A few years ago, the owner of a shop told me Bosch, of all vendors, is not what it used to be. Bosch, the gold standard, none better. I didn't appreciate exactly what he was talking about until a few minutes ago.
I needed a couple of OXS's for my two '93's. I dutifully consulted the Bosch online catalog where I found that I needed Bosch P/N 13308. So, I searched the i-net for the best price. It puzzled me why FCP did not list that Bosch P/N on their website, but, what the hay, if Bosch said that's what my cars needed, that's what they needed.
Well, as I found out when I was about to make my 3rd trip under the car, that part was not correct; it had a female connector on the heater conductors. Oh, it would have been no big deal to hack the original endo from the old OXS onto the new one, but that would no longer be the OE equivalent plug-n-play part that I bought and I had to think about the warranty implications.
So, I called Bosch Customer Service, who transferred my call to the Bosch warranty department. The rather testy agent there asked what I wanted. Obviously, I wanted the correct parts overnighted to me so that I could slap them into my 240's. She couldn't do that, only send me a refund. She did agree to have their "application engineer" research the "issue" and call me back with the correct P/N.
I just got off the phone with her, She said that 13308 was the correct number. I told her I had been driving 240's for more than 40 years and . . . blah, blah, blah.
So, some advice:
1/ Bosch P/N 13308 does not have the correct endo on the heater conductors to fit any 240 that I know of.
2/ If you need a new OXS (not such a rare thing) do not buy a Bosch 13308 as called out in Bosch's catalog unless you do not mind hacking the connector from your old OXS onto the new one.
3/ Bosch, you better get rid of those feckless application people who are taking up space in your offices.
OK, no it's no big deal as long as you do not mind being the pivot man in this circle jerk. And, Bosch, hows about just selling me what you offer?
Richie (near The Burgh)
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