Difference in parts

Hi all,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question but I'm a little confused.

I have always tried to purchase original parts for my car when carrying service and repair work as I've never been a great believer in pattern parts. However, having a look around the ECP site I got a little confused as to what parts I should be buying if I choose to purchase from them rather then Nordic. They have three categories (differentiated by the last digit in the part no.):

0 = Original Equipment Manufacture
1 = Alternative Quality Brand
5 = Genuine Part

Obviously I know that 1, Alternative Quality Brand is a pattern part but what on earth is the difference between 0, OEM and 5, Genuine Part and which one should be purchased?

Thanks

Andy

Andy,
The only way to feel comfortable about buying from ECP is to go along and see the parts you want to buy.

For instance, I happen to know that the front engine mount supplied by them for an 850, is genuine Volvo. The Timing belt tensioner pulley is sold as OEM, but the quality is not a patch (Visually) on the original. Bits like plug leads and dizzy caps are all bosch anyway!!

Hope this helps

Regards

Nigel 855R

hi i know its a bit confusing however as a example, a oem supplied oil filter for a volvo, would be exactly the same item you would obtain from your local friendly dealer(except a third of the price) same packaging with volvo written all over it even though it was supplied by mann filters to volvo and sold as a genuine part, the genuine filter would be sold as a mann filter exactly the same but in mann "colours" and the alternate filter could be anything, fram, cooper,crossland or some `orrible taiwanese rubbish etc hope this sort of explains it

[sholtby]

0=Supposed to be as good a quality as the original part. ie they have found out who manufactures the part for Volvo and bought direct from them.

5=The same part as you would get from the Volvo dealer. eg the last oil filter I bought from ECP was a genuine one and it had Volvo printed on the side of it. The previous oil filter was OEM and was I think made by (Hengst?) and looked exactly the same as the genuine. But who knows for sure?

I recently replaced front engine mount like Nigel and it was identical to the original Volvo item but was made by some firm in the states. I also needed a lower/side mount (under the cam belt) and there are 3 different types and ECP only did 2 of them. You guessed it they didnt sell the one I wanted.

Simon

Cheers folks,

That clears it up. Basically, genuine is the one to go for first but if unavailable then theoretically the OEM part should be the same, or at least similar.

Thanks again.

Andy