differential swap or not

[dbluchtefeld]

Originally Posted by TT Girl

Hi supraman,

The comment that you made regarding the differential being the same as the Lexus...I'm curisous to know how it is that you found that out? Are the Lexus parts better quality than the ones that are specificaly made for the supra?

I'm an Auto Mechanics studant, I'm curious to know how much of what is out there that is in fact the same stuff packaged up and sold as if it's differant.

In europe the parts for the Scoda are VW parts but half the price (they are also both owned by the same co , VW )

I've limited experience as far as auto mechanics, but I've worked as an engineer in a few different departments in automotive suppliers, including a supplier that ran lexus, mitsubishi, toyota, and GM all on the same line. The difference? Each and every Lexus part was checked for any imperfections by about three different people, looking for anything that so much as LOOKED imperfect, even if they were sure it wouldn't affect function. The GM parts? the machine spit them out into the box, and they were shipped, with occasional checks being performed throughout the shift. The people making decisions as to whether a part was good or not are aware of which customers are going to scrutinize the parts and which ones are going to blindly accept anything, and decisions are made with this in mind both those people.
Now, this isn't to say you should expect junk in the generic box, or that the parts that aren't this brand or that will come apart, but if they are sold under a different name, there probably is a reason for that. My guess is, a process is not capable of making parts to the specs the designers desired 100% of the time, but the second-rate parts are 'mostly' functional, just might not last as long. So, they sort them for the specs that the designers wanted, and sell the second-rate parts at cost, to reduce the material scrap costs.
Also, in other industries, there are often parts that are aftermarket that come in, are checked, are out of spec, and someone says "oh, that's aftermarket, that's good enough", and send them on.
SOO... Just because the parts are made by the same company, or even the same factory, or even the same assembly line... doesn't guarantee they are the same.
Depending on the designer's perspective on things, many times the second rate parts work perfectly well, but if the designer really knows what they are doing, then the spec will reasonably match the functional limits that you will want, and the second rate parts you're not going to want. Just something to keep in mind!