Thread: Things are not what they appear when you buy parts even from GM

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I thought I would share this post w/you folks. It's from ChevyTalk............

Originally Posted by Ronnie44

I needed a new idler pulley for the GM 8.1 in our motor home. As usual, there is always a choice of brand names to chose from. I decided to go with the ACDelco part, since it was made in North America.
When I looked at the outside of the package, there it was in bold letters...Made in Canada.
Now, I don't know about you guys but I have never worn out the outer portion of an idler pulley. It is ALWAYS the bearing that fails. Guess where the bearing is manufactured on this MADE IN CANADA part????? CHINA
ACDelco did their best to hide where the part was made, but there it is, hidden until you get the package open.....CHINA

Maybe they should amend that to read, "Assembled in Canada"?

I had a similar problem with a customers wheel bearing on a Torque flex axle last year, made in china stamped on the bearing,about thousand miles on it, and it chewed alomst through the the spindle!

did it say were the box was made in i would bet some sweat shop . now hold hands across the world . when i was working doing body work a buick came in the shop the back was hit put all new GM parts on at and the back light assemblys were in gm boxs open them up and very yellow cardboard boxs were in the gm boxs? well i knew all hi quality part s in yellow boxs came from CHINA that was over 15 years ago nothing new

I know I may get chastised for this but if labor wasn't so high here the parts would be made here. If parts weren't so high labor to make them wouldn't be so high. It is a case of the dog chasing his tail. You get a raise your boss charges more for your work. This isn't anything new It was the same when I started working in 63 people said about how things cost so much. If you don't get a raise you can't buy things if you get more money the price of what you want goes up. Being retired I know it takes me longer to get parts because I don't get a raise. SS was frozen and so is my pention. I'm not complaining just looking at it in a REAL light.

Chinese parts, whether in their entirety, are incorporated into parts made elsewhere, are so common now that it's not even noteworthy. I've come to expect it. It's the new world economy.

Bob

well it is all the gm retired gm workers that gm still has to pay and the guys standing around in skilled trade pulling down 100.000 a year full benefits then tell me there broke and GM owes them more and $icth about there copay going up on there drugs . i have a very hard time caring when i have to pay for every thing and make a hell of alot less.please no hate mail .i know more then one GM worker so this is how i see it. alot of guys i am sure bust there A$$ off but they are getting paid good.. i never had union holding there hand out for me

I have a good sized travel trailer that I have to replace both axles due to a bearing design defect. The originals use the exact same bearing Ford and others use for their rear axle bearings. My own experience with those bearings is lousy based on the '86 GT Mustang that I owned. Now, you put a 12,000 pound trailer on that 42mm bearing and it's toasted. So, since I'm not the original owner of the trailer, I didn't get them free but at about 75% off. I'm a suspicious person and knowing that these axles are put together cheaply, decided to look at the bearings - JUNK!!!! MADE IN CHINA!!!! They even look crappy. Luckily, I was able to get American made Timken cup and race replacements for about $80 for the 8 bearings. Yep, a bit more, but peace of mind is worth the added few bucks. It all boils down to the bottom line on the corporate spread sheet. If there are a few warranty failures, that's a cost of business plus it's still cheaper in the end as many folks wont bother to file a claim, they'll just do the repairs and chalk it up to ownership of a machine

I once heard it said many years ago that we won WW2 because of our Timken bearings being more reliable than the Japs or Krauts stuff

What I really don't like is the use of child labor over in se asia for the designer clothes and shoes

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

I once heard it said many years ago that we won WW2 because of our Timken bearings being more reliable than the Japs or Krauts stuff

WWII was more likely won by reliable atomic bombs than by reliable bearings.

Bob

I would like to know if the executives for big companies in China are paid millions of dollars in bonuses wether they make a profit or not! Today China builds substandard products and in some cases products with contaminates and poisons in them. Us companies have to abide by rules. China only does when they get caught. I have been in the electronics manufacturing industry since 1972 and that industry has been destroyed in the US by the need for cheaper labor. Who benefits from cheap labor? The consumer? No I have not seen purchase cost for anything going down. Stock holders? I don't think so. How about the 10's and in some cases 100's of millions of dollars paid to the CEO's of these large companies. In some cases not having made a profit for his company. These guy's are dancing all the way to the bank!
The next decision to be made is how are we going to support the kids graduating form college with student loans and there are no jobs. We have baby boomers today that can't retire because of the economics times and they are filling the jobs these kids need to be filling. Sorry guys and gals I got POed. We have dingbats running this country.

When I was a kid we knew that anything marked "MADE IN JAPAN" was junk. Not so much anymore. I think that the Chinese quality will come up eventually, but for now it's buyer beware!

Originally Posted by bobscogin

WWII was more likely won by reliable atomic bombs than by reliable bearings.

Bob

well look at it this way if you want?? all the USA tooling and machine s to build the bombs were relaying on timkens bearings and some babbitt . rail way cars and many other machines used them. why we bomb the german ball bearing and others industry with out them would of been very hard

Originally Posted by fitzwilly

I think that the Chinese quality will come up eventually, but for now it's buyer beware!

China is capable of quality that's comparable to any other industrial country --- if the buyer wants to pay for it. However, American companies went there looking for cheap, and you can't have quality and cheap. When we're willing to pay more for quality, they'll provide it. In the meantime, we get what we pay for.

Bob

What pulled our fat out of two world wars was our ability to make things, and especially things that worked. We made things here back then and were quickly able to convert to producing war time machinery instead of cars and trucks. I realize it is a different world now but it scares the hell out of me that we don't make a whole lot of things in this country any more.

The other thing that concerns me is how much of America is owned by the Chinese and others.

Don