Car dealers and non-factory original parts

[pneumagger]

Same thing happens with auto parts, there are only 3 major makers of shocks, everything else is simply rebranded into the other brands.

Again, the maker does not matter. Only the engineering specifications.

Some premium OJ company can make the store brand and their own name brand to two different specs.

My buddies mother worked in a cheese facility in packaging. She would say how many of the "name brand" cheeses and the "store brand" cheese were the same cheese from the same batch dropped into different bags. The only difference is one says ACME/Publix/whatever and the other has Kraft or whatever on it. Not to say there aren't different specs, but that case they were identical.

[BWT]

Really WHO makes something should never matter.

What matters truly is if it's matching the Specification.

The other thing to contemplate at that point, is, is there something better than the Specification, and why, and furthermore should it be considered?

Here's Typically how it works in advertising, brakes for example, if it says how great it is, specifications, etc, but doesn't specifically mention "ferrous material", or some kind of alloy or, etc, it's not metal.

They probably won't say it's Organic either, but you'll notice they'll typically lack the label of organic, or at least from what I saw in my limited search.

[silencertalk]

They tend to say Carbon when they mean organic. It seems like if they don't say Ceramic or Semi-Metallic, then it is organic.

[pneumagger]

YES, when buying any product I automatically assume the lesser quality composition/ingredients are used unless stated or known otherwise.
Nowadays in marketing, if an object doesn't say it has the better stuff it usually doesn't. One excellent example is those brakes.

Or MSG in eating out chinese food... if a restaurant does not expressly state "NO MSG" then I'm forced to assume otherwise.

[silencertalk]

Yes, that is why if someone sells a Titanium silencer and does not list the grade, I assume Grade-2.

[silencertalk]

I see my brake calipers are Brembo gold. I was stupid and should have bought Brembo replacement parts as they seem to be just about exactly 1/2 the price. All I would be giving up is the labor warranty and it is ludicrous to think they make them to a higher spec for Subaru. What I did was the equivalent of buying BBS wheels from Subaru instead of from a BBS dealer.

[eric10mm]

Several points:

Chances are your stealership gets significantly better pricing on factory parts than ANY other parts vendor, even online.

Auto mfrs can and do offer multiple levels/lines of parts ranging from premium to cheap. My car's OE pads are GREAT for all but the most brake intensive road course such as Road America and Blackhawk Farms. I know, I have tested them there. The factory authorized and recommended replacement pads (Dodge calls them V-Line) are nearly as worthless as the "Lifetime warranty & guaranteed not to squeak" pads from the local parts store.

That said, one would be hard pressed not to find higher performance alternatives in the aftermarket. The factory bean-counters rarely allow for the absolutely best parts to have been installed on your car or else it would be really insanely expensive.

Squeaking, while annoying, is not an indicator of a problem or a pad compounds ability. I love talking to Larry Narcus at Carbotech and having him say to me "now you know these pads are going to squeak & dust, right". Yes, I know. You have no idea how many whiny "sports car" owners will call and complain that the higher performance (than OE) pads they just bought and installed are squeaking and it bothers them. Wahhh, grow a set.

Brake pads MUST, repeat, MUST wear to work. Wear = dust. If they aren't wearing, they are not working. Period. Lifetime warranty = crap pads. Always.

Do NOT turn rotors on a high performance car. EVER. Just buy new rotors. Brakes work by transforming rotational energy into heat. Your brake rotor's mass is a heat sink to absorb and disperse that heat. Thinner, turned, rotors cannot take the same amount of heat without failing prematurely compared to full-thickness rotors. Turning rotors may be fine for a Camry or Gran Marquis but NOT for a high performance car.

Organic vs metallic vs ceramic vs ??? Don't get hung up on what the mfr calls them. It's all about the compound and they spend a TON of time testing various compounds to achieve their desired results. All materials and compounds can offer very high braking performance. Obviously there are many different compounds for different needs. Typically, organic compounds work better cold but do not have as high of a heat tolerance. Typically ceramic compounds are the opposite. But this is not always the case as compounds vary from mfr to mfr dependant upon their requirements. Mfrs of street cars, even hi-po versions, will typically engineer their brake parts toward street use. If you have never sailed through the stop sign at the end of your street because your "race pads" haven't warmed up yet (and likely never will in even moderately high-spirited street driving), you ain't lived.

If you like your OE pads, buy another set. My OE pads are more expensive than nearly all aftermarket pads. But, they work equally well going to work as they do on a real race track at well into triple digit speeds.

I know brakes. I like brakes. They keep me alive.