Parts and Quality, it’s not always easy to find the both

[christophermatthews]

I'm with you Dave. It doesn't matter what you buy anymore it's all crap we have to start manufacturing at home

[gregcrabb]

My aunt worked for Delco Remy in Anderson Indiana for decades and retired from there. She told me stories about quality back in the 70s and 80s...she was an inspector on a line that made ignition points. When they were out of spec, she would reject them and put them in the reject bin. She said the higher ups would come and get the bon and put them back into production. So she started bending the contacts so they couldn't be reused. They told her to stop and keep sending them on down the line. She protested saying that people can't afford to keep on buying parts over and over that we're defective and it will cause problems for GM eventually. She was right. RIP Aunt Mary...miss you

[Jason-ftoy]

Nothing aggravates me more than doing a job and finding out that you got a faulty brand new part.

[dimitrikounine]

We sold our children's futures for shareholder's value. Shitty quality of manufactured goods is just a symptom of the cancer that is corporate greed.

[charlesdixon]

There's no such thing as QUALITY CONTROL anymore, in everything. Good job. Great posts.

[petercastles]

In Australia, in the mid 70's, we signed up to the Lima agreement. Basically gave our industries to the developing nations of the world, at the same time lowering our tariffs, etc. Many other countries did the same. Just killed my trade, and many others. All we have done is made a monster of one, helped the others, and impoverished ourselves. How dumb can we be!

[javeedsultan]

I think it's safe to say
that parts used to be built upto a standard
Nowadays parts are built down to a cost

[AntonioClaudioMichael]

I agree crappy parts are a problem these days and makes us as the mechanic look bad or the shop look bad and it's not our fault

[timothystone]

As an old school BMW freak, the day I received new parts from LEMFÖRDER, and saw “Made in China” on the box? Mind blown. You are exactly correct.

[TerrySmith-emph]

Hi Dave,
Remember back in the 80's when we used to bitch about parts that where made in Mexico, lookin back they weren't Bad parts at all.

[jerrycadogan]

Had the same mechanic for 40 years, became so friendly we used to meet up on vacation. This guy and his crew were awesome, they fixed my daily driver’s, built a couple of classics and a couple of off-road trucks and jeeps for me just the best. Covid came all his guys turned on him and wanted double time to come to work so he let them go because he couldn’t afford to pass that kind of overhead to his customers. He tried to hold on by himself and the couldn’t keep up with all the garbage parts he was getting. He couldn’t get a project out of the shop without it coming back 3 times. He packed up, had a big auction and headed into the sunset, damn shame.

[keithphelps]

Yes indeed Sir you are spot on thank you for what you are doing

[justsittinhere]

I worked in a speaker factory here in New York state. Every speaker was tested before being shipped. It's called quality control. I doubt that quality control even exists in most of these factories.

[ellisjackson]

His relief at the location of the egr valve is humorous and relatable

[Whiskeyj]

My dad has worked in production/manufacturing for most of his life. He’s been in upper management for the last 3 decades and has an MBA. He focuses most on quality first and quantity second, always. He drills the idea of quality into his staff so much that every production guy becomes a quality tech with everything they touch on the manufacturing line. He has helped numerous local businesses turn around from near failures to thriving with orders flooding in after he implements a quality first culture.

Yet. Every single time he has achieved his goals of decreasing failures, increasing customer satisfaction, and directly contributing to increased sales. A higher up comes in wanting to “reduce cost, ” lays him off or scape goats him to get fired. The business then reintroduces quantity first and shortly after begins to start losing market share. He’ll hear from his previous employees how the company goes to shit, orders plummet, everything becomes reactionary vs preventative, and good people either quit or get laid off.

It has happened to my dad the last five businesses he’s worked for in our area. Fuck corporate greed and planned obsolescence. People just want quality stuff, it’s honestly insane that even good brands now have succumbed to quantity over quality.

[gearhead]

Good question. A few yrs ago, I bought a basket case of a Ford Ranger. The engine ran rough, so I bought a set of new Motorcraft plugs. It still ran rough. I replaced the coil and plug wires... no difference. Finally, I figured that I had a compression problem, and decided to do a compression test. The first plug I pulled, plug 1... the center electrode was off center. I went to a local part store to get another one. The first plug I was given was also bad. The 2nd one looked good. I installed it, and it ran perfect after that. Lesson... you can't even trust OEM parts any more.

[josephastier]

This is why guys are keeping their decades old trucks. They’re terrified of the new ones being junk.

[SalemTechsperts]

This is happening in EVERY INDUSTRY. I had to stop repairing phones entirely because I was having to buy 3 of the highest quality screens available just to get 1 good one. And if genuine screens were available, they cost more than the entire phone is worth! I don’t know how you mechanics do it.

[kevinavillain]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that gets defective Parts on a regular basis.

[Emmanuelwithus]

Once upon a time, the label read:
Manufactured in USA.
Most of the time, it meant more pride, time and attention to detail were used to create everything we had in this nation...one thing at a time. Now it's a mass aftermarket quality crap shoot, and you hope it isn't something that will leave you and your loved ones stranded or even worse. The corporations even calculate risk for a certain amount of deaths before issuing recalls on their product.
Sad. Thanks again, Dave, for being the man of integrity that you are.