Comments by "flagmichael" (@flagmichael) on "Toyota Counterfeit parts EXPOSED!" video.

  1.  @RotoRCol  Lots and lots of them. In "How to change Toyota Spark Plugs on 4 cylinder engines" https://youtu.be/IAb9b3Hrea0 alb12345672 commented, "There are lots of counterfeit denso plugs around. You get what you pay for! I was told BY DENSO to only buy from a Toyota/Lexus dealer or Advance auto." Welcome to the 21st Century, I suppose.
    16
  2. Same here. I wondered how Ebay could have genuine Toyota parts for so little.
    12
  3. I remember a time when there was not a really big spread in reliability from one automotive brand to another unless you got into the really high end. I'm old enough to remember when Mercedes were reliable. The field has narrowed a lot now. If it is not Toyota (I presume Lexus is included) I don't want the heartache. I know Honda still has luster in some circles, but they had too many major problems that went unresolved for years. The 1994-2004 automatic transmission problems are at the top of the list, ranking the 2003 Honda Accord as the second worst vehicle in carcomplaints.com database. I doubt Toyota would ever let a fire like that burn for a decade. My wife and I have had nothing but Prius since 2002 and have never been stranded. None of the other cars in our 47 years together could make that claim. Our son has inherited my 2002 Prius; on December 26 it displayed hybrid warnings late at night 200 miles from home. It got him home at reduced speed, and the next morning I reset the system. It got him around town until we rebuilt the hybrid battery last weekend. It made it 19 years and 210K miles on a first gen battery. My respect for Toyota design increases every year.
    8
  4. Just a side comment about the cabin filter: I was active in Volvo forums in the 1990s, when I owned a 1985 Volvo. One of the hot topics in the early 1990s was failure of the AC evaporator in the 1991-1993 Volvo 850s. The alloy evaporator would leak from pinholes in the faces, requiring a $2000 replacement ordeal. Volvo quickly found the failure came from pollen collecting on the surface, which formed a corrosive paste when the AC was shut down. Adding a cabin air filter was the solution. The evaporator alloy change was to accommodate R134a, which was brand new and would become mandatory in 1994. Today virtually all cars (maybe there is an exception) have cabin air filters, but you should know air quality is not the only reason. Maybe the alloys used in today's R1234yf evaporators handle pollen better, but probably not. There are very few unimportant parts on cars today. Probably the aftermarket filters would work well, but I have doubts about counterfeits.
    6
  5. I'm a (retired) techie, and even I am amazed at how finely tuned car design is. Now I consider, "what could happen if this part breaks or doesn't fit quite right or just does not perform within specs?" 20 years ago I would never have believed I would be buying filters or spark plugs at the dealer, but here we are.
    3
  6. I know inferior parts are worse than original, but I don't often think about the consequences. It's just an oil filter, right? What can go wrong? It can be even worse than that. A Honda owner once posted pictures of his baby a month after he replaced a ball joint with an aftermarket one. The ball joint snapped after only three weeks. It is one of the few automotive failures that can be identified from a hundred yards away: the affected wheel flops on its side. So, no aftermarket or counterfeit parts for me.
    2