Rein vs OEM
 

Any thoughts on whether Rein radiator hoses are better than the OEM?

I'd pay $61 at the dealer for OEM, $32 for Rein via ECS, but will spend more if the OEM is better quality. OEM is cheaper on ECS.

Get all your hoses from ECS.

Genuine OE hoses I'm seeing are same price as Rein on ECS, or in fact cheaper than Rein, here is the page, at the same price forget comparing Rein, and don't spend double from the dealer:

OEM / Performance Parts for Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Mini, Porsche & Volkswagen - ECS Tuning

+1 for OEM.

Fwiw I try to stay away from rein (where possible) as I had a bad experience with their CV boots. I know it's not the same as a coolant pipe, but the rubber the CV boots were made from appeared to be either sub-standard, or poor QC. They lasted maybe 2 months in the cold before splitting. For those reasons, you won't hear me ever recommend them for more vital components (ie coolant pipes) :)

TY for the input, will order from ECS tomorrow if I cant find them here for about the same. :)

OEM for almost everything except suspension parts.

Wow, I need to remember to check ECS every once in a while. When I was first shopping the various resellers, I was consistently finding Pelican to be cheapest. I guess it depends what you are looking for though.
What is the turnaround time for you on ECS? One of my friends always orders from there for his VW and seems like it generally takes a couple weeks before he receives his parts. That's the thing I like about Pelican is they are in North Cali so it is typically only 2-3 days for me to receive my parts after ordering (with free shipping).

ECS shows you the estimated availability of parts when you're searching, most stuff that's not in stock I've seen anywhere from 2 day shipment to 4 day shipment, it depends where they have to get the parts from.

Pelican is cheaper on some things no doubt, it always helps to compare, using something like www.furiousmethod.com works well.

That is the coolest tool ever!!

Woo hoo, got em locally for the same as what ECS cost w/shipping.

I installed a Rein CV boot to the front passenger side joint a couple months ago, ordered from ECS. It didn't feel like it was made of cheap material :dunno: I guess I'll keep my eye on it to see if it holds up to the shitty weather up here.

I have this theory though, that you'll prematurely wear out steering/suspension parts if you leave your car on an uneven surface all the time, or like what my gf's parents do to their cars all the time and annoys the crap out of me...leaving the car parked and the steering wheel turned 2 or 3 turns.