Aircooled Dave

This is actually very common. There are essentially (3) types of parts that constitute a car.

1) OEM designed and built (i.e. body panel, engine case)
2) OEM designed, but built by someone else (i.e. window glass, fuel tank, wheels)
3) OEM specified, but designed/built by someone else (i.e. brake caliper, O2 sensor, ECM)

Within all this there is some grey area as well. Take for example the use of Aisin transmissions by Audi. Aisin is a Japanese company, so they do all the R&D and manufacturing but they are building them to Audi specs which are usually just adaptations from some standard design to make sure it fits in the intended application.

Something like an engine block or door panel is a specific OEM design and is usually built in-house or outsourced to some close partnership company. If you look through Porsche's history you can see all kinds of this type of arrangement with the various coachbuilders and casting houses. The same goes for companies like GM that had their hands in everything.

It all makes sense when you think about it though. Why would any OEM need to be a specialist in connector design or glass making when someone else already does that as their core business? This is true of just about any manufacturing/engineering design for this reason.

If you are driving around in a newer Audi/VW or BMW then you have some parts I designed as well. :-)

vincer77

Hope you're not trying to dump some Audi odo gears on me now?

Arena993

No returns you already promised to buy

Mike

Ferdie

Most suppliers establish plants nearby the manufacturer´s production sites, no matter where they are geographically located. Apart from the close vicinity to the production site, they benefit from the same cheap labour as the car manufacturer.

The suppliers play a vital role in the development of a car in that they are involved in overall research in their field, with significant lead time, as well as particular development for the relevant model.

Several components, be it mechanical or electronic, are developed by the particular supplier according to the manufacturers´ parameters and specifications in terms of material, size and production cost. Nowadays the development assignment is separated from the production contract hence one supplier might develop the component, a second one might produce it. It is quite interesting once you figure out that certain manufacturers order parts for a fraction of the price of others which inevitably results in different quality and long-term performance of the particular component.

Further more, the manufacturers have partially outsourced the engineering of segments to independent companies that offer conveniently located subsidiaries within reach of the particular manufacturer and, for example, construct body panels and structural components according to specification and referencing cad data of the car´s exterior surface and specified mounting points.

geolab

Pistons and cylinders were, I'm afraid, not from Mahle in production years.
Mahle did, in fact , supply the case
Cylinders and cylinder heads were produced by two companies.
One produced the ROW and other the US, I do not know which produced which version.
the companies are
- Rautenbach Guss
- Honsel Metalltechnik

Both inlet and exhaust valves were produced in-house contrary to the Myth (swiss made)
A huge amount of part references were produced by BEHR.

Original belts were made by Continental and or Phoenix, and still are, though aftermarket conti is not good, go figure
Andreas, the engine fan was produced by .........Bosch and AEG

There were six shock absorber producers who equipped the 993 at production, or as optional mount at the factory, which were they ??? who plays ...

info of every part supplier comes in the following format in the picture

bart1

Hint: If you ever need tranny parts, try calling Sunset and having them look it up under the Audi system. I had to buy a synchro ring and hub for my 968 and it was half price.