For the DIYers ... to go genuine or not (specifically sensors)?

MinuteNoodles

JustAnotherSaver said:

I've read tales of no-name sensors causing more trouble than they're worth and by the time you put the job right you've spent more than what you would've if you bought genuine from the off. 

Yet they surely can't all be bad.

So when you work (or worked, if you no longer do) on your cars then would you opt for one over the other? And why?

Local garage we thought we could trust put a no-name not even a part number or brand EGR valve in my wife's Renault Traffic, even though they charged us the price for a genuine part not a £60 Ebay special. Now on cold start it coughs and splutters and chucks out white smoke for about a minute then once it's cleared it's down on power compared to what it should be but no warning lights. Unplug it and apart from the warning light the van runs properly. But apparently they can't find anything wrong - must be blind and deaf.
When I changed the MAF on it I used a genuine one, lots of horror stories about third party ones causing issues or packing up after 6 months. 

JustAnotherSaver

MinuteNoodles said:

JustAnotherSaver said:

I've read tales of no-name sensors causing more trouble than they're worth and by the time you put the job right you've spent more than what you would've if you bought genuine from the off. 

Yet they surely can't all be bad.

So when you work (or worked, if you no longer do) on your cars then would you opt for one over the other? And why?

Local garage we thought we could trust put a no-name not even a part number or brand EGR valve in my wife's Renault Traffic, even though they charged us the price for a genuine part not a £60 Ebay special. Now on cold start it coughs and splutters and chucks out white smoke for about a minute then once it's cleared it's down on power compared to what it should be but no warning lights. Unplug it and apart from the warning light the van runs properly. But apparently they can't find anything wrong - must be blind and deaf.
When I changed the MAF on it I used a genuine one, lots of horror stories about third party ones causing issues or packing up after 6 months. 

That's exactly why I try to do whatever i can myself. I'm not the most mechanically minded person, far from it. If you type out how i'm to do a job then i'm probably not going to get it or do it right as i learn better by being shown rather than being told - which is why i look for detailed pictures (not just 2 photos of start & finish with 100 steps in between missed out) or even better - YouTube.

If i then think i can do it then i'll do it. I sent a car in for a "full service" to a garage years ago. Philips screws on the Polo airbox IIRC. I lined them all up in the same direction so that i would know if the filter had even been looked at, never mind actually replaced. When the car came back - the screws were all lined up exactly the same as when i sent it in. That was just impossible so it hadn't been looked at. From that day on i started to learn how to change basic filters myself.

I couldn't tell you how an engine works, i don't know the job of various components and i will get lost in car jargon (even though i'm better than i was) but i can take that thing off there and clean it out and i can remove that over there and put a new one on.

Similar to your story, my brothers turbo went on a MK4 Golf TDI. Garage fitted a cheapy Chinese clone off eBay as IIRC it was £300 vs £1500. He was still having trouble afterwards.

fred246

I would put your details into eurocarparts, mister-auto and Micksgarage. Are there any brands that you have heard of? Probably still made in China but I always hope that known brands will exercise a degree of quality control to protect their reputation.

MinuteNoodles

JustAnotherSaver said:

That's exactly why I try to do whatever i can myself. I'm not the most mechanically minded person, far from it. If you type out how i'm to do a job then i'm probably not going to get it or do it right as i learn better by being shown rather than being told - which is why i look for detailed pictures (not just 2 photos of start & finish with 100 steps in between missed out) or even better - YouTube. 

Sadly with the EGR valve on this specific model of van you have to remove the entire front end of the vehicle to get to it, everything. Lights, bumper, grille, front panel, crash bar, radiator, everything just to change the chuffing EGR valve. They literally hung the valve up and built the van around it. 

Years ago I'd have just done it over a weekend but age and well knackered back means such things are no more.

forgotmyname

Probably better off buying £1.88 worth of chocolate, its likely to last longer than that thermostat.

Sellers feedback is brilliant....  Only 19 and they are all 1 star mostly saying the items
are fake and rubbish.

Address is a UK one but 1 - 3 weeks to post and estimated early to mid November?
Do Amazon offer free returns to China?   Probably dropshipped.

Company info is just as interesting, late filings, Gazette Notices,

JustAnotherSaver

Do you (not you specifically forgotmyname) check a company before you purchase?

I always wonder how people pull info on these sellers.

