john981

As most of you know, one can save a lot of money by buying OEM supplier parts from Pelican. After a recent report I saw somewhere here in the forum, I started to dig deeper and see now more and more reports about failing/faulty OEM supplier products. My local dealership gives me great deals on genuine porsche parts and I was wondering if it is safer to pay 10-20% more and avoid the risks of potential fake/faulty OEM supplier products. I think pelican parts is a quite safe source but even these guys want to make money and might buy from time to time from the grey market where there is a risk of fake or B-quality parts. thoughts/experiences?

Boiler Inspector

Specifically what parts have been reported as failing? Water pumps are the only thing of I can think of where OE is different (plastic impeller vs. metal) that there have been issues.

Liongolfer

I'd pay 10% more for Porsche Originals if I could get them at 10% more on OEMs.

CaymanCarver

Dittos.

My local Dealer has a 5000% markup. Its CrAzY !

Really glad for the onLine options.

A432

Suncoast is often mentioned, probably because they have a nice website, but Sonnen/Gaudin are often the better deal fwiw.

E39Nutz

For jobs that you only want to do it once and not have to redo it again in a long time, I always go with OEM. E.g ball joints, rubber coolant hosts, AOS, radiator, wheel bearings, to name a few.

ekam

Got a Mahle charcoal-activated cabin air filter and ended up not fitting the slot... had to do a lot of cutting and fitting. Wasn't fun.

Also had a brake wear sensor cable that was too short.

MrMoose

So Porsche doesn't make most (any?) parts like water pumps, ball joints, hoses, etc. themselves, they're all made by other suppliers. So if you buy a part from an OEM supplier you're getting the same part, just without the Porsche labeling.

I know some of the vendors specifically label the OEM suppliers. They tend to be a bit more expensive than non-OEM aftermarket suppliers, but cheaper than the part in a Porsche box. That's usually what I buy.

Bxstr

I've heard of people, such as Jake Raby from Flat6Innovations mentioning that genuine coolant expansion tanks are the way to go over say a OEM one as the OEM ones can develop cracks earlier or sometimes their faulty right out of the box, if I remember correctly. My personal take has been on a job where the labor rate is super high such as a coolant expansion tank and I hope to only do it once every 10-20 years, give me the genuine. For a part I am replacing every couple of years such as plugs, coils, air filters, give me the OEM replacement. Personally I buy from FCP Euro since they have the lifetime replacement guarantee on every part they sell (you can send back your used oil for a refund). I guess it depends on how important the part is to a cars functioning and also how often I'll be replacing it. Side note, I have received counterfeit items from Amazon (not car parts) so I don't buy car parts from them as I don't trust that everything is genuine. Last thing I need is to put counterfeit oil in my car.

joseph mitro

well since you dragged up a 2 1/2 year old thread - the question is whether to go "OEM" or "genuine Porsche"

In my 20+ years of working on Porsches, "OEM" has almost always been just as good as genuine Porsche without the added price markup

ekam

For 9x7.2 DFI cars, you're not going to find the Bosch part number for those $300ea fuel injectors. I've asked my mechanic to look it up and he couldn't find it either.

https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...injectors.html

E39Nutz

Well, I meant to say that for jobs I only want to do once, I would go with the Porsche branded parts. Brain cramp…

That said, I have bought OEM parts that had the brand filed off. Also, nowadays, lots of OEM manufacturers produce their parts from other parts of the world, and those parts are not really equivalent to the branded parts. E.g. I would not buy a Behr radiator even though it is OEM, I would rather spend more money with the branded version as the quality is not the same any more.