Aftermarket parts lifespan

[Will]

It's not only cars and DIY maintenance. 'Pirate' spare parts have long been a problem in things like large ship engines, where failure of even a minor part can cause loss of revenue or far worse. Because the engines are so large they have to be built on site. The company that designs and develops the engine licenses the actual manufacture to other companies, usually associated with large shipyards. That means there can be a lot of designer's drawings floating around in places like China so it isn't difficult to see how cheap 'pirate' parts like pistons, valves etc reach the market, ostensibly identical to the real thing but made of inferior materials.

And not only in the Far East. There was a well-publicised case recently where a company that services and repairs separators (used in ship fuel and lubrication systems as well as in other applications such as the dairy and brewery industries) on the Isle of Wight was found to have unauthorised copies of official drawings. The company failed to comply with a court order demanding their return to the original equipment manufacturer in Sweden. The former managing director is currently serving a prison sentence for contempt of court.

Edit - another story from the other viewpoint. Gluey's mention of Volvo reminds me that about 25 years ago Volvo Penta got a bad reputation for high charges for replacement parts for its boat engines (they used to sell engines to boatbuilders at virtually cost price to get plenty of them afloat, then make their profits from service agreements and parts sales). A company in England used to specialise in getting the Volvo parts like filters, scraping off the green paint and finding the manufacturer, and selling identical filters under the original Fram (or whoever) part number without the green paint for a fraction of the price. Not surprisingly Volvo were not happy, and threatened the magazine I was working for at the time that they would withdraw all advertsing (which was worth a lot) if we mentioned the English company or took advertising from them. Surprisingly, and laudably, the publishers refused to accede to Volvo's demands.

[AnOther]

I recall an incident some years ago now where a shipment of moody Black & Decker Workmates was intercepted at one of the UK ports. B&D were called in to confirm that they were fake but on discovering that they were of excellent quality acquired them to re-label and sell on themselves !

[Théière]

[quote user="Gluestick"]

The trick is in correct tempering.

[/quote]

Dark straw or blue Gluey?

[Gluestick]

And Wills' interesting tale on Fram filters, reminds me of a very painful - and expensive! - pattern part story.

One of my very good Jewish customers and a chum, brought in to my garage one morning, one of his close friends: a fellow dress manufacturer: together with his rather tired Rolls Silver Cloud Two: no brakes: he had just purchased it.

So very much against my better judgement and wish (Difficult: you can easily offend and lose a good existing customer by refusal), I set my foreman, an excellent racing mechanic to work on the bolide.

All the wheels cyliners were dribbling: and the brake shoes well soaked in fluid. No problem, genuine Girling cylinders easily patterned from my main factors: and the shoes exchanged with the correct Ferrodo linings of the correct friction co-efficient.

I then spent some hours under the damned thing (Foreman had given up!) trying to balance the brake servo. Now these were a mechanical device, driven by a power take off from the side of the gearbox and licensed, originally, from Hispano Suiza in the 1930s!

Whirling clutch plates and driven plates and levers everywhere!

In the end, I gave up and booked the damned car into our local RR dealers. The absence of a service manual with set up data and measurements was critical: and essential: and not obtainable.

Who soon turned it round: and returned the car with all my new parts replaced with "Genuine Rolls Royce Service Parts": i.e. identical Girling wheel cylinders, eight thereof, with the nice little foil stickers: the only difference. I checked and removed a drum! Same with the brake shoes. Identical friction material. I checked the colour striping!

Oh: and a very fat bill somewhat resembling Britain's then National Debt!

"Pattern" parts: yes, right!

[blink]

[Gluestick]

[quote user="Théière"][quote user="Gluestick"]

The trick is in correct tempering.

[/quote]

Dark straw or blue Gluey?

[/quote]

Light blue.

[:)]