Suspension: Volvo vs Meyle Spring Seat

[aslan]

Replaced the front shocks spring seats recently. Found that it had Meyle courtesy of the workshop that replaced it.

These Meyle had 29000 kms on it. Both were cracked in the middle.





The old volvo spring seat that came from the factory had 150k kms on it when it was replaced.





Now with new Volvo spring seats in I gather they would last till at least 100k kms?

[oragex]

These brands are the 'will last one year then I'll sell the car' quality standard.

Spring seats, wishbone bushings, ball joints, tie rods, engine mounts and so on.

Wonder why ALL internet sites - Fcp, Ipd, Eeuroparts and so on, sell these paper strong parts?

Because there is always a part of the population that will buy the cheapest part, disregarding (or unknowingly about) the quality. These site shamelessly sell these 'lasts one year' parts because there is a market for it. All these sites know very very well that these parts are a scam, yet they keep selling them. Some even have the attitude to offer a life time replacement warranty. Who in his mind would want to replace a part that failed after one year, with the same part? But by them, they have already bought it once, so the site has made the profit.

[Tannaton]

I have had this same issue recently - I rebuilt the front suspension on my 2003 XC90 a few years ago with new shocks, spring seats and top mounts. A few months ago I started to get a knocking noise over bumps, after much head scratching I found that one of the spring seats had failed like in your third picture. I can't remember the brand but they were from Parts Monster on e-bay. I bought cheap and ended up doing the job twice... again...

[Das boot]

Isnt meyle the oe manufacturer on suspension parts ?

[aslan]

Originally Posted by Das boot

Isnt meyle the oe manufacturer on suspension parts ?

Not that I have heard. Lemforder have been quoted as OEM for some of the suspension parts by my parts guy but not sure for the spring seat.

[TruckbusUK]

Originally Posted by aslan

Not that I have heard. Lemforder have been quoted as OEM for some of the suspension parts by my parts guy but not sure for the spring seat.

I may be wrong here, and willing to be corrected, but Meyle are not oem suppliers to any major manufacturer (OE/OEM is widely abused in the aftermarket car parts business.)

I also dont believe Lemforder are oem suppliers to Volvo either, but what I do understand is Lemforder is the aftermarket brand manufactured by ZF.

ZF are oem suppliers to Volvo, but are the parts identical, or just to oem specification I dont know, but lots of oem is unique to the manufacturers (by contract/supply IPR) and aftermarket even by oem suppliers are usually slightly different, is the difference significant in the ZF/Lemforder case I dont know, but IMO would choose Lemforder before Meyle any day.

Didnt mean to confuse, but was trying to point out not everything that claims oe/oem is infact that.

Hope it helps.