Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2008 19:53:02 -0700
Reply-To: David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Kao <dtkao0205@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: FAG or SKF wheel bearings?
In-Reply-To: <4898F632.40507@comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
There is no question that Chinese made bearings are inferior or probabaly
near the bottom in quality. They are very cheap though. But, I was told
about something about VW and China.
Because of WWII Chinese in general tend to reject Japanese products when
they can. Because of this Japanese cars have not been as popular in
China than in other Asian countries. This has given American and German
cars tremendous opportunities. Somehow VWs have been the most successful
foreign cars in China. VW has been making VWs in China and I was told
that they made 80 millions of them last year (I can't prove this though).
VW has basically given Chinese the blue prints of their parts to make
parts for VW to build Chinese versions of Golf, Jetta and Passat. I was
told VW's failure in America almost caused bankrupt to VW. But its success
in China revived them as one of the largest and profitable car maker today.
Guess what happened. Chinese made VW parts are now widely sold in America.
Probably a lot of them are indeed junk but some of them are probably usable.
They are used in the VWs made in China. One example of such is a brand
called EMPI. I actually bought a pair of axles for my Passat a week ago.
They look surprisingly good and close to OEM. They cost me only $65 each.
The reason I bought the EMPI brand, instead of GKN, was I just want to
put them on my Passat and see if it would fix my front axle noise that
has been bothering me for a while.
I knew The noise is most likely from wheel bearings. But I had torn CV boots
at the time the noise started. I have to rule out that it is not CV joints
that are the culprit. It is cheap to put on a pair of EMPI axles to just to
prove it. If I have a shop do it I may be forced to replace them at a much
higher cost anyway.
Guess what? With the EMPI axles the noise remain the same. It has proven
that the original axles are fine. However, the EMPI axles seem work fine
on the Passat too so far. I guess I will keep using them until they break.
I will keep my original as spares now. I did all the work myself to take
the original axles out and put on the EMPI in. The cost is $130 plus tax.
I had to spend something like $50 for several tools that I need. SO it's
a total of $180 to prove that my original axles are fine.
Anyway, cheap Chinese EMPI axles may be Chinese brand but they serve a
purpose for me, which is to prove that my original parts are not defective.
This is really a dumb way to prove that. But it actually saves me money.
I will purchase FAG wheel bearings to replace the Passat's bearings. Now
that the axles are proven good the only likely source of the noise is the
wheel bearings. I already had the steering structure taken off. I can
feel it that the wheel bearing (just one side so far) is defective. I can
see that it is a SKF brand made in Italy. Well, at 90k miles it's not bad.
I have driven the Passat to may forest roads and gave a bit of abuse.
I did not anticipate the bearing failure though. It was the CV boots that
got torn first.
Sorry, if this subject is way off from Vanagon content.
David
--- Ken Wilford <kenwilfy@comcast.net> wrote:
> They are both top quality bearings. Even though SKF sources their
> bearings from all kinds of different countries, the quality is top
> notch. I have installed them, many, many times and never had one
> issue. The FAG bearings are German and they are also excellent quality
> and I have never had an issue with them either. The only bearings I
> have ever had an issue with came from China and were some brand I had
> never heard of before (Happy Love Good Good Bearings or something like
> that). That is Chinese code for "these are junk".
>
> As a side note I have found it amusing to see strange Chinese names for
> products, which usually are something upbeat or positive even though the
> product itself is not that great. When we were in Mongolia a few years
> back we would drink coffee every morning. All they had was instant but
> they had these packs of instant coffee called "American Taste" and they
> had an American flag with an eagle on it. Of course it is a product
> that is not available over here and I had never seen or heard of
> before. The instant coffee also had creamer and sugar mixed in with it
> and it was quite good. Almost makes me want to visit Mongolia again for
> some more "American Taste" coffee which I am sure was made in China.
>
> Ken Wilford
> John 3:16
> www.vanagain.com
>
>
> David Kao wrote:
> > How does FAG wheel bearings compare to SKF brand?
> > I have quite a few wheel bearings to replace from my
> > 83.5 Westy. These two brands of bearings seem to be
> > most popular and available. Are there any significant
> > quality differences or issues with each brand of bearings?
> > They are both German. FAG seems make their own bearings.
> > SKF looks like a business that sources automotive parts from
> > thousands of manufacturers all over the world. I may be wrong.
> > I am trying to decide which I should buy from. Thanks a lot
> > for any comments.
> >
> > David
> >
> >
>
