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URO parts

11K views 120 replies 27 participants last post by  Lurp 
#1 · (Edited)
Never said that. I was just pointing out that you could get a URO part now. and how extensive they now are for parts for W126's.

Getting my head bashed in :rolleyes: in another thread (and deservedly so) the above quote got me thinking... a rare event, I know. :)

It's not just parts for W126s that these guys are producing, they have them for many other models and brands.

How does this work? How does a company with such bad reputation for shoddy parts gets Mercedes to approve their parts? Or do they? Is there a licensing process? Fees? Or do they just make the part and not answer to anyone?

Does anyone know?
 
#2 ·
Why do you think MB gives their stamp of approval to URO? And if they do, MB has truly gone down the rabbit hole.
 
#4 ·
No stamp of approval. Only MB brand parts get a stamp of approval. Not any more than your posts here get an Mb stamp of approvsl.. Uro doesn't use any MB trademarks in their advertising or packaging; they themselves are probably legally out of reach and in some third world country, but Amazon and the like wouldn't sell anything legally risky.
 
#5 ·
MB hasn't, and likely never will, endorse URO. And URO isnt stamping the MB logo on their parts, so no approval needed.
 
#8 ·
URO is no fly by night company. They are completely serious about taking a part of the market for parts.

URO Parts Quality Assurance

I know everyone bitched about their rubber parts, though I read somewhere they admitted to such and have improved in that area. But now looking at all the parts they make.

Mercedes-Benz OEM Replacement Parts they make a wide variety of parts for many models.

I would think they are not idiots in business and actually are trying to make good parts. I have bought a few parts from them and time will tell if they hold up. I got a turn signal switch for my W126, and I have bought a few rubber hoses also. The turn signal stalk looks well made. I looked closely and tried to figure out how they could screw it up with perhaps cheap materials, and for that part I think the risk is pretty low.

URO $58 Your Parts Search Returned 1 Part(s)

MB $269 BLINKER SWITCH. SWITCH,AUTOMATIC. STEERING WHEEL AND STEERING LOCK made by Mercedes Benz. #1265453124

$200 is pretty serious discount.


Rubber is a whole nuther category. Dont really know if there stuff is any good or not. Lot of talk about how bad, would like to hear of real world first hand experiences from people that have used.

Honda started out cheap and is now high quality. KIA is on the same path. I think URO may be doing same thing.
 
#9 ·
It is not just their rubber that is bad. Multiple members on the W124 forum have reported their metal parts snapping in half when installed. Items I recall were belt tensioners and lower control arms!!!
 
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#11 ·
I wonder if URO found some opportunity to bid to supply something to MB, a wire fastener or a clip or a bolt or something, and bid way under cost and way under everyone else (while providing an uncharacteristically good quality product), just to be listed as an MB supplier.

That kind of thing happens all the time.
 
#12 ·
Here's the thing about cheapo parts:

They always come with a lifetime warranty.

You have to ask yourself whether you'll be satisfied with the payout on that warranty, which is another part just like the one before it.

If swapping in the replacement part is easy and if its failure doesn't damage other stuff (or endanger your safety), go for it.

But usually the pitch is like "this $30 head gasket has a 100% lifetime guarantee!" -- so if your engine block blows next week because of a faulty head gasket, the manufacturer will send you another cheapo head gasket absolutely free, great!

Similar story with Ebay sellers who guarantee their used engines and transmissions but require that you pack them up and ship them back to the seller, and you arrange and pay for the shipping. That kind of guarantee is worthless.
 
#13 ·
The thing that's the real giveaway is the often huge disparity between a cheap part vendor's price and an OEM's price. For example, URO and and Lemforder.

When the cheap part is $25 and the OEM's price is $75, there's something going on there that's far beyond profit. How could a part be 1/3rd of the price of the same part that's being made for the manufacturer and still be the same quality, built with the same materials, etc., etc.

Common sense would dictate that the cheap part has corners cut in its manufacturing. You notice that many of these "cheap" suppliers are offering a lot of rubber and plastic parts? That's because it's quite easy to scrimp or use substandard materials when it comes to rubber or plastic and still have something that looks acceptable.

Will it last? No.

Good example:

I know someone who bought a URO windshield seal for their W123 roughly four years ago. I told them not to do it, but they were cheap and didn't want to pay for an OE part.

Just last week they told me that the seal has failed and will have to be replaced. As a part of that failure, where it failed allowed moisture to get into the area of the seal and he now has rust repair that's got to take place as well.

You want to save a buck? Go ahead. I'm betting that unless you're planning on selling the car soon, you'll be dealing with the failed (cheap) part at some time in the near future. Buy the OEM or OE part and you can expect it to last as long as the original one did...

Dan
 
#16 ·
The thing that's the real giveaway is the often huge disparity between a cheap part vendor's price and an OEM's price. For example, URO and and Lemforder.
I've heard this a million times and I don't agree.

