Nissan OEM Aftermarket Parts Differences

Explanation of the parts we sell bares some further information as some other vendors are not very clear, for unknown reasons, as to the quality or varying quality and differences of Nissan boxed parts, Original Equipment Manufacturer - OEM to Nissan boxed parts and Aftermarket boxed parts.

Let me say first that Nissan does not make bearings, hydraulics, engine, suspension, steering or electrical parts. They design and assemble parts made by subcontractors. They buy parts that were designed by bearing, hydraulic, engine parts manufacturers, that are made to Nissan's own specifications and drawings and more often than not Nissan designs a part of a car around readily available components.
An example of this would be many of the bearings for the Datsun roadster. See Koyo bearing book. There are thousands of bearings listed here with drawings and tolerances. The bearings that Koyo make were not always tailored around one vehicle or industrial application. Many automotive and industrial manufacturers would build their transmissions and axle bearing requirements around readily available catalog items. Quality control, tolerances as represented for each individual product, were defined by the bearing manufacturer not by Nissan.

To infer, as another vendor is doing, that there is one standard of quality and tolerances a manufacturer holds to Nissan specifications for a particular application and then another lesser standard of quality and tolerances that the same manufacturer has for the plain wrap version of the same part coming off the same assembly line that they sell to other suppliers, is simply preposterous, fake news and quite frankly insulting to the Japanese people. But that is who Dann is, alienating and insulting the very culture and country that gave him his riches and acreage. The idea of this goes against the very essence, pride and excellence, the very nature of Japanese moral and social etiquette.

Now to our direct experience:
I have sold Nissan, OEM to Nissan parts for 30 years and have met many Japanese distributors and manufacturers and have direct broker accounts to many OEM manufacturers who would agree that erroneously expressed claims, such as those made by this other vendor, are not supported by any factual information.

So OEM products are the same quality as what you will find in the Nissan box. In some instances, like the U20 valve cover gasket, the part is the same, but the OEM packaging is actually better than the Nissan packaging. 
I don't know where this vendor came up with this idea that "From Nissan" meant that the Koyo bearing in the Nissan box is better than the Koyo bearing in the Koyo box or for that matter the Tokico master cylinder being sold in the yellow and black Tokico box is, a second, a defective product, being dumped by the Japanese company on unsuspecting buyers. Really now, like they would risk a worldwide class action lawsuit for selling a product that could potentially kill someone, an act of maleficence.

This vendor, by his own admission, has little experience with, direct to manufacturer, purchasing of OEM parts. For most of his 40 years they have sold only Nissan parts in Nissan boxes or so he claims. It has been only recently that they have begun to sell aftermarket parts largely out of the necessity to be more competitive in the market and probably because Nissan has discontinued ordering many part numbers from their OEM vendors, motivated largely by sales history and space requirements, not because the OEM manufacturer have themselves discontinued offering the part number and of course there are some exceptions.

Aftermarket parts are a completely different animal then an OEM product and I will now explain this difference.

Aftermarket parts as defined can be of varying quality and does not include OEM manufactures parts as supplied to Nissan during production of the vehicle. There are some excellent aftermarket vendors I have used over the last 29 years and the track record of quality is proven by continuing sales and little returns. I can honestly say I have very, very few complaints. If I ever have had a problem, and this has been extremely rare, I immediately stop selling the item. One advantage I lucked out into is that I have certain items that I continue to buy that I've sold thousands of and never had a return. This proven sales history allows us to have the experience to choose the same vendor over and over again and have consistency and that gives you a sense of ease and security when buying from us.
Other vendors starting now in the world of aftermarket parts would be in experimental stage and have a large learning curve for themselves when searching for aftermarket sources. You as a customer would unfortunately be part of this stage of experimentation.
Aftermarket products can be sourced in China, India, Taiwan and even Japan. I have only seen NSK, NTN and Koyo bearings in Nissan boxes, but there is a host of other aftermarket bearing manufacturers in Japan and the US that make OEM level quality products. We will always call these parts aftermarket in our catalog as they were never used during the assembly of the vehicle.

We do not carry many parts as defined "aftermarket". You will see that many items we carry are listed as OEM.

In conclusion. Nissan parts and OEM manufactured parts are made to the same quality standards, the only difference being the box. Aftermarket parts can be made to OEM quality levels however this comes with use/experience and consistent sales history with little returns. It is easy to buy an aftermarket part that can fall short of the levels of quality one would expect from a OEM vendor part and the risk is less with the part and more with the vendor choosing a part that has little or no proven history.