Don't do eBay for serious things. It's alright to get little things like say, light bulbs, or Carbon fiber wrap. But never for engine like products. Stick OEM, and you can expect like 250k+ miles out of your car.
ebay is just an auction site. some sellers sell excellent brands like oem and some others absolute junk.
without seeing posted the brand that makes this i would say "pass". whatever you may save, often ends up costing you more with lower quality parts in some areas.
I do not know much about different ET. In the past I just went to dealer and paid about $90. I see from mango writeup get it from Genuine BMW for $63.29. Just saw it on BMW parts site a choice of two ET:
Meyle @ $43.50 and Coolxpert @ 62.56. Meyle is a good name I used for LCA but I know nothing about their ET. Do not know Coolxpert, but since it is 50% more expensive--one might assume (incorrectly?) that it is better.
Is there a big difference in quality.
What should guide me here. Do not want to make a mistake.
Are we saying that the Genuine BMW @ 63.29 is the identical one I get from my local dealer for a much lower price?
OK. So if the expansion tank is one of the most failure prone parts, and You only replace it with OEM and its STILL failure prone, doesn't logic suggest that the OEM tank is crap. Can the ebay one really be worse than the obviously failure prone OEM one.
I guess there is some truth in that. We don't know how crap the one from ebay is but normally some crap brand replica is not the best. But maybe a meyle one as said above might be better?
I do not agree with you for this reason. OEM products, such as ET may have an increased failure rate after xx miles (ie 90k) BUT the off brand that are being sold on ebay may be good for half that time or less. I am not going to go with an unknown brand that no-one has heard of. I would love to know which After Market bands are better than the OEM--if that information exists.
@jayb328i:
I think Meyle is normally regarded as a very good quality brand. Now that doesn't mean their ET's are as good quality wise as their control arms...
Agreed that Meyle is a good quality name. But it is by far the cheapest ET at $43, instead of $60 or $90. The price makes one think that the Meyle ET must be poorer quality. BUT you would think that Meyle would not allow their name (reputation) be on a poor quality product. Does none say: Meyle is an excellent name so go with their ET--or should you stick with the OEM.
well Meyle is a supplier/distributor of oem spec (or better in some cases) parts. but I'm not familiar with the quality spec of the ET they are selling. other parts they sell I have been very happy with. so that is a very good question. do you count them out simply because they have a much lower price which we equate with quality? or take them for the name/reputation, warranty they have provided to support past parts they distribute?
personally I would take a Meyle supplied part before many others
...and for those trashtalking the ET, I'll just mention that when I did my ET at 185K miles, it was an '01 build date in my '99...so it lasted 9 years. The first, for whatever reason was replaced after 2 years...which is why I created my thread entitled something like 'crappy ET or operator error?'
I think ETs fail often from overfilling and/or other cooling system issues.
I would go OE, though I'd also trust Meyle (you sure that isn't Mahle?).
BEHR is the OEM for our ETs, but if you read around, they are manufactured in China and are not as good as the ones with BMW stamp on it. I had both in my hands couple of months ago, OEM BEHR and OE BMW. They seamed to be identical in every way other then the BMW stamp.. quality seamed to be just as good, except the plastic on the BMW looked to be slighly lighter. Maybe they use more of the fibers in the BMW then they do in the others.
For the price I would go with OE... its about $20-30 more but you don't have to worry about it till end of the car's life (practically). Origianl usually lasts at least 100K+.
I've been on eBay and asked a dude what company is it made by they told me it was by BEHR which sounded like mmmmm quality I might actually buy it since I'm the cheapest back yard fanatic on the forum
Wasp, Please don't be upset with Mango. He's just trying to get you to act badly so that NY fanatic wants me to 'do her cooling system' work and not you.
It's a trap. I've just explained to her that her and I aren't meant to be. I have my sons I love so have no room for a woman 1/3 my age. 1/2 my age, that's okay! Anyway, Mango is just trying to help me have relations with a local fanatic...he's very loyal that way. Also, he's a fn 4 star general, which makes him, you know, a pretty serious fanatic!
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