Falling Quality of OEM Parts?

[LarryM]

Anybody else having trouble with the quality of OEM replacement parts?

I just purchased a new heater valve from bmwdirectparts.com (Husker Auto Group in Lincoln, NE which is a BMW and Mercedes dealer) and it leaks like a sieve. The part doesn't have any "BMW" or "Bosch" markings on it; just a label with the BMW part # and another label that says, "DC12V". The body isn't cracked; it leaks between the two main sections, as if it had been assembled without a gasket or sealant.

I'm kind of concerned about this because I also bought a brand new OEM driveshaft from the same vendor and it doesn't have anything on it that indicates it's "genuine BMW" either. Nothing on the box it was shipped in indicates it originated in Germany.

Both of these parts arrived with the BMW parts label on the package, but I've been hearing a lot of stories lately about off-shore parts being repackaged as "name brands", so I'm kind of concerned I'm not getting what I'm paying for.

[Mike W.]

I wonder if it's the vendor? How do the prices compare to someplace like Tischer, or whatever they're calling themselves these days. It pops up on a Tischer search still. With no BMW sticker on it I wonder if it is OE?

[LarryM]

The price of the heater valve was within a few $$ of Tischer. They were cheaper on the driveshaft by about $50-$60, which is why I bought it from them.

I certainly hope it's not the vendor; they advertise as selling "Genuine BMW Parts" so if they're not OEM then it's deceptive advertising. I'll be calling them first thing tomorrow.

[John in VA]

Husker is a "real" dealer selling real factory parts - hate that you have to return the part, but doesn't BMW offer a 2-year warranty?

Tischer is now BMW of Silver Spring, and have a great pair of guys running the internet sales dept. Most dealers are named BMW of xxx these days - don't know if it's a corporate thing, or the fact that mega-dealers are buying them up (Crown, Sonic, etc.).

Parts prices are tied, somewhat, to volume, so busier dealers might have better prices. They are all free to gouge us with prices above BMW's MSRP.

BMW of Sterling has prices matching Tischer - realbimmerparts.com
Faulkner BMW in eastern PA is good - faulknerbmwpartssource.com
Passport BMW in MD/DC is also good - www.mybimmerparts.com

[DCB535is]

I had the same issue recently with a tail panel. It did have the typical BMW part number decal on it and looked to be well made. It fit the car good too. Before final welding and brazing of the panel to the car I went to check that the trunk lid closed and lined up properly. That's when I discovered the the piece that the trunk latch / lock mounts to was spot welded too far the the left about 3/4". Closing the trunk or mounting the lock cylinder was not possible. I had to drill out the spot welds and move it. Was a easy fix but was disappointed in the quality. I had ordered it thru Pelican Parts and it shipped from Germany. Who makes these older body parts for BMW?

[tn535i]

I've ordered quite a few things from Husker and it was always clearly genuine OEM. But it's been a while and I would hate to think a good source has started pulling some shenanigans. If a brand new valve leaks they should be willing to replace it. I don't know if the driveshafts were made in house by BMW or not and don't recall if they had any special markings but I have a couple old ones I could take a look at. They still use the same basic design so it seems they would be made they same as a new car regardless.

[LarryM]

Update: I contacted Husker (they are indeed a legit BMW dealer) and they're going to overnight a new heater valve to me. Can't ask for better service than that. I'm calmer now and feel good about buying from them again in the future.

And so the heater valve I bought is genuine BMW, but the packaging says "made in China". Evidently quality control isn't what it should be; I'm hoping that the new one won't have the same issue. Makes me wish I had just purchased the "rebuild" kit for my old valve and save $150 in the process.

I also looked over the driveshaft I purchased from them and it does appear to be a genuine BMW part too, as it has a BMW guibo and CSB; it was probably manufactured somewhere in Europe for BMW.

[Click]

Quite peculiar. I consider ECS tuning to be the gold standard as far as OE BMW part pictures is concerned. All their photos are taken in house and are the real deal, not some stock photos. If they don't have a picture of it, no ones ever ordered it before. I've ordered a couple OE items from them that didn't have any photos shown and when I later checked back they had photos of the part I ordered, indicating they snapped photos once they received it and before they shipped it to me.

