Counterfeit Denso Fuel Injectors

[05Valentine]

Has anyone here had experience with counterfeit fuel injectors found on ebay/amazon? I made the mistake of buying a set off ebay and realized after the purchase that they were not reconditioned. They haven't arrived yet, but after reading customer reviews, there are complaints of them being counterfeit. There are a lot of positive reviews on them that far outweigh the negative ones though. Any advice on this?

As for why I am replacing, a few months ago I had a misfire in two cylinders. I replaced the intake gasket/spark plugs and it took care of the CEL and code. The idle is still hard with a jump in the RPM when I take my foot off the accelerator (intermittently.) I plan on cleaning the throttle body, coolant flush and replacing the fuel injectors when the injectors arrive. I'll probably also replace the intake hoses as well. I'm willing to send these back and get the genuine Denso ones though. Thanks for any advice!

2005/171,000 miles

[Caretaker]

Sure. Any time you go to buy something from ebay, you need to check to see if it is through Alibaba or says from China or Hong Kong. Price normally tips it off as those parts are normally considerably less expensive. I don't buy from those sellers simply because I don't want my credit card shopped around China. It has gotten so bad that when I contacted Rock Auto, they wouldn't tell me if the product was sourced from China. I know they sell Chinese products. Full disclosure seems to be a luxury not yet afforded to us. Beware.

[05Valentine]

Oh wow, it's even at Rock Auto?! Everything listed in ebay said it was coming from California. Then it shipped from New Jersey. At least it went through PayPal so they didn't get my credit card. I'll eat the cost as a lesson learned if I can't send it back and get a refund. Thanks!

[jolt]

The part in the box is rarely manufactured by the name on the box now a day's. Being most parts are manufactured over sea's, the name on the box is just that; a name that was once trusted. Most parts manufactures share or cross trade parts with each other. This gives each a fuller product line without the production cost.

The company that produces the item will have batches of parts from time to time,that do not meets their distributors needs or fulfills the contract for the produced item. In other words higher defects in the batch then allowed by the distributor. The manufacture will try to repair the defect parts batch, but if that is not allowed by the contact, they may try to sell said batch on the "Grey Market". Most of the items will pass and work fine but they may have higher then normal defect rate. "Black Market" items are true counterfeit. "Grey Market" items may lie somewhere in between.

With how things are marketed and manufactured these day's , who is to say what is counterfeit and what is not? Also search for "Grey Market" for more details.

[zbyers]

eBay and Amazon will definitely have some knockoffs that they pretend are real. Could they be perfectly fine? Yes. Could they be horrible? Of course. All depends on the gamble you want to take.

Spark plugs and oil filters are also notorious for being fakes on those sites

RockAuto generally doesn't sell fakes like the aforementioned sites; they should source directly from the vendor.

IMHO, I've bought knock off stuff on eBay and it's worked fine. My '04 CRV needed a shift solenoid. Honda wanted several hundred for one. A knockoff on eBay was $50 so it was worth a gamble. Turns out, it solved my issues. *shrugs*

I doubt replacing the injectors are going to change anything you're experiencing. We have several Vibes with 200k+ (some over 300k) miles and have never touched the fuel injectors.