anything that requires significant labor warrants the best part possible IMHO. dont want to repeat at all costs.
This. ^^^
Especially for those of us who are out of warranty, and/or DIY'ing the repair and can't go back to the indy shop if it dies in 11 months. FCP Euro's lifetime warranty is fabulous, but if you have to replace the water pump annually, is it worth it?
It's weird to say "go OEM" when you know you are installing the same ****** water pump that you are taking off, but at least it's a ****** water pump with a known 60k pile pitch-count.
Exactly. There's no incentive for a company to make a better version that lasts forever. It would cost 4x as much and almost nobody would buy it. And they'd all be one-time sales. Why build quality expensive stuff that won't sell, when you can produce junk that keeps failing and generating future sales?
yeah, well LR did redesign the crossovers... so they did something right i think. as for AB, that is the OEM part, but i think they would offer an aftermarket version if it was better... Ala EBC brake kits compared to OE.
Brakes are a different animal. LR spec'd the OE compound as the best compromise for the engineering criteria. Aftermarket companies offer alternatives that cater to owner's desires/needs for a different compromise (i.e., low dust, or low price).
Remember that OE and OEM are not the same thing.
OE = Genuine Land Rover, only available from the dealership; or afermarket vendors who source the OE item from dealerships. These always come in Genuine LR packaging.
OEM = whatever company makes the OE part (example: I think Ferodo is OEM for the LR4 brake pads). The OEM may be identical to OE, sometimes with the LR logo or part number ground off. Or the OEM part may be production rejects that didn't meet OE quality specs, but were considered "adequate" to sell via aftermarket. Or a cost-reduced version using different materials, etc. But generally the OEM is pretty close to OE. I will almost always buy OEM if there's a decent cost savings over OE.
Anything that doesn't fit into the 2 buckets above is "aftermarket", and there's a yuuuge variety spanning from better than OE, to total junk.
The link below has a useful list of many common brand names for aftermarket parts. The stuff to avoid is near the bottom:
https://www.500eboard.co/forums/threads/500e-e500-parts-manufacturer-quality-list.1882/
Be particularly careful with reboxers (Beck-Arnley falls into this category). I've spent the last 25 years maintaining my personal fleet of old German cars and have learned the hard way to be really, really careful when buying aftermarket parts. We are fortunate that the LR4 is new enough that most items are still available. Some of the stuff I'm dealing with in the 80's and 90's is not available new from any source today. Makes me wonder what items I should be buying now to keep on the shelf for the LR4, as we plan to own LR4's for a very long time since the LR5 is not an equivalent replacement and it's unlikely LR will figure this out when the LR6 is released.
