Recommendation: Do not use Chinese parts. You can use them, but expect to replace them soon. I have found this out the hard way many times, mostly with rubber parts that only last a couple of months before deteriorating. You’d think by now I would have learned my lesson, but being the cheapskate that I am, the temptation to save a few dollars is too hard to resist when faced with a decision to purchase the good German parts or the junky Chinese stuff.
Sometimes I get sucked in to buy the Chinese parts thinking I am buying German or Brazilian, only to realize the price was so good because the parts were made in China.
Case in Point: I recently found a good deal on new Constant Velocity (CV) joints on Ebay. The parts were about 25% cheaper than others I had seen elsewhere. The picture shown on the website looked like other German CV joints I have obtained in the past.
The CV Joints in the bus have lasted over 240,000 miles. I replaced the joints on the right side axle about 5,000 miles ago after hearing them start to make clunking noises while on a trip to Big Sur. I didn’t replace the left side, but made a promise to the bus to get the job done soon, hence this job.
When the new Ebay parts arrived I opened the box and immediately saw what I believed to be inferior tooling and metal used to manufacture the CV joints. It was then that I read the label on the box, “Made in China.” Well, I don’t have to tell you that I could tell they were made in China before I even read the label. Disappointment set in!
Against my better judgment, I installed the CV joints (about an hour’s labor). Installing CV joints is my least favorite job on the bus. I would rather remove and install an engine. CV joints are packed with thick black grease that seems to get everywhere. I spread layers of newspaper underneath the axle and then went to work (yuck). During the job, one of the joints came apart and several large ball bearings fell out. It took several minutes to put it back together, clean of course. 65 minutes later the axle and new joints were back in.
Then came the test drive, everything seemed to be fine except for the knocking noise coming from the rear axle, particularly the left side with the new CV joints. The good news is that it only knocks while under a load such as accelerating or climbing a mildly inclined driveway and not while coasting. For those of you who have never driven a bus before, you are pretty much driving under a load all the time! Man this sucks.
I know I should have known better than to install those pieces of trash “Made in China” car parts. Now I have to re-do the whole thing.
Why do we do this: Export all our manufacturing to China to save on labor costs and increase our business’s profits, only to have to them send us junk? We deserve it. Oh well, move forward. I just ordered a new set of German CV Joints from GoWesty. I hope they get here soon.
Happy Bus Motoring,
Ron
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