A Long Time Ago I Learned a Valuable Lesson About Silicone Wiper Blades

If you've had to replace your car's wiper blades recently, you might want to consider investing in silicone wiper blades. These types of blades are designed to provide better water flow and durability compared to traditional rubber blades. They're also gentler on the paint job and can help reduce wind noise.

One thing I've learned over 51 years of fixing cars is that just because something is cheap doesn't mean it's good quality. When it comes to tools, like gear wrenches, you get what you pay for. These particular gear wrenches have flexing heads at different angles and an open end, making them perfect for getting into tight spaces. While they may seem expensive, I've found that they're worth the investment if you're going to use them regularly.

In fact, some of these gear wrenches are 30-something years old and still working perfectly fine. As a mechanic, I've seen my fair share of knockoffs, which often break easily when subjected to too much force. The original tool, on the other hand, will continue to serve you well for many years to come.

When it comes to buying quality electronic components for your vehicle, there's no substitute for original equipment. I learned this the hard way, working on a lot of German cars and encountering issues with aftermarket MAF sensors. These sensors can be expensive, ranging from $600 to over $700 each. While cheaper alternatives may seem tempting, they often don't deliver the same performance as a genuine part.

I recall trying out some aftermarket MAF sensors that claimed to be cheaper and just as effective. However, these alternatives worked horribly, sometimes making the car run worse than before. It was clear that I had diagnosed the problem incorrectly or that the sensor itself was faulty. In hindsight, it's much better to stick with original equipment parts, especially for critical components like MAF sensors.

In fact, even if you can buy a part from an independent supplier at a lower price, it's often still worth paying a premium for genuine OEM parts. This is because aftermarket suppliers may not always be able to guarantee the same level of quality and performance as a reputable manufacturer.

One thing that's changed over the years is the ease with which we can access information about car repairs online. While this has made it easier to diagnose problems and find solutions, it also means that we're more likely to get taken in by cheaper alternatives that may not last as long or work as effectively.

As someone who's been fixing cars for 51 years, I've learned the importance of investing in quality tools and parts. This may mean spending a little extra money upfront, but it's always better to pay once and do it right than to try to cut corners and risk having to fix the problem again down the line.

