All this talk about Empi leads me to wonder if there is a problem with some stuff being counterfeit. I've seen it posted on other VW lists that Empi now means "cheap crap made in China". The last Empi product I purchased was a short throw shifter for an air cooled bus, and I bought it off Ebay. Three months later I threw it in the trash, it was such a piece of crap I would not have even tried to resell it. It was a far cry from the Gene Berg shifter I foolishly let go with another bus I sold. Last Saturday I was on Canal Street in Manhattan and I could have purchased a real slick looking "Ferrari" watch for $45.00. I'm sure it wouldn't have lasted as long as the shifter. The last set of bearings I got from China looked so poor that I decided not to use them. But I don't blame the Chinese for this-it's the American consumer who is at fault. 95% of folks shop on price alone and don't know/don't care about quality. I call it the "Wal Mart mentality". The stuff is cheap crap because th
e supplier told the Chinese manufacturer "this is what I'll pay for it" and to make it at that price, well, it has to be a cheap piece of crap. Isn't it also ironic that we "gave" all our manufacturing away to foreign countries and now with their economies "booming", so we are told,  we now pay $4.00/gallon for gas?  Just my .02 cents.  Jeff