HT's & Leads

[Merc]

Hi All
Can anyone tell me just how MB can justify £7 for a piece of rubber with a bit of wire inside,and £23 for a ****** suppressor again a piece of ****** plastic with a small core,wich probably costs about 50p (if that) to make,and that goes for the lead also.
'Mmmmmmmmm',it really makes you think!!

Regards

 

[Andy]

Hence,

Why I advised to get it checked by a specialist. So the expence can be kept to a minimum.

Regards

Andy @ www.mercedesservicing.com

 

[Merc]

Hi Andy

I know what your saying,but the Thing is,I could see sparks coming off the HT's (at night),on the actual cable itself,about 4 of them,and the "king" lead also.
its been fixed now with all new one's,and no more "fire work's",thanks Andy,but you still didn't say why Merc charge so much for so little (in quantity that is),since you work with them I thought you'd have had an idea why,thats all.

Regards

 

[David Halsey]

cos they can!

 

[Merc]

Hi David

Well I suppose thats as good an answer an any,and the thing is,your right!!!,but I thought I heard/read somewhere that was all about to change.
And no longer were dealers being able monopolise the market,and "pattern" manufacturers could "copy" and therefore bring the price down,y'know something Europarts,or will that just not happen?

regards

 

[Matt Crooke]

Im going to get a major cussing here for being so cruel. But in my view (and i stress its only mine) certain parts that need replacing on cars do not need to be the genuine (and very costly) originals.

Things like HT leads are 2 a penny at most corner motoring shops, you can generally buy a whole set for about £15.00. Obviously there is the added benefit of quality with the originals, but im sure a cheaper set of leads wouldnt do any harm.

(i await the abuse!!!! )

 

[Merc]

Hi Matt

No,no,no you wont get abuse!,yes i did go to my local "factors" and they could get a set of leads (inc suppressors the lot) for about 73+vat,but i went for the "gen" thing,but thats just me.
The reason I did that is cause' when it comes to electrical parts I'm very wary of "pattern" stuff cause a few years I did get "pattern" leads for my bike and basically the melted & went very brittle & broke down inside.I mean I would buy pattern anything else,but not electrical I dont think.
Mind I'm skint now after buying that lot from Merc,I'll need to save up now to go for run,'mmmm',the joys of mototring!!.

Regards

 

[dave elcome]

Matt.
i totally agree.

Merc.

Ithought you said Halfords were sharks, £73+ from a factors.......... sounds like it's time he wore the thumb screws for a while!!!!

 

[Merc]

Hi Matt/dave

well as you know I went for "gen" stuff,so you'll know just how more/less I paid,but like said I wanted quality,and not the experience I had with my bike years ago.
Mind you what I did notice (the factors that is) is that his thumbs were a bit on the flat side!!!!.

Regards

 

[mhannaford]

This is probably gonna cause me a load of grief but one
of the things I do for a living (?) is make up spark plug
wire sets. We use 8mm spiral wound core with 100%
pure silicone jacket. The dielectric strength is 77500 volts so it contains any voltage you can get on the market in the way of ignition upgrades.
It's completely suppressed and has a lifetime guarantee
To my way of thinking it's just about the best wire on
the market. (It's made in America by the way)
We have lots of different boot ends and terminals and
can make up sets to suit most engines.
We supply motor factors all over the UK and also France,
Sweden,Germany etc.
The fact of all this is that plug wire sets are cheap to
produce even if you use top quality components.
Manufacturers put this stuff in fancy boxes and sell it
at inflated prices.Half the products you can buy are not
worth a light and the other half are overpriced.
OK so they give it a warranty but we give a lifetime
warranty and you can't get better than that.
Incidentally we have 10 different colours so we tend
to please all the people all the time!!

 

[Merc]

Hi Mark

How could you not have told me that before I "coughed" up for the "gen" stuff,cause' as you'll know only give a year.
By the way who are your company,just for future ref'.

regards

 

[simon]

No grief from me Mark, I am always interested in saving money-providing the product is all that it claims to be.
Dont be shy, who/what is your firm?

regards
Ernest

 

[dave elcome]

Mark.

At last, i'm best mates with  someone who makes plug leads, and i have  Diesel...........

 

[Andy]

Hi All,

You all seem to miss the point. It is guaranteed that the plug leads & caps are the original. They have covered X amount of miles before the break down. Usually 80-100k. Then you MAY get problems. Then its not all of them. In my 23yrs of experience the minute you put non genuine stuff on it WILL let you down. This wk we had a 300se in. Wouldn't start when hot. Checked all the usual stuff. Adjusted the mixture. Then it wouldn't start. Once we started looking. Found non genuine distributor cap. Can't think what the make is. Starts with "B" ECP usually supplies this make. The resistances where so high in the HT contact that prevented the vehicle from starting. We put a second hand bosch on. Worn out and on its last legs. Guess what! It started. If you put rubbish on. It WILL let you down. If you can locate the original manufacturer. Then great fit it. If you cant then fit MB. Otherwise it just a matter of time before it lets you down.

Dave E, You wanted to hear the story about NGK plugs. Well, here it goes.

I had been servicing and old 230TE 123, for a couple of years for a customer. No problems I thought. One day he drops his vehicle of to me and complains of a missfire. I check all the usuals. Check the spark lines on the oscilloscope nothing. Checked dizzy caps and the such. Half a day later I decided to check the plugs. I know what your thinking. Why didn't I check them first. Well the answer is I thought I didn't need to. I fitted bosch. What happened. I removed them (the plugs) to find NGK. Fitted my trusty Bosch. There you go no more problems. The guy had been messing with things he knew little about thinking he save some money. Only it cost him. After that I never took for granted that they (Mr Customer) would not have had a go him self.

