£1500 car - priorities for maintenance

alastairq

of course with a rubber [and sundry other ingredients?} belt driving the cams, there is no guarantee it won't let go after five miles, never mind fifty thousand.

Spawn-of-the-devil, are cambelts....

Westmead_Fan

just to let people know, Triple QX oil is made from the same blends as shell oil, cheaper & you will save money.

another top brand is Comma its exactly the same stuff as Mobil but you pay the for the brand, i know this because a rep of there company said so.

Car Parts 4 Less can do stuff cheaper but make you its is the right items i don't know what there returns policy is like but with Euro Car Parts if they are like my local in Eastbourne they are a good bunch.

main dealers never make parts, they are stamped with there logo & charge alot more. an example vauxhall astra van air mass meter is made by bosch as standard you can buy these from ECP for a fraction of the price than at vauxhall.

bigjl

mad_rich wrote: »

This is the original part.

http://www.skodaparts.com/product/fabia-fuel-filter-1-9-sdi-tdi-2000-2005-34684

£35, although reduced to £25 at the mo.

In terms of part manufacturers, I've seen advice to avoid Eicher (ECP's own brand which sounds German but isn't). What about Pagid? Conti tech? Lucas?

It's weird. I think CP4L is the same people as ECP. The websites are almost identical, but they only do mail order. Cheaper than ECP, but the range is slightly different. Very odd.

Pagid are top spec parts, made in Germany as far as I know, every time I have bought them they have been.

Conti tech is Continental, good quality cambelts, would have no hesitation in buying them, likely to make a lot of manufacturer marked belts.

Eicher pads, now they do sound German but are actually made in India.

I needed pads for my Pathfinder and was momentarily financially embarrassed, so due to the price with 30% discount at the time, the fact they were for the rear I bought them.

They appeared good quality, no edges that needed cleaned up, easily as well made as the Jurid/Nissan pads I took off.

Fitted them up and they were fine. Actually a little less dust than the old ones.

When the fronts needed done I used Eicher again.

Same thing decent enough, little less dust, no increase in noise.

I don't think they will last as long as the old ones. Not least because they are being used with old discs.

But when they do need replaced again I suspect I shall be spending a bit more and using Pagid Discs and Pads.

I had Pagid discs and pads on the front of my Mondeo and they were excellent, can't remember what I put on the back, it may have been Pagid aswell but can't remember.

Hengst, Bosch and Purlater all make good quality parts.

WIX are ok but I consider them second tier.

Halfords used to be Wix but I don't know if that is still true.

Euro can sell you a top make filer for less than Halfords will sell you a cheapy.

I suspect CarParts4Less may just be a copy cat business, I would stick to ordering from Euro, wether for collection or delivery.

The strange thing is when I worked in the trade full time back in the early to mid ninties EuroCarParts was always the one that sold you really cheap parts, sometimes the quality was lacking, £15 for read pads for a 300SE for example!

And German & Swedish (before they added French) used to be the ones that had OE quality and cheap one likes Euro.

We used the Wightman Road branch and they had the plate N8 GSF on one of their vans ( the shop was in N8)

So it is interesting to see that GSF now stock cheaper parts mainly from what I have seen at the branch local to me.

But now Euro mainly stock the very best stuff.

And the quality of Indian made parts is better than other cheap stuff I have seen.

It may not be relevant or may be a coincidence but when Euro started it was a group of very shrewd Indian businessmen that started it up, with the first warehouse in Wembley.

They really have expanded.

I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have some kind of share in Eicher, and good luck to them if they do.

I don't know of anybody with a bad word to say about Euro, a rare thing in the automotive industry.


Forgot about Lucas, I have never bad a problem with their parts though some people say different.

I think they used to be UK made, but not sure about now.

Though I will admit to putting Bosch bulbs in my dipped lights last week as they were only slightly more expensive than Lucas.