I’ve recently ordered a 3 pieces Sachs clutch kit and a Sachs slave cylinder for my NA from www.autopartstechnik.co.uk as their website claims they are the approved Sachs supplier and the price is very reasonable. I just received the order today and when I opened the packaging something just did not feel quite right, so I’d like to know what you guys think and whether these items are genuine.
the box is really tatty but that’s the least of my worry…
All the 3 pieces clutch kit and also the slave cylinder were all piled together with minimum protection
the friction plate feels quite light and quality looks average for a Made in Japan product but again I have never seen a Sachs clutch before so don’t know what to expect
the Sachs brand and serial number looks blurry and are not deeply engraved into the metal plate
the worst thing is that the cover is from Exedy! that can’t be right, can it?!
there are some scratches on the release bearing and the inner plastic tube is a bit off centre as well
Now it comes the slave cylinder… I can’t see any evidence this is a Sachs product and also the top metal tip seems a bit too short, isn’t it?
All the manufacturers make parts for each other and no always get a Sacks a kit in a Sachs box that may contain parts from other brands not manufactuers.
My point is, what are you expecting from a “clutch”? This is a clutch.
If Exedy make the standard pressure plate that Mazda fit, why go to all the effort to make another one, unless it is different in some way. Again the friction plate is metal, it will be metal no mater who makes it. The friction material maters and Sachs may well make and assemble this. The release bearing, why set up your own bearing factory why you can specify what you want.
Bottom line Sachs should mean you get a proper warranty, and back-up as any branded product would. It does not mean it’s a better clutch.
Agree with Nick, but there are a lot of copies out there.
We have seen Exedy come in LUK and Blueprint packaging. Exedy make for all sorts although I would have though Sachs would do their own being a clutch manufacturer in their own right unless they get these really cheap from Exedy. Box/contents look like they have been around for a while, perhaps old stock hence the good price. Looks useable though.
If it were a copy, I think they would have done a better job of making the name on the contents match the box.
I am new to all this and have to say I am feeling a bit overwhelmed about all the choices and what to go for…
@Rhino, yes I have contacted the supplier and expecting a call from them. The slave cylinder is quite expensive as it was advertised as a Sachs one although i have no way of telling if it is Sachs. I know mx5parts are selling one for much cheaper but i was feeling reluctant to go for it after reading some reviews…
I paid £50 for a 1.8 Sachs clutch from Moss, when it was on sale. Nothing was marked “Excedy”. £110 is a lot cheaper than MX5parts, and the clutch doesn’t look quite the same as the one shown on MX5parts website. You should check with Sachs UK. I thought the whole point of Sachs was that they were German made, not Japanese made.
With Slave Cylinders, it is a bit of a lottery, and the OE suppliers seem to switch sources quite a lot.When I compared a genuine failed slave cylinder against a pattern failed cylinder, it seemed that on the pattern one, the machined facing, where it bolted to the bell housing, had more metal on it, so that when fitted, the piston would sit at a slight angle. That might explain why it failed quite quickly; OE Mazda seem to last 50k miles. On the other hand, other pattern slave cylinders have lasted fine.
For my 96 car, the original slave lasted until 55k miles. On my third one at 170k miles. The 93; I replaced the slave cylinder at 95k; the one removed was not original, because whoever had fitted it had gashed the threads up for the bolts.
I think you need to appreciate the massive numbers involved in components.
DoT figures for cars in the UK in 2014 was 25,000,000 and a total of 35,000,000 vehicles. If one factory was producing a component every 10 seconds it would take 34 years to make 25,000,000 components. Double shift, still 18 years. That is just the UK.
OK, not every car needs a clutch every year but 1.2+ Billion vehicles means that if one place is good at something why go to the cost of replicating and further more taking production capacity from what you do well just to make your own if the other option is good enough. I am in no way surprised at all that suppliers share components and also that they also possibly outsource to the same factories.
Manufactures don’t stick to one supplier either, many cars will have a variety of alternators, exhaust manufacturers, wheels, bearings and everything else.
