After Market Parts

[Schattenjager]

Until my first Land Cruiser, I had thought factory parts were designed and built by the lowest bidder. Then, seeing the light from Porsche and Toyota, I pretty much stick to the factory stuff for most items.

I took the LX450 to the dealer today to help diagnose an ever so slight rough idle that was annoying but not at all troubling and I have no codes. The guy spent four hours testing everything till another wrench suggested that I replace the very newish cap, rotor, and plug wires with OEM or better (he said NAPA had really good quality aftermarket parts on par with OEM) Apparently, he had been down this road before and that many of the parts stores sell cheap-o crap that can make a car run rough.

I'm suspect. IF the plug wires are not leaking and in good shape, then I fail to see how a rough idle could be produced if the car runs at higher RPMs with no problem. MPG are as expected and the Cruiser (thankfully) passed every check they had - head gasket et al. IT is only rough in gear. They were digging for something to be wrong and this is what they came up with?!?:snorkel:

What say you?

 

[zukrider]

even the absolute best set of 8 plug wires, could have a defect in one wire. and it could be just enough that an idle load wont cause it.

but, if mileage is good, id say dont pay attention to it. save your money.

 

[Patman]

I have and do sell aftermarket parts of all kinds for the majority of my 40 plus years. I was an ASE certified master tech, although I did very little professional wrenching, as I preferred to stay clean and peddle parts instead.

I have to call partial BS.

Possible, sure, likely, not so much. A defective cap, rotor, wire, even plug, can cause a rough idle which goes away with some rpm. So could a faulty injector, or a small vacuum leak. However all the components are easy to test. There are some really crappy aftermarket parts, however the majority of them out there are well within OEM specs.

The OEMs still go with the lowest bidder, just have higher standards to accept a bid. Many aftermarket manufacturers have an oem line and an aftermarket line. While not always the same, often they are. Lights and sheetmetal is a different ballgame.

As with everything, you get what you pay for within reason. With ignition parts you trade longevity for price. It is rare to get a bad part out of the box, however a cheap part that wears out quick is common.
At least that's my experiance.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I'm primarily an aftermarket parts retailer for LC's and when it comes to certain components I won't use anything but OEM and ignition components are one of them. I've seen cracked aftermarket 1FZ dizzy caps, OE wires are date stamped and OE plugs are quality. That is not to say you can't source similar items with decent quality, particularly for example spark plugs. I do a lot of volume with Toyota and often there are things we carry in both OEM and high quality (Japanese built) aftermarket. In some cases customers demand OEM (and that is fine by us) and in other cases we do it as to offer price points. Differences in some cases are un-noticiable (our U-joints for example are identical outside the box) and some are very noticable. I'd stick with the OEM ignition components