Technical OEM vendors. Are any of them really supported by the MFG?

I have been reading up on OEM suppliers lately. I used to buy certain things from the dealers.

Heater cores are a good example. I had to put a heater core in my daily OT vehicle and was going to use Motorcraft, since this was a 12 hour ordeal. The reviews online were no better than Charlie China, Parts Geek type stuff.

So, does Ford not own Motorcraft? GM not own AC Delco? And whatever Dodge does.....MOPAR?

I think they have sold those lines off and people assume they are buying from the dealer's line, when in reality it has nothing to do with the manufacturer.

Am I out of line here?

 

Good question

 

The OEM's still own them. But if you think they are not trying to source their parts from the place that costs them the least so they can make the most like every other company does you are kidding yourself.

 

I think you're spot on... The big OEM's have probably sold their 'licensing' to off-shore manufacturers that make the same part on the same assembly line that feeds the local parts chains. The sad thing is that with that licensing fee, the part gets marked up substantially as well.

 

A quick Google search indicates they are owned by Ford, Chrysler (Stelantis sp?) and GM respectively.

Who actually makes the stuff might be another issue
I type too slow

 

Even back when I was selling auto parts, all the OEM suppliers would outsource items when they no longer had to use them for warranty. If they had not used the part for several years on new vehicles, they would quit making them in-house and buy them from the lowest bidder.

 

As a GM parts guy I think about this a lot. I need knock sensors for my daily....OE (my cost as an employee) was right around $64 ea. Being cheap and broke at the time, I bought on Amazon....$65 for a pair! When I got them I took them to work only to find they wer identicle! Vendors shop for the lowest price, too.

 

If it's not NOS, it probably doesn't make much difference what name is on the box.

 

If you are not in the automotive supply business you might be surprised to learn that GM, Ford and whatever Chrysler is called this year do not actually make stuff. They assemble stuff made by suppliers. Well, they make their own engines. But just about everything else comes from a supplier. Heck, even the frame on pickup trucks is made by a supplier. Axles. Brakes. Steering boxes. Seats. Glass. Lights. Instruments. Yada, yada.

 

Many, maybe even most of the parts in a modern car are made by a supplier, who is an OEM, but not owned by the car maker. what I mean is that AC Delco doesn't make all the all the electrical for every GM car. Made to spec for sure, but not owned by.

And in many cases the aftermarket has improved parts available. Car makers seem to stick with the original design for repair parts even when experience shows that they are not reliable.
Ford's heater cores in the 90s for example. Chrysler AC condensers in the mid 2000s. Lots of leaks, same repair part as original. At least Mopar provided an extended warranty while Ford ignored the issue.

 

MotorCraft ,Ac Delco ,and Mopar are just trade names.....Delco as a factory has been gone for years....I am from Dayton where it was located and one of the old factory building is now apartments....

 

There's a variety of things going on...

First you have to realize that the OEMs don't make all their own parts and never have. Yes, they have divisions that make a lot of the major parts, but quite a lot is subcontracted out. Used to be to other US firms, but these days it could be from anywhere. Second, even if the OEM was the original manufacturer of the part that's no guarantee any subsequent 'factory' replacement will be from the same source. The OEM parts production lines are for supplying the car production line, not necessarily the repair parts although they sometimes used to turn out a 'projected' amount of spares that were warehoused for future replacements. But once those are gone, you'll get 'aftermarket' parts if you can get them at all and they may or may not be totally identical to the OEM part, just 'functionally' identical, i.e. will fit in the same place and do the same thing.

It's frustrating for sure. I just went through this (again) with some axle bearings. I have an axle bearing failing on my avatar (after about 15K miles) and want a US-made replacement. The local parts houses were no help last time; after being assured that the ordered part was US made, a Chinese bearing showed up first, sent that back and got a Mexican version... Grrrr. So this time I tried one of the big mail-order houses. The sales guy did his best to be helpful, said that Timken still showed that particular bearing as being US sourced so I ordered it. What showed up was a Japanese Koyo bearing in a Timken box with a 'Made in Japan' sticker on it... Well, I trust Japanese over Chinese/Mexican so I guess I'll go with it...

 

Delphi took over the electronics stuff for GM years ago, didn't they?

I can't keep track of corporations...

 

Take a look at AC DELCO sbc fuel pumps they come in delco box , but they ain’t makin “em” anymore !!!

 

And it'll likely get worse with the current push to raise taxes on big business. If they can save 2 cents on one million turkleshnitz beneechiheads they'll do it.

 

I think Delphi was a GM subsidiary at the time.

 

That's how Dodge Brothers started out... making a majority of the mechanical parts that went into Fords. They didn't like Henry's screw-the-supplier way of doing business, so started their own company.

 

Yup, if you look on Rockauto, you can find lots of different Delco parts for your Honda or Ford or Toyota.
Parts companies seem to be merely middlemen reselling the same stuff as all the other "brands".

