I keep reading there stuff is crap and wont last, is that right? I've added stuff to my basket for an order from VWS for Febi G60 topmounts, Febi R32 wishbone bushes, Febi VR6 balljoints and Febi VR6 front wheel bearings. With the Vat and delivery its 78. Is it worth the extra for genuine? I'm replacing parts that I think have 138,000 miles on them Opinions?? I just did the same on GSF, there is no mention of manufacturer and it came to 94 with free delivery. I'd say the website is poor. Then ECP, the website is better but the price is higher at 112 with free delivery I wonder how much TPS would be?
I don't think their rubber stuff is as good as OEM, but it's better than some of the no-name after-market tat. I'm running their rear wheel bearings, rear drums and their ball joints, which seem fine after 18 months. No experience of the fronts. I've also got the wishbones and bushes in my daily rocco. After 2 years the bushes don't look like 2 year old OEM ones would, but they've passed 2 MOTs. Done about 20k miles in that time. I'm happy to use Febi stuff, but I don't expect it to last like OEM.
Like Tristan I thought Febi was made by Bilstein, iirc AVS list their top mounts etc as Febi-Bilstein.
I bought a pair of rear stub axles for my VR MK3 and the tolerance on the machining was not consistant between the two of them. I had problems with the outer bearing race sticking and i checked both the races and it was the stub axle that was to big.. After a few thousand miles it loosen off.
febi i find to be hit and miss, i think it depends where the bits are made? i recal hearing some bits are german made and some are brazilian. my top g60 mounts are febi, been on the car for years no problems at all. header tank i bought for cabby was febi and it were ****e, leaked out the level sensor hole even with a brand new febi level sensor in it. the new febi cap i bought was also rubbish, leaked out the gen vag tank i put on to replace the leaky tank. put the old blue vag cap back on and no trouble since. used febi plastic flanges on my motors and never had an issue, and then some peeps say they find febi items warp very quickly? topran supposed to be topnotch, its what veew services in bristol sell mostly, have a word with mattneck on here
For servive parts like that always go TPS, especially if you want to keep the car for more than 3 years...
Febi are genuine vw parts. You will notice that they will either have a vw part number on something like a bush and if it was on a metal part the number would have been obviously grinded off. Febi parts come from the same factory as vw parts come from. I highly recomend febi parts over any other after market source or product. I bought a sump for my old mk3 tdi which still had vw part number, on my mk4 I put rear axle bushes by febi on it with vw part number on, tt lower arm bushes by febi again with audi part number. The only parts that didnt was the temp sender I put on it, that had the vw number etched off of the sender, exactly the same green which is only available from the factory that makes vw parts. Febi tend to get the common fault parts in to cut the cost of going to the dealer. I used to work for vw and they are exactly the same part. Febi even bought in the mk4 golf rear axle bushes that a 1mm smaller than the ones vw sell, the only reason vw stopped selling them was to have to take your car to the dealer to get the rear axle bushes fitted with special tool, until the aftermarket copied the tool. The axle bushes that are 1mm smaller are alot easier to fit than the ones vw sell, and are what they used to sell. Again I highly recomend febi over any aftermarket part, and the dealer if you saving money. Fraction of the price from the dealer and exactly the same part. The only time they are not geniune is when vw has had trouble getting hold of said part. Also for service parts mann and hummel make filters for vw, which you can get from most aftermarket parts stores for a fraction of the vw price
Can you back that up? or have you heard it from someone else? Febi/other brand parts in my experiance are not a patch on Gen VAG parts. Quality and tolerances can be very bad, i have used Febi top mounts and ball joints and they have failed very quickly. Topmounts rubber serperated from the metal, the ball joints rubber perished all within a few months of use. I now only use VAG parts as the quality is far better and they last years as opposed to months.
I'm pretty sure that's because they make the moulds from OEM VW components. In my experience proper OEM quality parts are rarely that much cheaper from GSF/ECP.
And who do you think makes the VAG part ? I'll point you to Mann and Hummel + Bosch + Valeo + Marelli + Febi Bilstein + SKF + NGK and many more who MAKE the VAG parts for VAG under license to VAG, its far easier for VAG to ask well known experienced manufacturers in their specific fileds to design and mass produce parts to VAG specs then for VAG to undertake the massive R+D and toolmaking etc themselves. I had the heater blower out of a 58 plate passat today as water ingress through the scuttle had buggered it, can you guess who made it for VAG ....... Valeo, a massive FRENCH company. Pollen filter on a Porsche Cayenne [wibble 4.5V8 went like a bat outta hell] - Bosch filter taken out from new, replaced with a Hengst one and fitted it to a DELPHI heater system. Stop thinking that O.E is better, its the same product in a different box. But beaware that there are some very poor copies out there so buy from reputable sources. Euros + GSF both sell known boxes with unknown units inside the box.
I have only read the first part of your post and i never said that VAG parts are not made by any of the above, the quality is different tho' SKF bearings for the cam belt tensionner on VAG parts are bigger than none VAG SKF branded tensioner. The quality of the parts is not the same.
Why do people make statements like this? It is not always the same product, might be the same manufacture but often the product differs in material, shape and tolerence. I imagine VAG would hold the licence to the parts that are made for them (material companonds moulds etc), the manufacture would not be allowed to sell the EXACT same part as they supply to VAG, so they change it in some way so that it is different and then they can sell it as their own. Often they use cheaper lower quality materials, a change to the moulds shape etc - hence dodgy water pump casings and poor rubber for seals etc Im not saying every non VAG part is rubbish some may be good, but from what i have used so far it seems to be a false economy, so ill only by VAG as i know the quality is good and it will last a few years.
Just looking at your list now Ian, MK4 R32 rear bush - are you after the solid single piece rubber ones? If so you want the TT ones rather than G4 as AVS etc list.. The rest of it I can look at and go through shortly! :-)
i had a pair of febi top mounts for my mk3 which were dead within a year, my coilovers had nearly pounded the top mounts through the turrets i have lemforder ones now and a year later they look exactly how they did when i got them i had a febi stat in my abf. thefebi item is the wrong temperature range and by the end of the year it was not warming up properly i dont like febi
not always, read my post above. so you're saying a brand new gen vag header tank would also leak from around the level sensor seal? No, I don't think so. 1990: I've used a fair few topran parts, never had an issue
Just check out 8N0-407-181B wishbone rear bushes, TT/R32 etc. The Febi items we ahve on the shelf have the VW/Audi logos ground off and the Topran items are exactly the same with a longer burred off section, obviously removing extra logos. Topran Hans Pries is an export house, though he does have his won factories for some stuff in China. and even though it is Chinese it's suprisingly very good.. He also supplies us with ELTH+ blue temps enders. they are genuine with the VW Audi logo burred off again!
