SOLVED: Fake AISIN Fan clutch? or genuine? Consensus is it’s FAKE!

[cl4Rk]

I recently bought an AISIN FCT-013 fan clutch on Amazon. Here’s the listing:

Here’s the box that showed up:

Here’s the unit:

I can’t find “AISIN” stamped/printed anywhere on the unit itself, it came with no paperwork, and it’s dusty and not shiny. Unlike the one in [MENTION=120071]mtbtim[/MENTION] ‘s video which has AISIN printed on the mounting base and is shiny new metal. Other people’s Amazon review photos also show shiny metal and “AISIN” stamped on the base.

But the one I got does match the listing’s images.

Thoughts?

I can return it for free and my current fan clutch is not in too bad shape, this was more preventative since it’s starting to spin a little long after shutdown.

Thanks!

 

[96RedRunner]

AISIN not cast in/on part it a knock off.

 

[Sarki]

It should definitely say “Aisin” on the reverse side unless things have changed over the past few months
I purchased 2 of them on Amazon last year, one for my T100 & one for a 4TR.
See attached photo of the Amazon seller as well as where it should say “Aisin”.

 

[HiLife]

The font on the box with the word Aisin is a dead giveaway. As well as the styling graphics on the box screams somethings not right.
And the part inside, it confirms counterfeit.

 

[RandyBobandy]

I’d send it back and spend the extra $10 to get the one on rock auto

 

[cl4Rk]

Thanks everyone!

 

[subzjc]

Dusty? The thing looks like its been run about 10k and returned!

 

[JoeT4R]

That’s definitely a sus fan clutch unit. I, too, purchased one from Amazon last year, but it came in a much different looking box than what yours came in, and the fan clutch itself was stamped “Aisin” on it. Very weird that’s what you received. Although if RockAuto has it for only $10 more, I’d be okay with spending that extra amount to ensure that what you’re getting is in fact a genuine unit

 

[thegipper]

That is definitely a counterfeit part. What's weird is i ordered my fan clutch from the same exact link as you but I got a genuine Aisin fan clutch. The box was totally different and it had Aisin stamped on it. I would definitely return it.

Someone probably ordered one from ebay, got it and realized it was a POS counterfeit and ordered a real one from the amazon link. Once they got the real one, they returned the counterfeit and kept the real one. Amazon doesn't know or care and just put it back on the shelf, unfortunately you were the recipient of it.

 

[brillo_76]

You really have to watch amazon anymore and E-bay best to pull your parts from the Auto parts stores, Dealer or Rock Auto. As they do not want counterfeit in their supplies chain. Major bummer. Sadly its life these days.

 

[WeakSauz]

It's a knock off. Send it back.

 

[Endlessblockades]

Someone probably ordered one from ebay, got it and realized it was a POS counterfeit and ordered a real one from the amazon link. Once they got the real one, they returned the counterfeit and kept the real one. Amazon doesn't know or care and just put it back on the shelf, unfortunately you were the recipient of it.

Sad state of affairs indeed. People are probably knowingly ordering absolute bottom-dollar garbage for next to nothing from eBay and ordering a legit item from Amazon and returning the garbage for a Amazon refund thereby netting themselves the legit item at the garbage price. Amazon is too big to care and can afford to send millions of tons of goods to our landfills. Not a big fan of people or Space Turtle's company, which started by putting 90% of brick and mortar bookstores out of business.

Edit - more coffee? Nah, I'm good!

 

[Skulking]

Sad state of affairs indeed. People are probably knowingly ordering absolute bottom-dollar garbage for next to nothing from eBay and ordering a legit item from Amazon and returning the garbage for a Amazon refund thereby netting themselves the legit item at the garbage price. Amazon is too big to care and can afford to send millions of tons of goods to our landfills. Not a big fan of people or Space Turtle's company, which started by putting 90% of brick and mortar bookstores out of business.

Edit - more coffee? Nah, I'm good!

