I bought a Mecaplast valve cover for like $60 brand new from ebay. Whats the difference between that one and the Mecaplast cover ECS sells for $300 more?

 

Hello,

Unless its in the factory mecaplast box(which I have never seen), its a copy of mecaplast. Who knows if it will leak or throw a CEL? They don't sell direct as they have contracts. Most if not all OES suppliers that have it, it doesn't have the logo or its ground off and same deisgn as OE . My guess for that price it's not true mecaplast and they just copied the MINI one. We have tested out aftermarket ones we carry and they have been running on cars here to verify function. The OEM MINI one is the updated unit and a true Mecaplast produced item, it has the latest version of the part and PCV. So does our aftermarket as we work with the supplier. We have a 2 year warranty on the genuine and 3 year on the HT version. I dont know about the one you have? Thats all the info I have.

 

sounds like 240$

*Great find !

 

Right? Probably the same difference between the $170 Throttle body and the $517 one on ECS - Nothing!

 

IMO... if it is the exact same part from the same OEM manufacturer… only difference is price and Mini/BMW sticker on the box/part - I buy the lower priced item... but buyer must beware it is not a cheap imitation.

 

Whole bunch of these on Amazon for 80-100 bucks, too, with gasketing. I'm a loyal ECSTuning customer, but the price difference is too steep to ignore. Placing my order from Amazon. I'll see how long it'll hold.

--
Pete

 

 

 

I purchased a copy off ebay and it is starting to leak from the embossed plastic in between the spark plug holes.
Gonna try the valve cover from ECS for $160 with a 3 year warranty.
This would be $70 bucks more than I paid for the ebay one.

 

I got the mecaplast VC for little over a month now. Now issues whatsoever. It comes with the oil cap, spark plug gasket, and the vc gasekt. Not bad for fraction of the OEM price tag. Bought mine from Amazon.

 

 

 

this is where I bought mine: ,

spent 65 bucks.

 

Got around to taking a pi to show how my $90 valve cover leaks.

 

Thats not good. Looks like when the factory one leaks also.

 

 

That's very painful, old grumps. If I were in your shoes, I'll be in the same grudge, too. Knowing how cheap these covers can go, it's just hard to pull trigger on the N18 cover like that. If all N14 valve covers are going above $300 still, then buying the N18 valve cover won't psychologically affect me that much. Keep you hopes up, hopefully the diaphragm will work out well for you. Also, hopefully, these mecaplast valve covers will extend their production eventually to also cover the N18 engines in due time.

 

BTW we have an N18 version in the works and some others. So it's on the radar, no eta right now.

 

 

We are working on it but it has to be tested and proven, that takes some time. Yep, we will keep you informed when we get it.