The motto. DONT USE CRAP PARTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you don't know er on the side of caution. Most of the engine tuning plugs etc are printed on a nice little sticker on the front panel. If its not there. Its been steam cleaned of or the slam panel has been changed at some time.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I leave you with this note of caution. If you leave your vehicle in the hands of HALFORDS, KWIK FIT, CHARLIE BROWNS or the such then its your pocket and if you phone 192 they will give you the number of the local shrink. And if you listen to them (The halfords of this world). Then you are past all hope & deserve all you get.

Regards
Andy @ www.mercedesservicing.com

 

[mhannaford]

I have to agree with a lot of what Andy says. I had
trouble with the wipers on my W126 and had fitted a
set of Champion wiper blades. The sweep seemed too
big on the offside and was hitting the windscreen upright and on the n/s the blade would jump up and rest on the bonnet. I thought that maybe someone had fitted the wrong arms (will fit) and that was the problem so I invested heavily in genuine arms and blades.
When I took the old arms off they proved to be M-B
but when I put all the new stuff on the problem went
away. The arms might have been incorrect and off
another model but the blades were not genuine and had a slightly different fitting.
If anyone wants to contact me about plug wires I'm
on 01276 65554 normal office hours.
This wire busines is one thing I do know a bit about.

 

[dave elcome]

Andy.

Thats very interesting, like i said though, i'm a firm believer that the manufactures get together and develope the plugs and engines together, why would MB bother to draft in NGK,  when Bosch are on their doorstep and so on. I have never experienced problems with NGK in a jap engine, but if you fit Bosch, then warn the breakdown service in advance, which kind of underlines my arguement.

As for customers......... many years ago we had a guy enquire re the cost of a service, stormed out denouncing us as thieves of doubtfull parentage. The following monday morning, his car was on the forecourt, with the keys through the letter box, with a grovelling letter for us to get it going, this thing wouldn't start, so i pushed it into the workshop and had a look. The first thing i decided to look at was the points gap, (told you it was a long time ago) this must have been about 5mm, i released on of the mounting screws and heard a "click", you've guessed, the points then dropped into the locating hole, i set the gap by eye, put the cap back on, and it started!! BUT, on the passenger seat were the old coil, ballast resister, leads, plus, points, condenser, and distributor cap, all still perfectly functional, together with a receipt from BIG M, all the parts on the car were "Mickey Mouse" trash, his invoice from BIG M was over half the cost of the service that we quoted him for, and all he got for that was a bag full of trash, and a car that wouldn't run, because he was a total no hoper on anything more complicated than opening the bonnet!!!!!

Don't you think the garage trade would be an awful dull place without customers?? 

 

[simon]

Yes,I hear what you say Andy..fit OEM parts...or expect trouble,sooner rather than later.
Buying these parts from an MB franchised dealer costs SERIOUS money!
Knowing  who the OEM(Original Equipment Manufacturers) are, they can be sourced at a more competitive rate elsewhere, for the DIY person.
That is why I posted a query to build up such a list,mainly for consumable items.
As I recall, you helpfully suggested that we should be able to get 10% discount from the local MB dealer, if we pushed them.
Perhaps now is the time to have another shot at building up such a list?
There are enough of us on the Forum..who else can help or is interested?

regards
Ernest.

 

[Andy]

Hi All,

Know, on the subject of OEM parts. As a business man it would not be in my interests to tell you all the OEM  manufacturers. But what I will say for those of you dilligent enough to find out. (Not for those who are just to lazy). Somewhere on the part you are removing the OEM logo will be printed on the part somewhere. Eg, if you have the bosch logo say of a wiper blade. That same logo will say be on a glow plug. If you look carefully. If you get the various parts peoples catalouges the logo of most of the largest parts makers are there. I won't mention any as Dave H, no longer works for one and if the others can't be bothered to find us on the net and help in a smilliar way as Dave H did then I see no need to give them free advertising. I hope for the Sherlocks out  there I given enough clues.

Regards
Andy @ www.mercedesservicing.com

PS. For the DIY'S out there, take note of my strory and Dave E's. These are true life situations which are still happening today. My advice is that you can't always do stuff yourself. But you could still buy the relevant part yourself and get your garage to fit them after they have diagnosed it thereby saving  a little money that way. But remember they will NOT be liable to any parts failure and only have to gurantee there labour. If they supply both and get it wrong. They have to compensate you or sort the problem. You can see what I am saying. If for instance, Taking "Merc" case, you  spend £184 on a set of leads from MB, and you still have a missfire because it s the distributor cap, or something. You end up taking it into a garage and he completes the work in a hour or so needs only half the parts and will probably give it the once over while he's under the bonnet, and you know then of any other potential problems. Once you set up a repor with a garage there more likely to give info and help you out.

Hope I have been some help!

 

[dave elcome]

Andy

On this subject, my brother in law is a sales rep for Mahle, perhaps not surprisingly i find the cost of my filters to very acceptable!!

 

[simon]

Hi Andy,
           I have obviously raised your blood pressure regarding OEM parts & what impresses me is that you are still prepared to help out!Thats very unselfish whilst understandably you are protecting profit margins when already offering hourly rates far below franchised dealers.
Having said that I strongly defend my position in posting such queries.Forums are used for the exchange of opinions & information for the benefit of all.
I therefore ask questions- not through laziness but simply to educate myself & save money at the same time.
I do not have 100% trust in either Euro Car Parts or German & Swedish.They do not specify that their parts are OEM....OE standard yes! but of course they are not the same thing at all.
David Halsey started us off on the list(Consumables only) so lets add to it for the benefit of us all, including Andy, such that when we take our cars to him for servicing he will have the satisfaction of knowing that they have got OEM spares fitted & are not festooned with dubious pattern parts.

regards
Ernest
250TD