My understanding is that most product returns are just destroyed, and that the bigger problem with counterfeit products is actually the way Amazon warehouses products for fulfillment. Amazon has a program called Fulfilled by Amazon where sellers can ship their products to an Amazon fulfillment center and then sell through Amazon and Amazon will take care of all the shipping. One of the things Amazon does with Fulfilled by Amazon products is commingle the same products from multiple sellers. That means that if a legitimate seller ships a pallet of Aisin fan clutches to Amazon and a counterfeit seller also ships a pallet of knockoff Aisin fan clutches to Amazon, when Amazon fulfills an order for an Aisin fan clutch, they could ship you a real one from the legitimate seller or a knockoff from the counterfeit seller, and you have no way to know who it is actually coming from. Because of this problem, anything fulfilled by Amazon is coming from a potentially compromised supply chain.

 

[Romeo1]

Yeah, I think you got scammed. You have to be very careful and diligent with Amazon and EBay like everyone else has said.

 

[gamefreakgc]

You really have to watch amazon anymore and E-bay best to pull your parts from the Auto parts stores, Dealer or Rock Auto. As they do not want counterfeit in their supplies chain. Major bummer. Sadly its life these days.

I wonder if they are just too big and can't follow the same QC checks that a smaller place can. Might be they see a supplier with the same part for much cheaper but it's counterfeit and can't tell the difference.

I agree with using Dealers or Rock Auto. You know what you are getting, I've never heard of any counterfeit nor receiving any myself from Rock Auto and I've been using them for almost all my parts for a decade. The Auto parts stores sometimes you can get lucky and get OEM Toyota parts (mostly sensors) that are repackaged as their store lines for very cheap!

 

[cl4Rk]

Yeah, I think you got scammed. You have to be very careful and diligent with Amazon and EBay like everyone else has said.

Yeah. Luckily I can return for free. I'll make sure to mention that it looked both used and counterfeit.

Interestingly, it was from the "AISIN Store" Amazon storefront, and all the user reviews showed photos that matched Timmy's video. What's more, I followed the link the Timmy posted in his video description. This was the same product link that several other members in this thread and Timmy used to get the genuine part.

So you're right: need to be very diligent. And the diligence doesn't end at time of purchase, have to continued that diligence during and after unboxing (hence this thread).

Very thankful for all the members on this forum who continue to give so much! Thanks all!!

 

[cl4Rk]

My understanding is that most product returns are just destroyed, and that the bigger problem with counterfeit products is actually the way Amazon warehouses products for fulfillment. Amazon has a program called Fulfilled by Amazon where sellers can ship their products to an Amazon fulfillment center and then sell through Amazon and Amazon will take care of all the shipping. One of the things Amazon does with Fulfilled by Amazon products is commingle the same products from multiple sellers. That means that if a legitimate seller ships a pallet of Aisin fan clutches to Amazon and a counterfeit seller also ships a pallet of knockoff Aisin fan clutches to Amazon, when Amazon fulfills an order for an Aisin fan clutch, they could ship you a real one from the legitimate seller or a knockoff from the counterfeit seller, and you have no way to know who it is actually coming from. Because of this problem, anything fulfilled by Amazon is coming from a potentially compromised supply chain.

Very interesting. Yeah, even though it looked like it was being sold directly from Aisin during checkout, when I look back at my actual invoice for this purchase, it shows the seller is "Amazon.com Services LLC"

Also, the invoice says the unit is "New" ha!

 

[FD7683]

Here we go again with the scumbag counterfeit sellers on Amazon/eBay. I love to enforce people to strictly buy parts from either the dealership or a reputable genuine parts warehouse (even local parts stores). Got hit once with counterfeit Aisin coil packs for my Civic and learned my lesson.

Hope you can send the part back with no problems cl4rk :/

 

[cl4Rk]

Return was accepted. Luckily my current fan clutch isn’t totally dead yet. /shrug

 

[ToyotaBrah]

That box alone looks fishy. Glad it was resolved, though. Hopefully they heed your comment and remove it from inventory, but I am doubtful. Appreciate that you made this post informing everyone.