Is Toyota OEM parts losing quality?

Why would you want too, spend more $ plus considerable extra time.

 

FYI: walked in and ordered these items from my local Toyota. No, they're not from ebay or Amazon.

Not to surprise anyone, they're not made in Japan, lol.

 

Agreed, don’t much care who did it. A company label is on the part, so they need to answer for its quality or lack thereof. I would be embarrassed if I left something I worked on in a shit condition. This is no different, no matter how far removed the responsible party is from the customer. Simple as.

 

Are Toyota tailgate cables even stainless? After a while I get a crack in the plastic overlay, then red rust remnants

 

Life Lesson. Don’t trust googles search engine. The first link is a knock off and has all their credentials (address included). The second one was pulled via the Toyota website. I purchased via the knock off. They sell the parts but they wont respond to my emails and probably don’t care to deal with customers or anything return related…

https://toyotaparts.mcgeorgetoyota.com/ < Fake

https://parts.mcgeorgetoyota.com/ < Real

I’ve never seen more knock off websites than I do with OEM Toyota parts

 

I think it's time to file a credit card complaint? They'll respond when they see the charge reverse...

 

Maybe I’m lucky but I haven’t had one OEM parts issue. I buy in person from a dealer in Sacramento. And for whatever reason I always get a sweet discount, usually without even asking. Like 15-20% depending on what I’m getting. Plugs, belts, headlights, a radiator, shifter linkage bushings, whatever really. Never had an issue.

 

Update: The credit card claim got their attention. Apparently both emails "accidentally" went in their spam folder. They offered to accept both items free of charge. They went ahead and ordered a second header to see if it was just a bad batch. The second looks better but again, weak welds at the intake mount which is why my current one has a pinhole leak. Rust just loves those tiny dips between welds. Sooo what do y'all think I should do? Pick the best of the two and pray or seek alternative options. I can't see how ordering from another Toyota will do me any good.


Side note, their return label has the same address as the real McGeorge Toyota website so either they have two websites or someone is running a side hustle?

 

It's likely the only time you're going to swap out headers- just see if you can find a place around you that works on exhaust systems, or even a local fab shop that can clean them up for you. It's not worth your time to keep sending them back until you get a set with clean welds.

I doubt there is anything nefarious going on- certain dealerships are probably just part-hubs/warehouses. A local dealership might not (more like probably not) have headers on hand, so they send the order to be filled by a hub that has the inventory.

 

I know a few welders in my area just wonder what would be a pain in the a$$, grinding away boogers with pin holes or filling low welds. My current header is just boogers, while the 2nd option looks like they tried to do a nice weld but failed to build up material. Which should I pick? I know nothing of welding other than not to look into the light or I’ll never see the light again, haha.

 

My 2 cents is to call and talk to them and email them photos and get their opinion. I couldn't say for sure what is better for you. My guess is, even though the welds are ugly, the headers probably passed a QA process and would work. The slag could probably just be knocked off. You seem to have specific thoughts and concerns about low spots collecting water which... again, the headers would probably work.

I encourage you to try to find not just a welder, but a shop that works on exhaust parts. You don't want to make things worse.

 

I know you posted this two weeks ago, but neither of those sites are fake. The root domain on both of them are exactly the same (mcgeorgetoyota.com), so they both resolve to McGeorge. The different subdomains (toyotaparts and parts) are just two different deployments of store software. Interestingly, both are powered by RevolutionParts (which powers A LOT of the online Toyota Parts departments).

My guess is that they just have two deployments of the online store software; for one or more of several reasons:

1. Pricing is different. (I've verified this to be the case.) This may not seem like a big deal, but if they get some/most of their traffic to the more expensive site, they'll make a bit more money.
2. One of the sites is a staging/test/proof of concept site that they setup and never took down (and still works to order).
3. One of the sites used to be powered by a different vendor, but they ultimately consolidated on RevolutionParts. Rather than taking the entire site down, they just kept it running with a different engine.
4. More Google results - with two stores, they can show up twice as much in search results. More $$$ for McGeorge.

Anyway, you should be able to order from either of those URLs and get product from the same place. Though, as I mentioned in #1, you won't necessarily pay the same amount.

 

After talking with customer service it became clear I was dealing with the dealership, but noting the differences between the two sites is very interesting!

 

FINALLY getting around to changing this header. The older header isn't too bad, will take it to a shop to have the pin hole welded so I can reuse or sell. Attached are the photos of the manifold to header plate. The new one is worse and I fear the gasket wont seal with a 2 millimeter gap. My options, install the new, weld the old, sell the old OR weld the old, install the old, sell the new. Thoughts??