Just got my WorldPac distributer wheel bearing kits for the 300SD.

Made in Mexico!

Anybody heard of "SKF" brand?

Guess I'll have to put them in - but I sure am considering sending them back.

What's the German brand wheel bearing? Lemforder?

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

SKF is a very reputable bearing manufacturer with manufacturing facilities throughout the world.

Here is their homepage.

skf home page

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Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks - I feel better now.

You should know your bearings pretty well.

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

My dad used to be quality-control supervisor for an SKF factory in Glasgow, Kentucky....they made a great product, at least back then. The fact that something requiring such precision was made in Mexico might ordinarily concern me a little, but since it's an SKF product, I'm sure it's fine.

Mike

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1979 300 SD
350,000 miles
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1982 300D-gone---sold to a buddy
_____
1985 300TD
270,000 miles
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1994 E320
not my favorite, but the wife wanted it

www.myspace.com/mikemover
www.myspace.com/openskystudio
www.myspace.com/speedxband
www.myspace.com/openskyseparators
www.myspace.com/doubledrivemusic

I concur -- thumbs up on SKF bearings.

I just ordered and installed bearings on the '98 E300D and they were SKF from Mexico. I thought the same thing as you did. I looked at the original bearings in the car and guess what, they are made in Japan. Go figure.

Ross Perot was right!

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1995 S-350
370K + SOLD
1952 220B Cabriolet
39K kilometers + SOLD
1998 E300D
310K +
2012 E350 BlueTec
120K

There are only about four bearing manufacturers worldwide -- Timken, SKF, the Japanese firm (I don't know the name) and probably one other German or Swedish outfit.

All of them are Metric (and always have been) and all are equally good. A company that makes iffy bearings won't be in business long!

Timkens fit tighter than SKF bearings, and are usually what you get at McParts, but the work just fine, I have them on several cars. Never have wheel bearing problems here, just in Canada.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Koyo is the other manufacture, that is who made the bearing for my Subaru at least...

I work for SKF and I qualify the product that comes from Mexico, Glasgow, and elsewhere. Thank you for the thumbs up from everybody. The only thing I'd worry about is anything that says "Made in China". They just can't match the quality with their price.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 159K

I used to sell auto parts. SKF, Timken, National Seal and CR (chicago rawhide) were the major brands I recall.

BTW, my new "Value-craft" bearings I bought at Autozone are stamped "china"

Most products are only made by a few worldwide manufactures. Many different brands, but they are all built on the same assembly lines. The finnished product is just put into differnet boxes for shippment to different brand distributors.

The parts store I worked for had a house brand that was made by the exact same production line as the name brand stuff.

Name brand costs about twice at the parts counter but usually has a lifetime warranty. The part is not any better than the generic store/house brand, not one bit. Chances are you will not own the car long enough to collect on the warranty anyway.

If you KNOW you will keep the car a few years, then it may be worth getting the lifetime warranty part. Also consider just how long the original part lasted too when deciding if you really need to spend the extra $ on a lifetime part.

If it's a $100 part and the extra cost is only $10-20 for lifetime warranty, well then that's a pretty obvious decision.

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1987 300TDT
1981 VW MKI Caddy 1.6 diesel, waiting on engine swap
1983 D-50 Power Ram 4x4 "Mitsubishi" 2.3 turbo diesel
assorted gas powered crap and motorcycles

RIP: 1984 300TDT, 1982 300TDT, 1984 190D 2.2, 1992 300D 2.5, 1987 300TDT, 1982 Maxima LD28, 1983 Maxima LD28, Isuzu C223 P'ups X3, 1983 Holiday Rambler 6.2 Banks turbo diesel, 1984 Winnebago LeSharo 2.1 TD, 1985 Allegro 6.5

I think I remember it as "Svenska Kulor Fabriken." When I was on Sabbatical in Stockholm in 1982, the newspaper _Dagens Nyheter_ had an article exposing the awful fact that Volvo had begun importing their front wheel bearings from a factory in Brazil. To a reporter who lamented the lack of national loyalty in the face of cost pressures, a Volvo quality control expert replied that the bearings from Brazil weren't really much cheaper than the Swedish made ones, but they had a significantly lower defect rate. This raised a fuss in the paper's editorial pages for several days.

SKF bearings are popular among BMW motorcycle riders, who are at least as finicky as us, if not more so. That's usually enough for me.

peace,
sam

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"That f***in' biodiesel is makin' me hungry."

1982 300TD Astral Silver w/ 250k (BIO BNZ)
2001 Aprilia SR50 Corsa Red w/ 5.5k (>100 MPG)

Parts are routinely reboxed and moved across distributor lines at the warehouse level. Salesmen sometime come to stores and rebox parts on the shelves in stores.

If you want to avoid parts from certain countries you must ask before you buy. Don't expect too much cooperation from the seller. And don't bother to ask if you can pay with Mexican money either.

I'm happy to know the quality on these should be OK.

However, you might want to know that these SKF bearing kits on WorldPac do not ship with the grease seals shown in the picture. There are no grease seals in the box.

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

"Wheel seal", sold separately. Don't remember right off hand, but it's not in the same place as the wheel bearings in WorldPad (or FastLane) on line catalogs.

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!