OEM vs. Aftermarket - THE TRUTH

With all do respect, especially since there are great points in your post, it is not absurd for the aftermarket to make a better product. I work at an OEM level in automotive and and regularly with Tier 1's on many products. OEM's can be and are often constrained on total costs for a program and have certain budgetary limitations. It is true that lots of engineering and money goes into the design but, once it's done, there are plenty of parts that can easily be copied using materials that may have not been in the original budget, but are more acceptable on an individual component level. Also, the aftermarket has the advantage of gaining knowledge from commonly failed components and improving the shortcomings after a program is complete and is not having engineering dollars spent on it anymore. Take the Hill products for instance. I don't think anybody would question getting a Hill throwout bearing over an OEM one.

Despite rigorous testing, OEM's are more than happy to take shortcuts to save costs or gamble on parts that are likely to survive using cheaper materials. Much like BMW uses plastic impellers in their water pumps that blow to pieces after your warranty is out.

I don't think there's a single one of us that has worked on their cars and considered at least one OEM part to be absolute crap compared to an aftermarket version. Certainly not for everything, but there's no way you can just make a blanket statement about OEM quality.

 

I'm pretty sure the OEM parts on our Ferrari's can be made of a better Quality. It would appear Ferrari uses Chocolate and cheese to make their components and I'm pretty sure there are better stronger more robust materials available to use.

 

There are cheap components that can last just long enough to cover the warranty period and then turn out to be terrible, like the old Ferrari buttons, for example.

 

I wanted to post a long reply in the other thread about quality but in this I will only add that a company absolutely can make a better product than OEM but that has to be their mission. If that is their mission you will know it by the price and what the customers say about their offerings.

 

Why not keep your oem exhaust manifolds that are prone to failure then if they are superior? And all your sticky buttons for that matter.

While I don't work on the financial side, I have worked in various positions in production for a multi billion dollar organization that makes engines and is known worldwide as one of the best at what it does. I can assure you that just because something is OEM does not mean it is superior and does not mean it can't be improved upon. ESPECIALLY with how much better the machines that make parts are now vs when our cars were made.

That being said, a lot of aftermarket stuff cuts corners, and a lot of it is poor quality, but the notion that something is superior solely because it is OEM is absurd.

 

As @DiSomma6 has pointed out, a lot of engineering goes onto OE components. Aftermarket companies typically lack the information, resources and often also the know-how.
On the other hand nobody is perfect and OE is sometimes less than optimal (vescovini cat temperature station anyone?).

So obviously this is not a one-dimensional issue.

Someone mentioned the HE bearings: I'd be extremely surprised if HE manufactures these bearings themselves. It's almost guaranteed that they are manufactured by a reputable OEM, which knows 100x more about bearings than HE, Ferrari & all the members of this forum combined.

This would be the point in my post, where I explain why aftermarket exhaust systems are almost always technically inferior, but I will refrain from doing so. Experience has shown that the people who spend $$$$$ on shiny and loud exhausts will get severe cases of sandy vag otherwise.

In the end it boils down to "buy what makes you happy". I certainly do enjoy my car with HE bearings, OEM exhaust (Euro CS) and some challenge parts sprinkled in for good measure.

 

OEM are usually better but…… QUE the Ferrari 170787 timing case bearing.

 

Hill Engineering has made some nice stuff!

 

The very reason, as I mentioned in the AW thread, I did NOT replace my water pump specifically with OEM because I wanted the metal impeller. It had not failed yet, but seems pretty brittle, especially compared to the new, "aftermarket" one.

You have to know what you are getting into with the "OEM vs. aftermarket" argument though, all aftermarket isn't the same. The Chinese crap that you get off alibaba or whatever is not even going to be on par with the Chinese crap you get from Autozone...the Autozone stuff will not be on par with the notable aftermarket manufacturers, in our case HE, Capristo, etc... I get it it, I used to work in a water pump factory in college, but "OEM vs. Aftermarket" is such a broad scale, it's difficult to have that argument.

I will say this, by recent personal experience, I recently replaced the front brake/rotors on my work beater, $120 from a seller on Walmart. com, and they only lasted a couple months before pulsating and grinding ,even though they were made to "OEM standards". Now I have to spend $ again. I, in hindsight, should have taken my own advice.

 

All of this discussion supports my post in another thread about our Water-to-Oil Heat Exchanger where an individual here challenged our common sense for questioning Ferrari's brilliant design engineers for expecting more from an expensive car manufacturer. I worked for a billion dollar organization and the design of the products that we use had to show a pedigree all the way down to the material used, even for making a gasket. Ferrari should have been doing that based on the cost it charges.