 

It's just depressing. I REALLY don't wanna change another heater core on that truck. It lasted 20 years, my guess is the next one will make 3, tops.

 

My Wife works for a GM supplier. They make valve covers, and internal automatic transmission parts. As a truck mechanic, I understand that the manufacturers don’t make most of their own parts but, I often wish for the days when Henry made most everything for his cars.

 

All a car manufacturer does is assemble.
The parts are sourced from outside vendors.
Why are the plastic parts a different color on your new ride? Those parts were built and painted at a supplier. The manufacturer only installs em.
When I did collision work for Benz, the sheet metal was stamped about 5 miles from our shop. The parts got shipped to a hub in FL then shipped back to us.
It’s a brilliant business model

 

I get that everyone is outsourcing, Henry did it with his bodies early on. I just wish that you would get a better grade of part with the dealer price.

 

Dealerships are about making money. Everything is a profit center.

If you want to buy the same parts cheap, shop around....

 

Many years ago I worked at a major truck shop that built state and county trucks. Everything that came in the door had their name tag on it, but the only time they made stuff in house was when it was more cost effective to do so. Everything else came from the lowest bidder that would built the part to the companies specs.

As an example, if you bought a dump box for your truck, that dump box had the company name tag on it, but it wasn't built by the company. For the 2 years I worked there, every single dump box came in on a truck from a supplier that would build it to the companies specs cheaper then the company could build it themselves in the shop.

I also worked at a forge shop for a few years. One of the big items we made there was the plow shares a farmer bolts onto his field plow. Every year, we did a run on plow shares for a tractor company that uses green paint. They would ship the "for their use only" steel in that we used to form the plow shares (we even had to send them back the scrap). We forged the parts, punched the holes, and did whatever else they wanted and sent the plow shares back to them to get painted. All the guys in the shop liked it when we ran the parts for the green company, every job related for those parts paid an extra $1/hour more money.
We made several different plow shares there, but that green tractor company was the only one that had special requirements. The other tractor companies we made parts for didn't seem to need special plow shares. I guess the point was, at least 30 years ago, some companies were actually concerned about the parts that were used at their "assembled from suppliers parts" companies. I do suspect most parts provided by a factory after the factory warranty time has passed is most likely from the lowest bidder supply chain.

Occasionally, when I buy parts off that auction place, I'll but the parts that are listed as being made "from the OEM supplier". I've had pretty good luck with those parts, but you usually need to go about 5 pages deep to see them. They usually run a few bucks more then the cheapest stuff you can find, but far less then the parts listed as "Ford, GM, or Chrysler" parts.
3 years ago I bought a heater core from a company claiming to be an "OEM manufacturer." It cost about $5 more then most heater cores listed, so far, so good. Gene

 

The bottom line is it doesn't matter if the manufactures logo is on the box or not. Do your homework and find a good brand and buy that. It's been awhile since I've been really involved in the outside new car world (or bothered to care now), but parts like Koyo, Hitachi and Harrison where good names to get.

If all else fails make sure it has a good warranty.

 

A couple years ago we started carrying a new line of ignition parts. 95% of them come of the same assembly line as OE stuff at about half the cost of the dealer. Buying from the dealer you're paying for the name on the box.

 

Taking it one step further, even OEMs don’t “manufacture” tbeir vehicles any more. The Magna Steyr plant in Graz Austria assembles vehicles for multiple OEMs simultaneously. I watched vehicles “built” by MB, Volvo, Jeep all go down the same assembly line. I will say though, the G-Wagon did have its own unique assembly line after paint. Was at their plant there many times in the mid-2000s when we were purchasing MB G-Wagons for the Canadian Army. The MB design office for the G-Wagon was just down the road. MB would send many of the drawings to Magna, and it was their responsibility to outsource tbe parts. Of course, MB still made lots of their own major components like engines, trans, axles, etc., but lots of parts were sourced out to former Eastern Bloc countries like Hungary, Czech Republic, etc. Interesting story about the alternator “made” by Bosch. Originally made in Germany, but then they decided to outsource to Spain. They were supposed to advise MB about any such changes but did not. “Surprisingly” we began having problems with the alternators once the vehicles were fielded. Some vehicles even caught on fire due to seized coils. Big problem of course. MB investigates, finds out about the shift in manufacturing, and they discover the plating on the coil had been changed which resulted in corrosion. All of our alternators had to be swapped out across Canada on a fleet of 1,500 vehicles by MB tech crews. The multi-million dollar fauxpas was paid for by Bosch.

 

Yup, I bought an AC Delco waterpump for my OT Camaro from Rock Auto. When it arrived, made in China.

 

The big manufacturers use out of country factory's who in turn use local labor. We can't find true OEM parts anymore.