Disappointed with Lexus Parts

[Cactus]

My experience with lexus part direct is abysmal

full stop

[ColinBarber]

OEM pad material for the European Lexus LS430 is T4146 - which is Textar. Very common for Toyota/Lexus in Europe - GS430, GS450h, RAV4, Avensis, IS300h etc. all use it.

[Tinonline]

7 hours ago, MLW said:

My old Mercedes had Textar pads on it with a Mercedes star on the metal back. No manufacturer makes pads, they are all supplied. Textar usually are a top brand. I have Pagid on my 430. Very good and quiet. Last a long time too. I am planning a disc/pad renewal all round soon. Might go to Lexus Swindon who I have used before. Always in Toyota boxes. Or Pagid. Both are fine. Pagid naturally a bit cheaper.

Actually, they are all part of the TMD Friction group. Now Japanese owned. So is Mintex, and Don.

https://tmdfriction.com/about/

There’s a Merc indy I was chatting too a while ago: they gave up with non OE as the quality wasn’t up to it and too many customers complained. Textar will deliver a very different product to an OE application than to a discount warehouse distributor. Someone pays and reputation doesn’t seem to be much of a consideration…

[LexusRbest]

A lot of the poor reviews of the EBC pads seem to be  the race material  like green or red.

These are racing pads that are useless or even dangerous for road use as they don't work properly until hot.

When cold they feel dead and don't provide much feel of grip.

once up to temperature they take very hard repeated braking without fade or drop in performance

Not much use coming out of the driveway though!

[Barry14UK]

EBC green are not racing pads they are just replacement pads for standard.  Yellow and red are for more hard use.  They are OK and I had them on my two BMW's. 

Manufacturers tend to use more than one make of pads to help diversify risk for one or more reasons.  If availability ceased for a time from one, there are other options.  

I bought manufacturers recommended spark plugs for my BMW several years ago and these were identical to the ones BMW sell as originals except the boxes were different and lacked the Propeller logo for which you pay handsomely.  Similarly, in the part I bought replacement headlight bulbs for my first Mercedes from Mercedes.  They came in nice Mercedes boxes with logo.  I later found that I could get the same bulbs from the same manufacturer without the Merc box for half the price.  I am sure that if tyres came in boxes car manufacturers would be happy to uplift the cost to have their logo on the box.

However, if you do go to an official dealer, you should expect brake pads or whatever to be supplied in a manufacturer's box.  This at least obviates the possibility of cheaper ones being fake, even though you are paying more than you might for genuine ones from another seller.

I have ordered items from from Parts Direct who are a Lexus main dealer at Swindon. Some months back they reduced discount to members as I believe there were complaints from other Lexus franchises and others that we were getting items priced too cheaply. 

 

 

 

[Barry14UK]

On 4/28/2022 at 5:47 PM, Cactus said:

My experience with lexus part direct is abysmal

full stop

Care to say why?  My experience was that they were very helpful, prompt and gave a discount.  On the other hand a Birmingham Lexus dealer I was referred to at the time didn't even return my calls. 

[Cactus]

On 5/21/2022 at 8:26 PM, Barry14UK said:

Care to say why?  My experience was that they were very helpful, prompt and gave a discount.  On the other hand a Birmingham Lexus dealer I was referred to at the time didn't even return my calls. 

You work for them?

[Barry14UK]

8 hours ago, Cactus said:

You work for them?

I don't work for anybody - long retired and never worked in anyway connected with motor industry or associated products.  Had many old cars so no stranger to dealers stores for various spare parts. Just speak as I find.  Sometimes people can have different experiences with same dealer.  Aspersions were recently cast on a dealer in another thread by somebody, whereas another reported a good experience with that dealer.