That said I looked up both styles of heater valves and their photos are obviously marked Made in France and Bosch/BMW on them.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw ... 111373191/
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw ... 111373188/

One of them has a 586 stamp on it. I wonder if that means 5/86 production date and they were selling new old stock all these years? Perhaps they finally ran out and couldn't get Bosch to make another run of them (just like the inserts) so they contracted it out to some poor QC Chinese factory. I would be surprised but not totally shocked. But lets be real here, if they're charging 3 Benjamins for a valve I'd expect to receive a top notch product.

[wkohler]

Prices on parts are totally insane now.

[LarryM]

Quite peculiar. I consider ECS tuning to be the gold standard as far as OE BMW part pictures is concerned. All their photos are taken in house and are the real deal, not some stock photos. If they don't have a picture of it, no ones ever ordered it before. I've ordered a couple OE items from them that didn't have any photos shown and when I later checked back they had photos of the part I ordered, indicating they snapped photos once they received it and before they shipped it to me.

That said I looked up both styles of heater valves and their photos are obviously marked Made in France and Bosch/BMW on them.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw ... 111373191/
https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-bmw ... 111373188/

One of them has a 586 stamp on it. I wonder if that means 5/86 production date and they were selling new old stock all these years? Perhaps they finally ran out and couldn't get Bosch to make another run of them (just like the inserts) so they contracted it out to some poor QC Chinese factory. I would be surprised but not totally shocked. But lets be real here, if they're charging 3 Benjamins for a valve I'd expect to receive a top notch product.

The replacement heater valve that the dealer sent me also leaks, so I had to return both of them. Instead, I've ordered a "rebuild kit" (Part # 64-11-8-390-132) which hopefully will still be good quality. I recommend anyone else doing this in the future, as the BMW heater valves (being sold by dealers as well as reputable vendors like ECS Tuning) are now made in China, and at least for now are having quality control issues.

[Mike W.]

On heater valves in particular rebuilding isn't always an option. I had both my original (I suspect) and a junkyard replacement fail by the hose nipple deteriorating and breaking off. Same thing on the coolant reservoir. E28s aren't bad like the newer stuff, but the hot water still has it's way with the plastic.

[wkohler]

On heater valves in particular rebuilding isn't always an option. I had both my original (I suspect) and a junkyard replacement fail by the hose nipple deteriorating and breaking off. Same thing on the coolant reservoir. E28s aren't bad like the newer stuff, but the hot water still has it's way with the plastic.

Exactly. I did a cooling system refresh on the '87 M535i and everything worked fine, but when I twisted the hose from the back of the head to remove from the heater valve, it broke the neck off. Had to replace it. Fortunately, I had another used, but it's only a matter of time.

[LarryM]

On heater valves in particular rebuilding isn't always an option. I had both my original (I suspect) and a junkyard replacement fail by the hose nipple deteriorating and breaking off. Same thing on the coolant reservoir. E28s aren't bad like the newer stuff, but the hot water still has it's way with the plastic.

That's why my original intention was to replace the entire valve; on a 25+ y/o car, I think a brand new one is a good idea. They are pricey, but it's one of those parts that can get you stranded if it breaks. Let's hope that BMW gets this problem straightened out soon. FWIW I'm going to contact BMW AG to tell them about the failed valves I received, and hope that they'll care.

[BRRV]

Please don't get me started on heater valves, valve inserts, and leaking/no heat/heat all the time. My three year battle with this is finally over, and I'm dreading its return. And now I hear that the "gold standard" for parts for our cars, BMW itself, is now made in China, with abysmal quality??

BMW has finally lost it's mind. Are there any jobs left in Germany that aren't union-mandated?

With Bosch NLA, I was going to buy a new insert from BMW (I have two or three used OE valves, with solenoids that work - I think) and stash it, as I'm using a used one (knock-on-wood!!) that I got from a guy in Europe. They want a pretty price for an insert, and since the MTC inserts do NOT work (I've tried three, they all have the same issues, and they clearly aren't the same) I figured it was the last place to get one. Now it seems that's not the case. This makes me mad.

