The last thing anyone wants to do when hopping on the highway is to do so with counterfeit parts in their vehicle—especially if they're rolling in a heavy-duty truck. Counterfeit parts are much more prone to failure than their legitimate counterparts. They can also mess up vehicles as well as cause damage long term and make it overall less safe.
A sure way to avoid these problems is to verify the parts before anything moves. Verifying the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) number for parts ensures shops and vehicle owners are installing items authorized by the same companies that made that vehicle. OEM parts are the safest to use, last the longest, and are recommended by the vehicle's maker.
There are no higher standards for parts, which is why verifying parts is necessary to avoid the pitfalls of counterfeits. With the right tools and resources, shops can swiftly do an OEM number lookup for any part while doing the right thing for the heavy-duty vehicle that needs the part.
The Role of OEM Part Number Verification
The ability to quickly and painlessly do an OEM part number lookup is critical to ensure the authenticity of heavy-duty parts for vehicles. By looking up the parts number, shops can see whether or not a particular part legitimately came from the vehicle's manufacturer. Third-party sellers and counterfeit auto parts providers go into a lot of trouble to disguise the fact that their parts are inauthentic. An oem part lookup provides an objective way to see if that part truly is genuine. There are several options for looking up this number in established databases that specialize in distributing OEM parts. Those databases contain information about industry-standard parts that will never steer you wrong when replacing parts in a heavy-duty vehicle.
Truck counterfeit part prevention is imperative to avoid problems that arise when using unauthorized parts. These include early (and frequently occurring) breakdowns of the vehicles themselves. When vehicles do manage to stay on the road, they do so with an impaired performance that, when impacting vital operations like breaking, steering, visibility, and more, results in countless safety issues. Plus, buying these shoddily produced parts takes money away from legitimate parts manufacturers, making them raise their prices to compensate for lost sales.
Implementing OEM Part Number Verification
There are several ways to go about authenticating heavy-duty OEM parts. Most of them pertain to searching databases, which is possible with a PartsTech integration replete with parts from certified dealers in the automotive industry. The surest way to implement OEM number verification for a specific part is to input it into the database's search engine and see if the result matches. However, there may be situations in which shops don't have the part number. In that case, they can simply do the OEM part lookup by typing in information about the vehicle—like its manufacturer, model, chassis number, and other relevant information—to see a list of parts that the manufacturer supports. If shops don't have the OEM part number, they can always check a specific manufacturer's catalog and narrow their search according to part types.
The benefits of an OEM part number lookup are too important to ignore. The parts themselves are guaranteed to fit perfectly. There are usually credible warranties that accompany these parts, too. OEM parts also provide high levels of performance to maximize the longevity of the vehicle. Once installed, drivers and shops can rest assured that the vehicle meets safety standards and is much less prone to hazards than heavy-duty vehicles with counterfeit parts.
An Easy Decision
When you consider all the safety, performance, and failure issues that ensue after using counterfeit parts for heavy-duty repairs and contrast that with all of the safety, fitting, performance, and longevity gains of using OEM parts, it's easy to see which course of action to take. The key factor is ensuring counterfeit auto part prevention with OEM number lookups.
Verifying the OEM number on parts is essential for the long-term success of heavy-duty vehicle repairs. Software solutions like Shopmonkey have great options for performing these lookups. Want to avoid counterfeit parts in your shop? Shopmonkey can help.
