Is anyone familiar with this strange brand of OM603 vacuum pump? I got it on eBay for $200, about 2/3 of the lowest price I've seen elsewhere. It's the new style with the enclosed bearing, looks and feels well made, part # 000 230 31 65, which the EPC says is the latest number. The label on the box says "BTAP/Germany/Fits MB/000 230 31 65 Vacuum Pump." It came with a metal "pocket" gasket. Everything I've read on this forum says that all of these vacuum pumps are made by Pierburg. The printing on the pump says "BENPART 1900 19/07."

I removed the old pump (it looked undamaged so I was lucky) and cleaned off the remnants of the paper gasket. After removing the timing chain "cage," I installed the new pump with its gasket. After "priming the pump" with oil from a squirt can, I started the engine and it runs fine with good vacuum levels.

I'm always a little concerned with bargain off-brands and wondered if anyone here has ever tried one of these.

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Did you buy it from bigbabbo?

Sixto
87 300D

No, "joetlc." Shipment came from "JT Outfitters" in Walnut Cove, NC.

Jeremy

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Man, that bearing outer surface looks like hot-rolled steel. Is it as bad as it looks?

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

They mostly sell to mechanics and some retailers. I do know some guys who got Toyota 4X4 stuff there and none of us had any suspicion about parts quality.

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1987 300D (230,000 mi on a #14 head-watching the temp gauge and keeping the ghost in the machine)
Raleigh NC - Home of deep fried sushi!

You clearly know a lot more about this than I do. I have no idea from looking how the steel was produced. All I noticed were that the surfaces were not rough and unfinished. Is there a problem with "hot-rolled steel" in this application? I certainly don't want something that will starting leaking bits of steel into my timing chain.

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

Might just be the photo.

On my computer, the outer bearing surface looks kind of marbled and pressed into shape rather than a smooth, defect-free ground surface. Is it just the photo resolution?

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

That is the same brand I put in the SDL last fall. I also picked mine off of Ebay but don't recall who the seller was but the BIN price of $120 caught my eye. I have not had any issues with mine.

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BENZ THERE DONE THAThttp://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...c/progress.gif
15 VW Passat TDI
00 E420
98 E300 DT
97 E420 Donor Car - NEED PARTS? PM ME!
97 S500
97 E300D
86 Holden Jackaroo Turbo D
86 300SDL
(o\|/o)

For the $100 (or less) difference, I'd rather not risk my 603 on it. I stuck with Pierburg.

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I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

This thread sparked my curiosity. I never heard of "BTAP Germany" so I did some sleuthing. This is their English site: http://www.btapco.com/btap/index.asp and with English and Deutsch language options, it appears to be a legit German company. However, their contact information on said website is vague, with an office located in the UAE! A bit weird, no? Their products section doesn't have much information either. So I did some more searching for BTAP and came across this site for BenYue auto parts: http://www.cnby.cn/en/index.asp which appears to be a Chinese exporter of (yup, you guessed it) BTAP parts. Click on their products page and they have quite a few PDF files you can download.

You know those cheesy "crystal clear" headlights and other weird looking ones that you see scattered on eBay? Guess who makes them? BTAP! After poking around some more on the BenYue site, I noticed that on their contact section, their "International Branch Office" has the same UAE address as what's listed on the English btapco.com site! On this page there is NO mention of any offices or branches in Germany... ONLY in China.

Lastly, I did a whois lookup on the domain btapco.com and found that the domain registrant and site administrator are both located in China. IMO, there's sufficient evidence that BTAP is *NOT* a German company and that the 603 vacuum pump (and probably everything else made by BTAP) is made in China. I'm not condemning Chinese-made auto parts in their entirety, but this BTAP company does seem a bit shady by adding "Germany" to their name.

What do you guys think?

Glad I stuck with Pierburg.

__________________
I'm not a doctor, but I'll have a look.

'85 300SD 245k
'87 300SDL 251k
'90 300SEL 326k

Six others from BMW, GM, and Ford.

Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty.[/IMG]

Did you see the recent thread about the vacuum pumps on eBay-Great Britain for less than US$100 including shipping UK-USA? They were differently labeled but I'll bet made by the same people.

My pump is working OK so far. For the first few days I noticed it wasn't holding a vacuum after the engine stopped. Today it is OK, there's still 15" Hg in the line to the reservoir. The pump must have needed some time to bed in.

Jeremy

__________________

"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970

They still make 603's in Korea and probably China, so they must make vacuum pumps as well. So its a knock off.

__________________
1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Jeremy, how's that pump going? Still OK, how many miles? My scottish side wants one but my play it safe side says "no"

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1983 240D Silver/Blue "Sadie", unknown miles. 100k miles on WVO single tank, converted to 2 tank about 10k miles ago, FPHE, Injector Heaters, Aux Fuel pump. Alcohol/Water injection. Frantz oil bypass filter
1992 300D 2.5 Turbo Green/Tan "Jade" 267K miles Stock.
1992 300D 2.5 tan/tan "Rocky" on 2 tank WVO. Pressure actuated Turbo "rat's nest" surgery completed. 197k miles

BTW, what kind of cost savings are we talking about here? $275 shipped for Pierburg, vs. ??? for no-name?