Also Noodles, your post reminds me of the Mini my brother had. I'd have hated to have had one of them. He seemed to have to drop the bumper to do anything on that car. A workmate had a Focus ST and when he popped the bonnet i wondered how on earth you'd do a single job on it as everything was so tight.

I remember my dads old Sierra. You could pretty much jump in the engine bay and there'd still be room.

AdrianC

JustAnotherSaver said:

Also Noodles, your post reminds me of the Mini my brother had. I'd have hated to have had one of them. He seemed to have to drop the bumper to do anything on that car. A workmate had a Focus ST and when he popped the bonnet i wondered how on earth you'd do a single job on it as everything was so tight.

I remember my dads old Sierra. You could pretty much jump in the engine bay and there'd still be room.

Sierras were RWD. The engine was in the engine bay, the gearbox wasn't - it was under the dash and centre console. There were no driveshafts inside the engine bay. The engine bay was a lot bigger than a Focus or Mini - yet the engine itself was probably no larger than the Mini, and smaller than the Focus if it was one of the turbo straight fives - and pointing in the other direction. There was no aircon pump, maybe no power steering pump. A LOT less electronics. No turbo or intercooler.

That's why modern engine bays are so cramped...

Homer_home

JustAnotherSaver said:

AdrianC said:

Car_54 said:

Or save £10-35 and just live with the faulty gauge?

If it really IS running cool, rather than just the gauge lying, then it's going to cause more rapid engine wear and more fuel use.

Of course, even if it is just the gauge lying, temp gauges don't actually read accurate these days. They're just "low, normal, high", from the ECU.

That link isn't to a sensor - but to the oil cooler thermostat. Oil too cool? Stop it flowing to the cooler. Oil hot enough? Allow it to the cooler. It's entirely possible that the oil cooler thermostat is contributing to the engine running cool - the coolant isn't being circulated to the rad, but the oil is being cooled and that's bringing the coolant temp down. I'm assuming it's an oil-air cooler, not an oil-coolant one?

I'd spend the extra to get, if not genuine, but one made by a brand I've heard of. "High quality" means a lot of things to a lot of different people. And if a lousy one goes pop, not only do you have to buy another, but you've probably lost more than £25-worth of oil. Hopefully, not the engine...

Yes, sorry, it's the thermostat and not a sensor. My mind was wandering and was thinking about things like sensors and the like and ended up typing out sensors. I'll leave it as is but yeah you're right.

Regards gauges lying or not lying, i'm a little OCD and don't like to 'live with' if it can be put right. Plus as Adrian has said, what if it's not a faulty gauge?

Regards what type of oil cooler, i couldn't tell you. I've just read there's an oil thermostat. I tried looking for a YouTube video on replacing it but came up short. I can only find coolant thermostats being done. The car is old now so any how-to that's likely to have been done on forums will at this stage probably have their photos removed - it's usually what happens which is kind of annoying. I did a couple in depth how-tos in my time and always left them in place even when i stopped posting on the forums.

I've only got the on board MPG workings as i haven't brimmed and properly calculated the consumption yet but if it's anywhere close to accurate then it's quite poor. 41mpg. The engine is a 2.2 diesel. While i wasn't expecting 70mpg, i was hoping for in the 45-50 range. Quoted is 46mpg.

I need to try and find a proper how to on changing this and probably lead towards genuine or proper branded then.

Was that the manufacturers quoted 46mpg? If it was then you will never get above that and it would be a miracle if you got that out of your car 

Are you just throwing money at a fault you may or may not have in the hope that if you change enough parts you will eventually replace the "faulty " one ?

JustAnotherSaver

I don't know if you mean this car or all cars but if you mean I won't get above manufacturer MPG in any and every car then that's incorrect. I did it consistently in my previous car and actually have done in most cars I've owned. The only exception has been my wife's current car.

If research dictates that an issue has a fair chance of being caused by XYZ and XYZ doesn't cost too much to replace and is fairly easy to do so then I'll do that. If it could be 1 of 100 things and they're costly then I may not. 

Homer_home

JustAnotherSaver said:

I don't know if you mean this car or all cars but if you mean I won't get above manufacturer MPG in any and every car then that's incorrect. I did it consistently in my previous car and actually have done in most cars I've owned. The only exception has been my wife's current car.

If research dictates that an issue has a fair chance of being caused by XYZ and XYZ doesn't cost too much to replace and is fairly easy to do so then I'll do that. If it could be 1 of 100 things and they're costly then I may not. 

So what you are saying is you are still happy to change parts without checking the original part is faulty first?