I'm not prepared to say that country of origin is the main factor but
many parts I have replaced in the last several years or so seem to have
failed early. For example I had never seen a badly trashed lower ball
joint on a Vanagon that did not involve first a bad boot. Then when
doing some other work on my 82 Westy I noticed major play in a ball
joint I had replaced just a few years before. Boot still good, grease
still inside, but lots of vertical play in the joint. I checked the
other side, same thing. Bad metallurgy is all I can say. Don't know the
brand or country but they failed way before the originals. The originals
almost lasted forever in comparison.

Mark

neil n wrote:
> So sad. Pretty sure I installed Meyle lower ball joints. Might have
> been Febi. Pass. side boot has a hole. Less than 7K km's on it.
>
> I did mistakenly make a "Dukes of Hazard" jump on a dark back road
> shortly after install (good test eh?<grin>) but doubt that caused
> it. Boot was installed "unstressed".
>
> So sad.
>
> Neil.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 12:20 PM, mark drillock<mdrillock@cox.net>  wrote:
>> I got some Febi/Bilstein upper control arm bushings, "Made in China" on
>> the box. It is happening all over.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>>
>> Jeff wrote:
>>>
>>> FYI... very, very little of the Meyle stuff is made in Germany these days
>>> (hasn't been for quite a few years).
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> Jeff
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
>
> http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
>