE knuckle and put it back on the car. This subpar junk part will never taint a car, ANY car, ever again. Thanks for listening to my rage.
post pics of the carnage after you're done with it please !
sadly sub-par parts will always flood the aftermarket if there are folks willing to buy them. what was the failure point that you can conclude? just curious.
post pics of the carnage after you're done with it please !
Oh it's just a junk bearing, and I'll absolutely do so
Given how long they generally last, I'm not a fan using anything but OEM chassis parts on Toyo/Lex vehicles. Barring some special cases, of course (LS460 front UCAs but I guess you've researched this way more than me - if it's just the rubber bushings, PU all the way*)
*unless they're supposed to be, uhh... laterally compliant, like the mk1 mr2 front bushings >_<
Why use aftermarket parts to start with? In most cases (but perhaps not all), the OEM part will be the best replacement...it was manufactured by the company who actually designed and built the vehicle.
Sure, aftermarket parts are sometimes cheaper, but, as Striker has shown us, you usually get what you pay for.
1st failure: Had a cooling fan go out and needed it fast so had no choice but go to auto part store because I needed it that day, it's my only car.
The cooling fans came as a set with built in shroud, coolant tank, and the "fan ecm" which is just a driver box that controls the fan speed based on the signal from the engine ecm.
Because the paperwork said my oem original fan ecm was not compatible with their fan motors I had no choice to use their fan ecm that came with it.
So I installed it and noticed the cooling fans both came on full blast as soon as I started the car.
This got me suspicious so I hooked up my scanner and monitored the coolant temp as the car was warming up.
Just as it got to 206 degrees when the fans would normally turn on, the Doorman fans turned off.
I scoped the fan outputs and they are running a PWM(pulse width modulated) waveform to their fan motors so that's why can't use my original fan ecm but it was pulsing wrong polarity and turning fans on when they should be off and off when they should be on.
I probably could've used them but I would've had to hack into the wires from the engine ecm and switch the polarity.
It's a damn good thing I was monitoring my coolant temp with the scanner or I would've over heated my engine and blew a head gasket and maybe more and wondering how many people DID blow their engines!
Anyway, had to return it and go to another part store cuz all they had was doorman crap.
That's just one story, I'll leave the next Doorman story for a later post.
Last edited by Margate330; Sep 16, 2022 at 11:40 PM.
Why use aftermarket parts to start with? In most cases (but perhaps not all), the OEM part will be the best replacement...it was manufactured by the company who actually designed and built the vehicle.
Sure, aftermarket parts are sometimes cheaper, but, as Striker has shown us, you usually get what you pay for.
In this case it was solely because the customer didn't want to pay for me to press out/in a proper bearing like a Timken/Koyo and instead opted to buy a loaded knuckle (comes with everything already on it) so that they would only pay the 1.7 hours for the knuckle swap.
That ended up screwing over both them and me since they will now have to pay for a redo and I already swapped two replacement parts from dorman on for free. The first one was fairly normal but the 2nd was the point they finally realized that my original suggestion to get a OE spec bearing should have been followed.
Toyota/Lexus vehicles have exceptional reliability due the quality of their OEM parts, with a few exceptions, like their rotors. So, 95% of the time, I go through great lengths, and I'm willing to pay a premium, to get true OEM parts. Of course there are plenty of fake OEM parts on the market, so one's best bet is buying from a Toyota/Lexus dealer, or online Toyota/Lexus dealer.
As a mechanic you can refuse to use non OEM parts or parts that you don’t trust. I’m surprised you don’t do this already? They benefit no one. Not the customer, not you.
As a mechanic you can refuse to use non OEM parts or parts that you don’t trust. I’m surprised you don’t do this already? They benefit no one. Not the customer, not you.
This is a special case, the person in question is a family member. There is also a side benefit that if this was a normal customer I would just refuse the warranty coverage and give very detailed information on what will likely happen. Usually this helps me since they are astounded my prediction is actuate and then they happily pay for the correct fix and don't go anywhere else in the future.
If I just hard deny a new customer who wants aftermarket parts I can't add them to my permanent roster.
An update to this, customer has their car back now and all is well. I took some pictures of each step along the way pressing the old out and the new in. Every single step other than install required heat, I ended up just taking the whole knuckle home with me and finishing install at my house since the customer lives very close to me.
Rigged up, very bad design of knuckle IMO. Clearly intended for an on car press only but those do not have the power needed to get this style to remove reliably Heat to the lip/step area when under 20tons compression are what get these to move, not as bad as Mercedes though since they use alum knuckles New hub going in, new bearing was very easy All ready
The next/final update will be the old junk dorman part getting hit with the .50 BMG as punishment for wasting everyones time.
I had to turn down a job and send a device back unrepaired yesterday because to repair it right would cost more than it's worth.
Yeah I could fix it but I know it would come back on me as a warranty due to another failure and I would have to do the job again for free plus and the customer would blame me and not be happy.
It's all about meeting the customer's expectations and they don't like sending back things under warranty but they also don't like the truth sometimes either. lol
Sub-par parts issues.
!
In most cases (but perhaps not all), the OEM part will be the best replacement...it was manufactured by the company who actually designed and built the vehicle.
