Counterfeit parts

[Razor]

I was just reading an article in a magzine that more and more counterfeit parts are comming into the market. (I'm not talking about legit non-genuine parts that claim that they are not associated with the car maker that the part fits the car but parts that claim they are from the manufacture themselves and are at a lower RRP) There are cases that counterfeit brakes are being made from compressed grass or asbestos and oil filters stuffed with toilet paper. Has anyone else heard about parts looking, sounding and naming like the real thing but on closer inspection are just illegal knock offs?

[GORDON STREETER]

I fitted 4 new ignition coils to a Golf that were supplied by a VW Agent a year ago.
After running for a couple of minutes 3 of them actually caught fire !
After giving the suppliers a bo*****ing they admitted that they couldn't get the official ones and had got some far eastern aftermarket copies .
They managed to find me some genuine VW ones the next day that are still working.
If they hadn't failed when I was making sure everything was OK they could have caused an under-bonnet fire when the customer was driving it !

[Amaroo Park]

I know of a dealer south of the border of NSW that got caught packaging cheap Taiwanese parts in genuine parts bags. There was then an AFP investigation and the dealer lost EVERYTHING, franchise the lot