By following these tips, you can save money while also ensuring that your car is running reliably and efficiently. Whether you're looking for gear wrenches or MAF sensors, there are ways to find quality parts at a reasonable price. With a little research and patience, you can find the best deals on the parts you need and avoid falling prey to cheaper alternatives that may not deliver the results you want.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enrev up your engines, today I'm gonnaanswer bill's questionwhere do I buy car parts from, I'm alwaysstruggling with that myself I've beenwe're gonna cars for 51 years but thingschange, places that used to sell goodparts now sell crappy parts, places I'venever heard of sell good parts, butplaces I've never heard of sell badparts too, so how do you figure out whereto buy them, well the first thing I'mgoing to start out with this we're notto buy car parts, I would not adviseanybody to go to a place like eBay andrandomly buy car parts from people thatthey don't even know who they are wherethe parts come from, I tried them in thepast and hey it bit me in the rear endand every once awhile I get a customerthat bought some parts on eBay, more thanhalf the time the part doesn't fit orit's a cheaply made part that doesn'twork right, you got to know where yourparts are coming from and it dependswhat kind of parts are you buying, let'ssay I want to buy some quality oilthere's nothing wrong with going on theinternet and buying the oil at thelowest price you can find, as long as youknow it's the oil you want, as an examplemy Triumph motorcycle I use this veryexpensive Motul racing oil formotorcycles and very good oil filters,but I don't go to a motorcycle store andbuy them i buy them online to find thebest price, it's the same product it'sjust someone selling it cheaper, and thesame goes true for bigger more importantparts, like say you need a fuel pump, whenyou buy a fuel pump for a car my adviceis your best to go OEM, the originalequipment manufacturers, say for a Toyotanow this old Celica and most Toyota's, theyhave Nippon Denso pumps Toyota doesn'tmake them the company Nippon Denso makesthem, so as long as you're getting theNippon Denso pump it's fine you can buyit anywhere, but since fuel pumps are anintegral part of your fuel injectionsystem, they have to be perfectly madeand you want them to last, don't go outand buy this cheap knockoff onesespecially chinese-made ones, I've hadpeople do thatsometimes they don't work out of the box,sometimessix months later they break, you want aquality part you can go anywhere and buyitfeel free to price all over the place,just make sure that it's the OEMmanufacturer like Nippon Denso in thiscase, but don't be fooled by the name OEMthere's a lot of manufacturers out thereand they claim their products are OEMit'll say OEM this OEM that, well like inthisToyota, if it's a fuel pumpit'll be Nippon Denso, if it's some othercompany and says its OEM they're justlying to you,people can print out whatever they wantso make sure you know what you'relooking for, and do a little pricecomparison and quality comparison, let'stake oil filters, now you can go to anydiscount auto parts store and you canget cheap oil filters, usually theyaren't that expensive, but if you wantthe quality oil filters sometimes theycharge twelve or fourteen dollars a piece,hey I buy the same stuff and in thatcase I do buy it online, I'll buy a caseof them online for way less than halfof what they're charging at a supposed adiscount auto parts store, and of coursedo shop around, take something like carbatteries, yeah they're very important soyou want a good battery, but the pricesare wide, I've seen the same crank andamperage battery sold at a store for $70or $130, and I'm talking the same exactbattery, you need to do research on itwhen you're buying parts, you don't wantto just go to someplace and buy whateverthey got lying around, now this is anextreme example but years ago there wasan auto parts chain here in Houston thatthey were affiliated with some kind ofconvenience store, there would be a conveniencestore on one side and an auto parts on theother, and a friend of mine was a managerof one of them and he said at night theywould raise the price of headlights, theyknow that somebody's headlights burnout they're coming in at night and theywere open till 11 o'clock at night, theygotta have the headlights so they don'tcare what the price is they're gonna buyit, I mean youdon't normally see thingsthat bad but there's a lot of caseswhere, there's false leaders in the storeto get you in but the prices of otherstuff isn't so good, but many autoparts storeshey they jack up the price on items thatthey sell a lot of them and they're animpulse like windshield wiper blades, notonly can you buy windshield wiper bladescheaper online or at different kinds ofstores like Walmart.but if you doresearch about things like siliconewiper blades, you'll find that thesilicone blades can last a really a longtime, I asked a guy at a discount autoparts store once, why don't you guys sellsilicone wiper blades and what did hetell me,he said Scotty every monthwe sell thousands of wiper blades,we don't want to sell them silicone wiperblades that might last for years andyears, we'd be cutting our own throatsand getting rid of one of our bigrevenue streams wiper blades, cuz in thecase of wiper blades, our polluted modernsociety wears them out so fast, there's somuch dust and stuff in the atmospherethat the thin rubber on those they'rethin so they wiped good and don't clatter,wear out real fastwhere the silicone ones are tougher andthey last a long timeso in that case, hey you might want to goonline and buy silicone wiper bladesyou'll save money and they'll last somuch longer, you won't care that theycost a little bit more, because ifthere's one thing I've learned over thelast 51 years of fixing cars, and that'sdon't just go by your pocketbook, don'talways go for the cheapest price, becausea lot of times the cheapest price isreally cheap quality, especially withtools, these are gear wrenches they'recool because they have flexing heads atdifferent angles and an open end, so theycan get to just about anywhere,these weren't cheap but these things are30-something years old and yeah I'm aslob there's a little bit of rust onthem because I don't polish them, but heythey still work perfectly fine I've seenknockoffs of these gear wrenchesI even tried out a couple of sets yearsago and the stupid things would breakwhen I pulled on them hard, your betterto spend a little bit more for a qualitytool if you're gonna use them all thetime and expect them to be working yearsfrom now, and when it comes to buyingquality electronic components for yourvehicle, you're always best to stick withorginal equipment a hundred percent, Ilearned that the hard way, years ago I usedtowork on a lot of German cars and someof the maf sensors, the mass airflowsensors, some of those things could besix seven hundred bucks even years agoso I try these aftermarket ones thatpeople made that said, oh you knowthey're cheaper and they're brand new orthey work just as good, well no theydidn't they worked horribly, sometimes thecar would run worse than it did and Ithink, gee maybe I diagnosed it wrong, orI'd put it in six months later the car istowed back to my garage and it's thestupid MAF sensor gone bad, so on reallycritical parts like that electronics,you'll want to stick to the originalequipment people, and especially withthings as complex as a MAF sensor, youreally should go new, not rebuild, becausethose things are so critical and I'veseen so many rebuilt MAF sensors notwork right or go bad quickly, that you'rebetter to bite the bullet and buy abrand new original equipment one, butlike I said, say it's a denso, you could buyit anywhere as longas it's Nippon Denso, you don't have togo to the dealer and pay whateverridiculous price they want for them, butyou want to stick with the originalequipment on it, now sure we all want tosay money buying the right parts, but wedon't want to get stuck with a bad part,one that isn't gonna last, or one thatmight not even work, because that's theworst thing on earth, I've been doingthis for 51 years and even once in awhile I get stuck with something thatyou put it on it doesn't work, and thenyou think the car is still running thesame, maybe I diagnosed it wrong, but thenyou find out hours or even days laterthat hey you were right in diagnosingwhat was wrong, but the stupid part yougot isn't any good, which is the mainreason that for complex parts I stayaway from the internet in buying parts,because hey you got to buy them, you got toget them shipped, you hope somebody putit in the right box, and then if you gota problem you got to send it back, andyour car is not working the whole timeyou're much better finding a localsupplier for what you're getting, becausewith the insane competition in businessthese days, especially in auto partsa lot of times you can even barter the priceat stores, say get your phone, hey I foundthese guys down the street they'reselling this for that, half the timethose guys will match the price, becausehey it's a competitive world and if theydon't they're not gonna get any business,so now you've got a better idea on whereyou should buy car parts, we're all inthis together we're trying to save moneybut we're trying to do it right,and since this is the Thursday segment whereI answer a viewers question,place your own question on the YouTubecomments below and I'll answer the bestone in a single video,and where else can you find a guy with 50years of experience of fixing carsso answer your own question with a video,so ifyou never want to miss another one of mynew car repair videos, remember to ringthat Bell!\n"