I wonder: is Mercedes suffering the same problem??? Because they use the same monovalve, as does Ferrari, I believe in the Mondial and the 308.

(Speaking of Bosch: I've almost gotten to the point where I won't buy Bosch parts, they are getting to be that bad, too. At least Bremi ignition parts are labeled "Made In Germany". The last three Bosch coils I've bought, all of them made in Brazil, have failed prematurely, one of them out of the box, and the other two with less than two years on them - they are getting to be Inspection II replacement items.)

[Click]

I wonder: is Mercedes suffering the same problem??? Because they use the same monovalve, as does Ferrari, I believe in the Mondial and the 308.

Hmm, that's an interesting development. After some research the Testarossa, 456 GT/GTA, 512 M, 512 TR, F40, F50, and Mondial use the "eta looking" version of the valve. Ferrari part # is 61079000 and the going price looks to be around ~$350 . Bosch part # is 1 147 412 013. I say "eta looking" as photos of the genuine eta valve have bosch part # 1 147 412 008. For comparison's sake the eta valve is $268.97 right now from ECS (soon to be $500 in a year or two at the rate BMW parts are going). I wonder what the differences could be? I'm going to visit a friend of mine who specializes in NOS german parts, I'll see if he can cross reference the Bosch part numbers. For complete documentation's sake the m30 valve Bosch # is 1 147 412 010 and fetches $312.62 at ECS.

As an added joke when I bought my car it had a plastic 45 degree elbow in place of a heater valve, I later found a broken heater valve under the driver's seat. I purchased it during the middle of the summer and the plastic elbow resulted in heat dumping in at all times . I normally fix stuff properly by the book but when when I saw the price of heater valves I just couldn't swallow it. Back then I just wanted something quick and cheap to stop the flow so I could stop roasting, see replacement pic below. I intended for it to be temporary but honestly after living with it the past few years I can't really justify spending $100+ for what seems to be a finicky valve to replace it. I close it during spring and open it up during fall and very rarely do I find myself in a situation where I'm not comfortable by varying the sliders/fan speed.

[Tulsa6]

I just purchased a new heater valve from bmwdirectparts.com (Husker Auto Group in Lincoln, NE which is a BMW and Mercedes dealer) and it leaks like a sieve. The part doesn't have any "BMW" or "Bosch" markings on it; just a label with the BMW part # and another label that says, "DC12V". The body isn't cracked; it leaks between the two main sections, as if it had been assembled without a gasket or sealant.

Larry's description is exactly what I'm currently facing with a heater valve that was purchased in July 2017 with the 2 BMW labels on the box, one of which is the manufacture date of 04.07.2017. It's leaking worse that the one it replaced, but the heater did work and then completely shut off. I'm going to see what the vendor will do for me, but I hope BMW has realized and corrected the problem and I hope the valve is still available new at this point. I post an update when I find out more.

[Tulsa6]

Just an update, since I noticed that I had said I would update, but lost track of this thread. I think I've made mention of it already on another thread, but I bought one of the BMW replace heater control valves through Schmiedmann's and they would not try to warranty it because I didn't have any documentation of it being installed by a BMW authorized repair shop after I shipped it back to them.

The second one I bought from my local BMW dealership. It was warrantied when it started to leak and replaced under warranty. The replacement, with the extra sleeve then started leaking about a year later, but BMW would not replace it because it was a warranty replacement and did not have any warranty. After this, I went with the e46 valve substitution, having lost any confidence in BMW to do the right thing.



See this link for more on the e46 valve: https://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=3 ... bebfd6d468

[LarryM]

I've decided to have BMW start paying the bill for me on these defective water valves.

When my most recent one started leaking after only a year, I brought my car to my local dealer to have a tech verify that it was installed correctly. Because it was still under warranty, they got me a new one in a couple of days. They also offered to change it free of charge but I declined and did it myself; if that one goes bad within the next couple of years, I'll repeat the process.

[Tulsa6]

Hope that works out for you, I'd have changed it out myself if it would have extended the warranty, but the dealer said the replacement they put in did not have a warranty.