I have a lot more experience in the Toyota/Lexus world, so excuse me for bringing that into the discussion -- but for many, many Lexus parts, you pay X for the part in a Denso box, 2X for the same exact part in a Toyota box, 3X for the same exact part in a Lexus box. There's a longstanding game of Lexus owners knowing the Toyota (rather than Lexus) part numbers for their parts to save money.

I don't think an aftermarket part that's 25% the price is 25% the quality. Maybe it's not 100% a quality. But there's nothing wrong with getting 80% of the quality for 25% of the price if that's what you want.

The market for car parts is far from classically efficient. If it were, your assertion about price as a marker of quality would be correct.
 
#17 ·
Here's the thing, and something many of us would rather not hear... China is really, really huge.

Everything they do is on a massive scale just because there's so many of them. A pencil for kids to use in school has to be produced by the millions to fill the local demand only, so they posses the economies of scale to do it. Add to it their lower wages and costs of doing business, and you have the perfect combination for low prices.

Like rumb mentioned already, the quality will follow.
 
#19 ·
Like rumb mentioned already, the quality will follow.
China has absolutely no technical or technological difficulty producing top-rate anything.

The difficulty is 100% in ethics and business culture, and no amount of ISO900000000 or re-engineering or Booz Allen visits will change it.

As a born-in-China friend once told me, "In America, if I cheat you, I'm considered an evil guy. In China, if I cheat you, I'm considered a smart guy."

If you can somehow implement Foucault's Panopticon in a Chinese factory, at every single level, including somehow ensuring the integrity of the Panopticon itself, there's no problem making top-quality stuff in China. Foxconn is perhaps an example of a company that has developed that kind of Panopticon in-house.
 
#21 ·
I also think the quality will follow, at some point. China will probably just learn and adapt as they go. Made in Korea used to be the really bad one, its not any more, and made in Korea can mean good quality these days.

Perhaps the same with URO. I would not dream of fitting any part from them to my car - anything at all whatsoever. Even a fuel pump relay caught fire on someones car here, brand new part IIRC. Not so long ago. But, they do seem to be trying really hard, so over time surely will improve.
That supplying MB thing is weird indeed, frightening. If its true, as fanboy said maybe its just some little clip or something. MB have great quality control (Or have done before at least!) so I would trust that.

Sometimes, price is a good indicator though I think. I don't know about the Toyota parts. The Toyata VS Lexus parts will be exactly the same I expect. But MB parts have the ordinary Bosch parts as a cheaper alternative. These don't normally seem to be the same quality parts - Bosch has manufacturing in different places now, but the MB parts never seem to come from these places. You pay more for the MB parts, but they certainly have the edge on quality because of MB's quality control.
The thing with that is, sometimes the prices MB charge are absurd. (Not always, but there are some proper shockers!)
 
#22 ·
Dan, I agree with everything you say. What I disagree with is the often unbridled fuming anger and condescension at anyone who willingly chooses to buy a cheaper part.

Guess what. Nobody ever has bought the "best" thing for every shopping situation in their entire life. (Ok, barring maybe some third-world dictators and African princes.)

Shopping for anything is full of compromises.

If someone chooses to get a part that's only 80% of the quality, I don't see why they should be bullied and humiliated, as they often are around these parts, by the Lemforder fanboys who act as if anyone who knowingly uses cheaper parts to save a few bucks has just defecated on their holy shrine.
 
#23 ·
I would agree. It doesn't bother me that people choose to buy cheaper parts, and I don't attempt to understand their motivation as it's not relevant to me.

That being said, when someone asks as being truly curious as to why there's a significant discrepancy, I have no problem attempting to explain it to them. In the case of the URO brand, there are numerous well documented instances on this forum as well as others where their parts have proven to be substandard.

My personal preference is to buy the best quality part I can, especially if it's a safety related part such as suspension or steering, as those can have a direct effect on the integrity of the car, Mercedes or otherwise. I can truly understand where someone might choose to go with a cheaper part, and certainly there are a plethora of reasons why they might. That's a personal choice I can't challenge, as I have no understanding of their thought process.

And while I have had a wholesale account with my local Mercedes dealer for nearly 20 years, I don't always buy Mercedes parts. If the part is available from the OEM supplier and I can verify it, I'll typically go that route. However, if the price difference is marginal, say 10-15%, I'll probably go with the Mercedes part. That's a personal choice as a former NIASE certified high line mechanic. I've seen the results of using substandard parts, and it's rarely pretty.

Dan
 
#24 ·
Back to the turn signal stalk I mentioned earlier. I looked it up again and it is NLA from Mercedes now. 1265453124

So your choice is buy from URO or dont get one.

Honestly I believe that this part is truly worth $65 in today's world. Anything higher than that is mostly price gouging, not quality related. This is a complex part with many separate parts in it. That's a lot of tooling to make. Other than the type of plastic used I don't see much room for making it for less. But I tend to believe that URO engineers are not dummies and have spec'd a plastic suitable for the job.

I cant imagine that MB has made a conscious decision to stop making this part without knowing that URO will now be the supplier going forward. MB knows that without parts the old cars will go away, and they dont want that, as the old classics are part of the MB brand of the cars last forever and are desirable.

