[Raptor04]

Anyone tried the Uro Parts valve cover in lieu of the OE BMW valve cover? It's significantly cheaper than the BMW OE valve cover, and includes the cover, gasket, and all bolts and a 2-year warranty through Rock Auto. I know Uro parts are not necessarily recommended, and at $220 for this part, it's still not cheap. Just wondering if it's worth the price savings vs. BMW OE part.

[datpiff]

Buy oem, it'll help you sleep at night. If something is wrong you're paying more in the end for labor to get it replaced again. Not worth it imo, even if you can do it yourself.

[bluemonstr]

Originally Posted by azimov308

Buy oem, it'll help you sleep at night. If something is wrong you're paying more in the end for labor to get it replaced again. Not worth it imo, even if you can do it yourself.

LOL - really?? After OEM Fails after less than (in some cases) 70k miles????? I say give it a shot. OEM my a$$. When OEM fails as fast as ANY of the oem gaskets / hoses or ANYTHING on these cars...I say you gotta be crazy with that thinking and OEM is NOT going to make you sleep better at night. OEM waterpump? Really..hah. OEM - radiator??? HAH. Sorry but this is some bad mojo thinking right here.

I think if you want to save some money and you are doing the work yourself....GIVE IT A TRY. I have not. So I have nothing else to say to it...but at least I won't be the oem drone.

Not in this instance and not for these cars. I'm not saying ALL oem sucks - but some of these parts - fail when they should not and way faster than they should. So, when they fail fast I see no reason to replace them with OEM. No way...and not for my piece of mind.

[dsjr2006]

The OE covers starting cracking for some at 40-50k miles. Not exactly a great quality part IMO. Unless it's been revised I can't see how the OE can be considered to be better than a OE replacement with a warranty.

[FEDE/E92]

URO problably makes it for BMW anyway

[Raptor04]

My OE valve cover says Mahle, but it’s only lasted about 30k miles. However I’m not sure if I have a crack in my cover or just the gasket went bad.

Originally Posted by FEDE/E92

URO problably makes it for BMW anyway

[Sgop335]

Originally Posted by bluemonstr

LOL - really?? After OEM Fails after less than (in some cases) 70k miles????? I say give it a shot. OEM my a$$. When OEM fails as fast as ANY of the oem gaskets / hoses or ANYTHING on these cars...I say you gotta be crazy with that thinking and OEM is NOT going to make you sleep better at night. OEM waterpump? Really..hah. OEM - radiator??? HAH. Sorry but this is some bad mojo thinking right here.

I think if you want to save some money and you are doing the work yourself....GIVE IT A TRY. I have not. So I have nothing else to say to it...but at least I won't be the oem drone.

Not in this instance and not for these cars. I'm not saying ALL oem sucks - but some of these parts - fail when they should not and way faster than they should. So, when they fail fast I see no reason to replace them with OEM. No way...and not for my piece of mind.

Have you done a VC / gasket change? Its not one of those where you want to gamble because it absolutely sucks to do one. Granted some folks here can do it in 3 hrs lol. Its not like o my vc is leaking again so will get right on it. My oem VC is at 125k. Yes gasket went bad at 110k that I replaced with oem.
I think you are justified in being bitter for some oem parts - water pump etc. but for VC I think its better to stick w oem. Also, brands like URO is going to be a hit or miss and don't think its oe either.

[Wolf 335]

The idea of sticking with oem for better quality comes from hopes that bmw captured the fault within a part and revised it to perform better.

Now obviously some things are just bad by design (such as oil filter housing) and others are just victim to cost reduction in materials used (water pump, valve cover, and so on)

So if no revision was made to the oem part you may as well go with the aftermarket one. Also bmw does not necessarily have only one supplier for a particular part. Suppliers will range depending on the region sometimes, or even production year. Quality issues can drive a supplier change and so can cost.

[vrracing]

URO is brand of APA, a European company founded by Barry Seeman in 1984. They are an OEM supplier for Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Saab and Mitsubishi. BMW plastic parts might as well be made of graham crackers so you might find that the Uro parts make a lot of sense.

