Bad Timken Hub Asembly?

[1BADI5]

IMO return them both, There is so much "CHINA CRAP COPY" infiltrating our supply system and amazon is a "Dealer" in "CHINA PRODUCTS". As advised above, Purchase OEM from a reputable source such as rockauto.

Agreed 100%

Items like this I order from Rockauto since they deal directly with the vendor/manufacturer

 

[gmartin1215]

I placed an order with Summit. They did have a Beat-the-Price thing, and I mentioned how much Rock Auto charged. I was able to get a bit lower price than what Rock Auto would have got from me out the door. Anyway, I'll post what my experience is with the parts after I get them from Summit; they have the parts in their warehouse but are supplied directly with Timken.

 

[Geotrash]

I placed an order with Summit. They did have a Beat-the-Price thing, and I mentioned how much Rock Auto charged. I was able to get a bit lower price than what Rock Auto would have got from me out the door. Anyway, I'll post what my experience is with the parts after I get them from Summit; they have the parts in their warehouse but are supplied directly with Timken.

I have a friend who owns a seal and bearing manufacturing company in India. They're a top tier supplier for automotive and industrial OEM applications, with proper engineering done for each application. When I was last there visiting he and his family a couple of years ago, he was telling me that the biggest problem they're having right now is counterfeiters making lookalike parts that aren't properly engineered (seal material and circumferential spring tension must be extremely precise for the fluid viscosity and pressures for the application) and putting them in boxes marked with his company's logo, and even duplicating the foil seal. He's had to spend a bunch of money to implement a serial number tracking system so that his customers can verify that the parts they have in hand are in fact genuine.

 

[gmartin1215]

I have a friend who owns a seal and bearing manufacturing company in India. They're a top tier supplier for automotive and industrial OEM applications, with proper engineering done for each application. When I was last there visiting he and his family a couple of years ago, he was telling me that the biggest problem they're having right now is counterfeiters making lookalike parts that aren't properly engineered (seal material and circumferential spring tension must be extremely precise for the fluid viscosity and pressures for the application) and putting them in boxes marked with his company's logo, and even duplicating the foil seal. He's had to spend a bunch of money to implement a serial number tracking system so that his customers can verify that the parts they have in hand are in fact genuine.

Wow! That is just nuts!
Too bad big suppliers Like Amazon can't do the same guarantee!

 

[Geotrash]

Wow! That is just nuts!
Too bad big suppliers Like Amazon can't do the same guarantee!

Yep, that's the thing. There's no guarantee that the parts you think you're buying from Amazon or eBay sources are in fact the genuine article. So that's why I go to places like Summit. I used to live in CO and couldn't get stuff from RA either. Summit has always done right by me.

 

[wsteele]

I think the whole China knock off thing is way bigger than most realize. I have a good friend who was born and raised in China. He said they used to be really careful when shopping for groceries, things like fake eggs (yes, indistinguishable from real eggs, were routinely sold at markets).

My favorite story of China knock off culture was the fake Apple store in China. It was a duplicate of an Apple store, sold all Apple knock off products, the employees all thought they were Apple employees, they even had a Genius Bar to help the customers use their fake Apple products...

 

[Charlie207]

Wow! That is just nuts!
Too bad big suppliers Like Amazon can't do the same guarantee!

It's because Amazon's system is setup so that each product has a single SKU, and they don't care who makes the product that has the SKU. So, there could be 10 companies that make the part, and they are all assigned the same SKU. When you order the part, they guy in the warehouse (or robot) picks from a big basket that includes everything with that SKU, so you can get something that varies tremendously in place of origin --> quality.

Also, alerting Timkin may not even have a positive effect. I pointed out through a detailed email with pictures and all sorts of info, that they were assigning the same part number for the 2004 TA60 (Pathfinder) Armada and 2004 R50 Pathfinder front hub assemblies.
The Pathfinder uses individual spindles/bearings, while the Armada uses a one-piece hub assembly. They never got back to me, and continue to incorrectly label their parts.

 

[wsteele]

It's because Amazon's system is setup so that each product has a single SKU, and they don't care who makes the product that has the SKU. So, there could be 10 companies that make the part, and they are all assigned the same SKU. When you order the part, they guy in the warehouse (or robot) picks from a big basket that includes everything with that SKU, so you can get something that varies tremendously in place of origin --> quality.

Also, alerting Timkin may not even have a positive effect. I pointed out through a detailed email with pictures and all sorts of info, that they were assigning the same part number for the 2004 TA60 (Pathfinder) Armada and 2004 R50 Pathfinder front hub assemblies.
The Pathfinder uses individual spindles/bearings, while the Armada uses a one-piece hub assembly. They never got back to me, and continue to incorrectly label their parts.

I think your point about alerting the manufacturer probably is right, for a lot of reasons.

I got some knock off Hornaday A-Max rifle bullets I used for some long range precision rifle shooting. I realized I had a product problem as I used to sort the bullets before loading by weight and load them in lots. When I realized the weights were all over the place, I called Hornaday and their tech support guy confirmed they were fake. He determined it by comparing lot numbers with the packaging and determined they never sold that lot number with the packaging I received mine in. I told him which national retailer I had bought them from and he just said, "I will pass it along, but there really isn't much we can do about it. You would be surprised how often this comes up"

 

[Charlie207]

I think your point about alerting the manufacturer probably is right, for a lot of reasons.

I got some knock off Hornaday A-Max rifle bullets I used for some long range precision rifle shooting. I realized I had a product problem as I used to sort the bullets before loading by weight and load them in lots. When I realized the weights were all over the place, I called Hornaday and their tech support guy confirmed they were fake. He determined it by comparing lot numbers with the packaging and determined they never sold that lot number with the packaging I received mine in. I told him which national retailer I had bought them from and he just said, "I will pass it along, but there really isn't much we can do about it. You would be surprised how often this comes up"

I'm not surprised at all with how insane ammo prices have become. Small-time internet shops are popping up all the time with reloads going for more than factory ammo was priced at 2 years ago.

 

[wsteele]

I'm not surprised at all with how insane ammo prices have become. Small-time internet shops are popping up all the time with reloads going for more than factory ammo was priced at 2 years ago.

This was like maybe 7-8 years ago. I can't remember if it was during one of the previous craziness periods (probably), at least I have never found fake smokeless powder...