Part of MB part pricing has always been, you can buy a part for a 50-60 year old car, and you get to pay extra just for them stocking the part.


URO quality statement.

URO Parts Quality Assurance
 
#31 ·
Here's the email I received from URO:

Thanks for taking the time to email us as many people would jump to
conclusions that aren't necessarily accurate.

Our company has evolved greatly in the last few years and we have made an
enormous effort to make improvements and therefore improve our reputation
with all our products. Today we have a staff of 7 engineers and have
invested in some very expensive testing equipment, such as a FTIR that
analyzes the chemical composition of polymers (rubbers and plastics), a
Universal Testing Machine, which can test the tensile strength of any
product up to 300KN, a lifecycle testing machine that can simulate real
world driving conditions for bushings and ball joints, and much more. I can
also tell you that today many of our engine mounts, bushings, and other
rubber on metal products come off the same production lines as Febi, Meyle,
Delphi, TRW, and even Lemforder.

Some of our seals like the door seals you mentioned, we have been selling
for a very long time before all our new systems were put in place. We have
recently addressed some of these issues and are in the process of going back
and addressing many more. It would be great to be able to work with some of
the Mercedes enthusiasts that own these cars to get their feedback and do
fit-ups of these improved products. In some cases there may be small
changes that could improve the product and make it more desirable than the
OEM.

We do sell some products directly to Mercedes in which we are authorized by
them to put their logo on them. We sell those same products to the
aftermarket, but obviously can't use the Mercedes logo on those even though
the product is exactly the same. Other OEM's do the exact same thing, which
is why sometimes you'll see the logo ground off.

Thank you for your purchases of our products and if you have any feedback at
all we'd love to hear it.

Regards,
Justin

Customer Support

555 E. Easy Street • Simi Valley, CA 93065


So looks like they are re-working door seals and would be interested in anyone with real life example of poor quality. --Any takers out there?


" I can
also tell you that today many of our engine mounts, bushings, and other
rubber on metal products come off the same production lines as Febi, Meyle,
Delphi, TRW, and even Lemforder. "

I find this fascinating. It's well known that one supplier makes many home appliances - washers/ dryers , ect. Doesnt surprise me that the same happens in auto parts world.

Also their mention of making OEM and by removing the MB logo also sell as OE.
 
#63 · (Edited)
Here's the email I received from URO:

Thanks for taking the time to email us as many people would jump to
conclusions that aren't necessarily accurate.

Our company has evolved greatly in the last few years and we have made an
enormous effort to make improvements and therefore improve our reputation
with all our products. Today we have a staff of 7 engineers and have
invested in some very expensive testing equipment, such as a FTIR that
analyzes the chemical composition of polymers (rubbers and plastics), a
Universal Testing Machine, which can test the tensile strength of any
product up to 300KN, a lifecycle testing machine that can simulate real
world driving conditions for bushings and ball joints, and much more. I can
also tell you that today many of our engine mounts, bushings, and other
rubber on metal products come off the same production lines as Febi, Meyle,
Delphi, TRW, and even Lemforder.

Some of our seals like the door seals you mentioned, we have been selling
for a very long time before all our new systems were put in place. We have
recently addressed some of these issues and are in the process of going back
and addressing many more. It would be great to be able to work with some of
the Mercedes enthusiasts that own these cars to get their feedback and do
fit-ups of these improved products. In some cases there may be small
changes that could improve the product and make it more desirable than the
OEM.

We do sell some products directly to Mercedes in which we are authorized by
them to put their logo on them. We sell those same products to the
aftermarket, but obviously can't use the Mercedes logo on those even though
the product is exactly the same. Other OEM's do the exact same thing, which
is why sometimes you'll see the logo ground off.

Thank you for your purchases of our products and if you have any feedback at
all we'd love to hear it.

Regards,
Justin

Customer Support

555 E. Easy Street • Simi Valley, CA 93065
It is a political answer? They are full of Sh*T.....

The key parts that involve your life, run run run away...

You know what parts they are-Flex disk(only buy Mercedes Part-Non of this OEM crap), and any suspension parts.

Martin
 
#38 ·
Perhaps in the IC world, but a company using ISO9000 it is about making products using a quality assurance methodology.

Today's methods result in very high standards. Making bad parts is wasting the companies money. SPC or Lean are just two methodologies used today.
 
#40 · (Edited)
Then there is this:



I would add that I recall a similar response from a URO rep in one of the forums (W140?) a year or two ago in an effort to defend the brand. Needless to say it didn't go well and they disappeared as quickly as they had surfaced. I tried to find the thread but didn't have any luck.

I still challenge their ability to make quality parts at the price point they're offering them at. I would also like to see some factual information as far as their parts being made in the same plants as other suppliers who sell higher quality parts. If they're going to make claims like that, they need to back them up. After all, their reputation precedes them based on direct experience - why wouldn't they be willing to back up claims regarding an improvement in their product quality?

Dan
 
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