Imo000

Got almost 10K kms on it it so far.

KrazyK

BOT

Viper6

The rep at Boca asked what my application was for and I told him... here is what he had to say:

Hello John,

Thank you for your reply. Sorry, the bearing you mentioned would not be suitable for your application. The load and vibrations would make the bearing fail quickly cold cause other damage. I would recommend using the stock bearing. Feel free to contact me with any other questions.

No idea if this is engineer or simply a sales rep and this application does not come up on their cross ref chart... regardless, not exactly a confidence booster... ha!

FYI.

Imo000

Well that's interesting. The stock bearing is less robust so other than "if the factory used it, it should be ok" what would be their explanation to use it?

Ahsai

So do we get confirmation that the Boca bearing is made in China and the LN bearing may also be? I'm confused.

Imo000

Why does it matter? If the bearing is made to spec, the country of manufacturer is irrelevent. For all I know, BOCA could be assembling each of these custom bearing in house from parts that are made all over the World. If you really want to know and be 100% sure, call them.

Ahsai

It matters to me at least because when I trust the capability of chinese manufactureres, I don't trust their quality control. You can argue though the bearing manufacturer do the QC themselves which will mitigate my concerns. Same reason I won't use a made in china jackstand. Since we're talking about a critical component here, I would rather choose some other place of origin (e.g,. USA or Japan or Europe) if I had a choice.

Imo000

Thenproblem is not the CQ bit what the vendor specs. If they accept a certain level of quailty the manufacturer in China will build to that. So what you see as crappy quality is what the vendor accepts from the Chineese manufacturer. Then the consumer blames the country when in reality, it is the vendor that is to blame. BUT the ultimate drive of low quality is the price. The vendor wants to keep the price low because, us as consumers, expect to pay as little as possible. There are tens of thousand of engines made for GM that are from China and I never heard any real issues with them. The capability for high quality in China is there if the vendor requires it.

KrazyK

BOT

alpine003

Country origin and specs aside, if rigorous QC just isn't there, it will be like playing Russian roulette. I think is why we're at where we are now.

DennisAN

Perhaps I shouldn't post and bring this thread up again, but....

Both SKF and Timken are now advertising to beware of counterfeit cheap bearings made to look just like theirs. The counterfeit bearings even bear the same markings as the SKF or Timken parts, and are delivered in cardboard boxes that are color printed to look just like the real thing. The counterfeit bearings actually function correctly - for awhile. Bad tolerances lead them to fail after a short life.

I wonder if the whole IMSB problem stems from Porsche getting a random supply that includes some counterfeit bearings. IIUC they use NSK as the OEM. Here's a press release from NSK about this very thing.

http://www.stopfakebearings.com/#/ne...tors-in-japan/

DennisAN

In fact here's an even more interesting news release about NSK:

Article dated 2008.
http://www.nskeurope.com/cps/rde/xch...unterfeit.html

Ahsai

I've heard of this counterfeit part problem in the auto industry in general and even military industry where older electronics are marked as new and got installed on jet fighters....scary.

fpb111

Many of the Porsche sealed bearings are made in the German Region of "Munich-Brazil" At least the transmission bearings in one we took apart were all marked "Brazil" ... assuming it is in Germany??

DennisAN

SKF is an acronym for "Swedish Ballbearing Factory" - I guess the Swedish word for ballbearing starts with a K.

The last SKF bearing I bought was in a box labeled "Made in France".