[dsjr2006]

Originally Posted by bluemonstr

LOL - really?? After OEM Fails after less than (in some cases) 70k miles????? I say give it a shot. OEM my a$$. When OEM fails as fast as ANY of the oem gaskets / hoses or ANYTHING on these cars...I say you gotta be crazy with that thinking and OEM is NOT going to make you sleep better at night. OEM waterpump? Really..hah. OEM - radiator??? HAH. Sorry but this is some bad mojo thinking right here.

I think if you want to save some money and you are doing the work yourself....GIVE IT A TRY. I have not. So I have nothing else to say to it...but at least I won't be the oem drone.

Not in this instance and not for these cars. I'm not saying ALL oem sucks - but some of these parts - fail when they should not and way faster than they should. So, when they fail fast I see no reason to replace them with OEM. No way...and not for my piece of mind.

Originally Posted by Sgop335

Have you done a VC / gasket change? Its not one of those where you want to gamble because it absolutely sucks to do one. Granted some folks here can do it in 3 hrs lol. Its not like o my vc is leaking again so will get right on it. My oem VC is at 125k. Yes gasket went bad at 110k that I replaced with oem.
I think you are justified in being bitter for some oem parts - water pump etc. but for VC I think its better to stick w oem. Also, brands like URO is going to be a hit or miss and don't think its oe either.

The valve cover is one of those crappy OE parts so I'm not sure what you're getting at suggesting its just parts like the water pump that give OE a bad reputation. It's obviously taking a chance either way since the OE piece is lasting a few as 30k, so some would rather take a chance and save money, if you're doing it yourself what difference does it make??

[ECSTuning]

The only "complaint" I've gotten from guys about the Uro valve cover is "it doesn't seem as shiny as the genuine one".... Personally with this Uro part, if I needed a new valve cover, I wouldn't hesitate to run it.

-James

OP there's a Chinabay VC review floating around here somewhere that was pretty positive overall...have a look at that one.

[Faredo]

Originally Posted by FCobra94

OP there's a Chinabay VC review floating around here somewhere that was pretty positive overall...have a look at that one.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1418398

[Faredo]

Originally Posted by azimov308

Buy oem, it'll help you sleep at night. If something is wrong you're paying more in the end for labor to get it replaced again. Not worth it imo, even if you can do it yourself.

In many cases you would be correct, but not with the VC. spending $400+ for a ticking time bomb keeps me up at night.
Im sleeping sound with my chinabay VC

[Raptor04]

I don’t see any obvious cracks in my cover. I was thinking about just changing out the gasket. How do you all determine whether to replace the gasket only or the entire cover if you can’t see any obvious cracks?

[FEDE/E92]

Originally Posted by Raptor001

I don’t see any obvious cracks in my cover. I was thinking about just changing out the gasket. How do you all determine whether to replace the gasket only or the entire cover if you can’t see any obvious cracks?

Depending on the mileage I would replace it. You are going do all that work for it to fail few thousand miles down the road. Also remember the VC has the pcv passages and that usually get clogged up. I’m replacing mine with that URO VC, great price and good company.

[Raptor04]

I wonder if anyone has purchased a valve cover from fcpeuro and gotten a new cover under their lifetime replacement warranty? It’s more expensive than the URO cover, but if you get free future replacements, then might be worth it for OE. Valve cover.

[FEDE/E92]

Originally Posted by Raptor001

I wonder if anyone has purchased a valve cover from fcpeuro and gotten a new cover under their lifetime replacement warranty? It’s more expensive than the URO cover, but if you get free future replacements, then might be worth it for OE. Valve cover.

Look at there warranty page, I think they would

[Jklad]

Another member's brand new uro valve cover he installed was defective :

Doing Double work sucks.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by Jklad

Another member's brand new uro valve cover he installed was defective :

Doing Double work sucks.

Please share the info. Link the post here.

[feuer]

Originally Posted by FEDE/E92

Look at there warranty page, I think they would

All depends. With cracks can go either way. What if it was due to improper installation. Over torqued or something...

[Jklad]

Originally Posted by feuer

Please share the info. Link the post here.

Noise coming from clutch/flywheel http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1457330