My experience with aftermarket parts has been mostly positive, but there are exceptions. In order to afford my toys I decided long ago that I would maintain and repair them myself. Doing your own work affords you the luxury of sourcing your own parts, but sometimes saving a few dollars is simply not worth it. As #Rocket stated, sometimes OEM is just the best option, despite the extra cost. A recent example of this with electrical components was a failure of a voltage regulator in one of my snowmobiles. When it failed, the excess voltage allowed into the sled fried both headlights and melted both handwarmers, grips, and thumb warmer. All required replacing, and I decided to replace the OEM regulator with an aftermarket version from RMStator, who's products I've used successfully in past. When I installed the aftermarket regulator I found as soon as I connected the battery my gauges turned on as did my tail light, even before I turned the ignition key on. Trusting that the regulator was brand new and couldn't possibly be part of the problem I spent 2 days tracing wires thinking something else had melted and was shorting in my sled. After much aggravation and wasted time, and having not found any other obvious wiring issues, I paid twice the value of the aftermarket Reg for an OEM Reg, installed it, and everything worked perfectly. So between researching for an aftermarket part, waiting for the order to arrive, troubleshooting a phantom electrical issue, and finally making the trip to my local dealership for the oem part, I lost nearly 2 weeks of riding, in an attempt to save about $140, in a sport where we may only have 2-3 months to enjoy. Had I gone right to the oem part I would have been out of action for only 2 days, and avoided alot of aggravation. It hasn't swayed me from the use of aftermarket, but it has certainly affected my trust in "New" parts, especially in the electrical department.