To Joe's (@GogglesPisano) point about the BMW's plastic impeller, what got me mad was that my son's 5 year old BMW 430i needed a replacement for the plastic Oil Filter Housing and Heat Exchanger that leaked. The After-market version, similar to HE products make it out of aluminum. The Labor is $1K to replace.

 

I think this is a combination of two things. Yes, OEMs spend a lot of time and money creating parts, but they do take cost, serviceability, lifespan, and sourcing into account. A $5 bearing made to a certain precision might be good enough for an OEM, but taking the same specs and moving to an aerospace bearing that costs $50 would be an improvement that an OEM won't do.

It wouldn't be worth it for Ferrari to have an Inconel exhaust on a 430; stainless steel does the job for the price point they needed across all the produced cars. So Inconel is an improvement, but wasn't worth the cost/benefit for the 430 from the factory. Adding it on after market is costly, but an improvement. On some newer, higher-end models, Ferrari is using Inconel because the cost/benefit was worth it for those models.

Here is another example, not trying to open a can of worms here, but the OEM exhaust brackets on the 430 look like they were welded together from scrap steel. Ferrari needed a solution for a certain type of movement in the exhaust, and the cost benefit was the crappy brackets. Look at the ones from Fabspeed. They are waterjet-cut and bent stainless steel that only minimizes movement in the desired direction. This costs more to manufacture than the OEM one, and in the mind of the factory, why bother?

OK, you think it's only a Ferrari thing... Mid-2000s VW products, including Porsche, use a set of metal flaps in the heater system that have holes in them to secure Foam Insulation. Over time, the foam starts to disintegrate and comes out of the AC vents. I'm sure this was due to the need to insulate the flaps, and the foam used was the right cost for the perceived needs by the engineers. In the real world, the foam started disintegrating before the lifespan of the car. There are solutions to fix this that do not involve using the OEM foam and are lifetime fixes.


So OEM isn't always the best; it just might cost the right amount to make or, in the opinion of an engineer, can get the job done.

 

I've been building cars for over 40 years. I have been disgusted with OEM "quality" so many times I have lost count. A simple improvement could have saved a brand new OEM part from my trash can.

I have used aftermarket parts many times in my builds. Some greatly improved over the OEM counter part-- some just junk too. "Bean counters" are usually to blame. Private companies in the aftermarket fields often times have a better grasp of what will be needed and what to use to make a part that is reliable and "better". And they care about that part as opposed to the big manufacture that may supply many parts and have to maintain a profit across the board.

 

I can agree that if your aftermarket parts are no-name Chinese replacements, there is lower quality control than, for example, a part made for Bosch in China, where Bosch controls the supply chain and has QC standards the Chinese assembler must comply with. The perfect example of this is the iPad. Most are or were made in China, with parts sourced from around the world, and you can see the quality. Many no-name Android tablets are made in China with no oversight and are generally have garbage quality, which is why I own an iPad made in China and a Samsung tablet made in South Korea. Both are high quality.

I personally would never use something like a starter, alternator, or water pump for example, from any no-name manufacturer, and if I did get a name brand (i.e., Denso) I would make sure it wasn't counterfeit. This seems to be a problem when buying parts like spark plugs or oil filters, and even big distributors can get fooled.

 

The Euro headers are exactly the same and fail. So don't kid yourself they are better.

Lets be honest, we can't be talking about a Ferrari and reliable in the same sentence. They are just not. I have not really broken down and had to have my car taken away by a tow truck in any other car I have owned (and trust me, I have had loads) My Ferrari has failed me twice. They are Italian, and although hand built, they are more kit cars than production cars. Those that have had a reliable Ferrari are extremely lucky or simply don't use it enough.

There is so much to go wrong and does, so many little know issues, that at some point will rear their heads.

Why do we have them? The brand is entry to an elite club, its a sign of success, a dream to realize, and when they are working as they should they are sublime to drive and gorgeous to look at.

 

No Ferraris do not age well, its just they are looked after, far, far better than other / normal / cheaper cars do.

Most are garaged, most don't see rain, most do hardly any miles, most are serviced more frequent, with more care and attention, most have preventative maintenance performed, most are cleaned and polished within an inch of their lives, I could go on...

 

It's been 27 years since some of these parts were designed and manufactured. If you don't think materials and tech have advanced since then... to at least make it easier for any "non OEM" to make something "better"

 

They also change hands so much that they end up going through dozens of dealers and transporters that only care about making a buck...

 

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I resemble this comment. My car hasn't seen rain in over 5 years, lol.