Febest Australia
Just found a bunch of stuff readily available and cheap right here in Australia:
http://www.ebay.com.au/dsc/i.html?_sop=12&_ssn=febest_australia&_from=R40|R40|R40&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=1&_nkw=mitsubishi+pinin&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xmitsubishi+pinin.TRS0&_odkw=mitsubishi+io&_osacat=0
I wish I knew about this before I bought my rear suspension bushings from AMAYAMA!
So far, so good ...
I now have Febest strut mounts, rear trailing arm bushes, steering tie rods & ball joints fitted - I did notice that the ball joints lacked the "splines" or external knurling, and ended up reusing the old nylock ball joint nuts - the new nuts were castle nuts with split pins, and when torqued down the split pin holes were well clear of the castellations - a thick washer below the nut would have been one solution but I had none to hand.
The guy in the alignment shop commented on the stiffness of the tir-rods, hopefully that is a good sign.
Febest review
Following some comment in one of my post, I have received a PM asking to share my experience with Febest. Since Febest is a big seller with often very low prices, I thought ...why not.
First,
I was given (sold at a very good mate price) some new parts by a former proud io owner, included was outer tie rod end from Febest. I had some free play on one inner tie rod on my steering rack. Since I had some in my stock I replaced it and choose to fit one of the new outer tie rod end from Febest at the same time. When trying to tight the top nut the thread gave up while it was not even tight. This was faulty, no "if" or "but" it was faulty NO doubt in my mind.
Second,
A day before going to a week end trip, I saw one of my outer CV boot split. Since I have a couple of complete shaft in my stock, I swapped the complete shaft. After, I saw lots of CV boot advertised on Ebay, cheap, from Febest but not for the io. I contacted Febest (on ebay) if they do have one for the io, giving sizes as well, 2 hours or so after, a reply to say that they do have something that should fit. I bought it, received it.....sadly it didn't fit, wrong shape. I wrote to Febest to let them know and ask them what they could do for me, no reply at all. 3 days after, I wrote again mentioning my legal right and their obligation, 2 hours after, some story as they are a small team......but that I could return the CV boot to be refunded, freight at my cost. After more exchange and some fighting I got them to pay for the freight. Freight is at the cost of the seller if the item sold doesn't fit the purpose/description or if it is the wrong one, clearly it was here but I had to fight them on this issue.
Basically, to sell you something they will be very quick to reply but as soon as thing don't work, and it sometime does happen....they will try to disappear or/and make you pay (freight) for their error. At least in my experience.
I know that this happen to at least one other member, but it is up to him to share or not his experience.
I am sure that other have got very good comment about Febest, maybe share with us ! but my experience have not been the best so far.
Happy io
Thanks for sharing Claude...
Quality of "non-genuine" parts will always be suspect - what worries me is that I am now seeing "brick & mortar" auto parts places in the Caribbean supplying Febest parts - in additon to the parts I put on my iO, there is now a CV boot from Febest on my daughter's XTrail - the local dealer, Massy Industries, could not supply a genuine Nissan boot kit (they actually sold me the left side kit claiming it would work on both sides),so I had to use what I could get my hands on.
Febest
I've not had any issues with them
HOWEVER
they are useless at knowing what is correct to sell you - you MUST make sure their item is a subsitute for the mitsi part number.
Amayama now list febest parts as an option so I'd purchase via them to cover yourself for faults and crap service.
all my dealings with febest have been fine - bushes, sway bar links, rack-end joints etc BUT i've yet to have something fail
Hmmmm...
My experiences have been slightly different from yours - all of my Febest purchases for the iO were made from Febest Panamerica (their US entity) via Amazon Marketplace, and the selection was made based solely on their description - I enter the Mitsubishi part number into Amazon's website search and the Febest equivalent is displayed - the parts have all fitted without any issues, and so far I'm happy with them.
I've also used their listing for the iO ball joints to "narrow down" a suitable alternative to the Febest part - in this case an AC-Delco replacement - just in case I'm not happy with the life of the Febest part.
Well - that time has come ...
The Febest ball joints (at least the one on the left side) has quite a bit of movement, in three short years of use - admittedly our roads are not smoothest, and I'm not the gentlest of drivers - I have sourced AC Delco replacements which will be fitted shortly - other Febest parts that had unacceptably short lives have been front strut mounts (the bearings are where the problem lies), steering rack boots & rear suspension bushes.
Syndicate
A German company, making parts for Japanese cars, in China.
I'm not certain how I feel about them yet, I put their strut mounts on my iO back in early February, wasn't too impressed with the appearance when comparing them side by side to the Mitsubishi originals, especially when I noticed the bearings had end play in them - time will tell.
I've also just (as in last night) ordered upper trailing arm bushes for the rear suspension, going to replace the Land Rover leaf spring bushes that are in there right now.