Rothenbacher Engineering STRIKE!!!

Had a car come in the shop today with one of this crooks timing belt kits on it. Had 549 miles on the kit. The belt was shot, big idler was leaking grease and had play in it, both small idlers had excessive play, and water pump had a little play. Only 549 miles what junk from CHINA. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS CROOK OR ANY OF HIS LAUGHABLE WEBSITES. CHEAP=JUNK.

So are we talking head rebuild or was the car saved? My assumption based on how people drive cars that put cheap parts on them is that they drove it until it broke and that is why it's now in your capable hands now.

Man I hate that prothe crap.

Belt wasnt broken yet. close tho.

Phew! They got lucky and I hope that they learned their lesson.

jetta2000 said:

Had 549 miles on the kit. The belt was shot...

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Wow, that's not a lot of miles. My parent's used to take us into the North Maine woods, 75 miles (one way) from the nearest town (some called it a town, not us). The main drive belt snapped on our '78 IHC Scout II and I remember we used the strap from the canteen to drive to town, only to find them closed. Belt looked OK, so we headed back to the campsite and came out on a different day. Once we replaced the belt, we put it back on the canteen and headed back into the woods. We had over 225 miles on that canteen belt. Maybe Prothe should look into a new source for his timing belts.

Abacus said:

Wow, that's not a lot of miles. My parent's used to take us into the North Maine woods, 75 miles (one way) from the nearest town (some called it a town, not us). The main drive belt snapped on our '78 IHC Scout II and I remember we used the strap from the canteen to drive to town, only to find them closed. Belt looked OK, so we headed back to the campsite and came out on a different day. Once we replaced the belt, we put it back on the canteen and headed back into the woods. We had over 225 miles on that canteen belt. Maybe Prothe should look into a new source for his timing belts.

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LOL on my old 64 Impala I snapped a fan belt (water pump and alternator) a ways from home in the rain and had to make a new one out of zip ties. Had to stop and retighten every few miles but that **** got me home. LOL

Wayne64SS said:

LOL on my old 64 Impala I snapped a fan belt (water pump and alternator) a ways from home in the rain and had to make a new one out of zip ties. Had to stop and retighten every few miles but that **** got me home. LOL

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hard to believe but quite the story...

Amazing that moron still can sell crap and that his name isn't tarnished enough so people STOP PAYING HIM.

Not that I'm advocating it, but I'm surprised someone hasn't offed him yet.

Does that dude advertise on here? If not, I doubt if he sees any of these comments. He has tons of stuff listed on FleaBay!

Several years ago, in very backwoods east Kentucky, the wife and I were heading home from a high school football game! We were on a two lane toll road with very low traffic volume, especially at night! Anyway, my 1.6L diesel '84 Jetta blew the bottom rad hose and puked all the coolant. Well, long story short, I would go thru the gears and get it up to about 70 mph, kick in neutral shut off engine then turn key back on so the lights would work and let it coast as far as possible. Then, with the AC compressor electrically disconnected, I'd turn on the AC so the fans out front would help cool the engine down. I repeated that procedure numerous times over about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the next exit! Cut the hose and spliced it and filled with water and drove home!

we have got to start having everyone contact the bbb who has been screwed bvy this guy, he has an A rating at the moment, i believe if they were bombarded all at one with all the issues currently popping up you might have a shot, though the bbb has never really impressed me all that much.

Rothenbacher Engineering

under Matthews NC 28104

It truly is amazing that guy is still in business, and that the Chinese keep making the crap... think of all the other people around the globe with Volkswagens that get screwed! There are a LOT more VAG products in pretty much every other country on the planet than there is in the US or Canada...

Someone want the lawyers phone number for VW? he IS in violation of Trademark.....Just saying.....

jasonTDI said:

Someone want the lawyers phone number for VW? he IS in violation of Trademark.....Just saying.....

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I'm not in anyway defending this guy, I am curious though, how is he violating their trademark?

I think I installed an injection pump from him. (sold to me from another member on this site!) I got 3 miles down the road before the pump went out of time. Screwed.

BBB rating is a scam. Look up his business. He's had a number of complaints and 4 have been "resolved" and 7 have been "administratively closed" Basically you pay your money and you get you "A" rating.

I already turned him in for his web sites.

Newzboys said:

I'm not in anyway defending this guy, I am curious though, how is he violating their trademark?

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Links, redirects and the use of TDI in the business name. Believe me after going through that I KNOW what you can and cannot do.

The Proth

Here is my opinion. If you have critical parts like timing belts on interfearance engines like the tdi. I would suggest buying quality parts. I am a Proth customer for my old Pickup and I have had good luck with everything I purchased. I look at the parts and decide weather to install them though. Some parts I decided to purchase others because they were not to my standards. But others that were not critical were sold to me at such reasonable prices that I worked with them and made them work for me. I dont think they are a rip off. They dont sell parts that are overpriced and bad quality. They are cheap with some that have not so great quality. I purchased some from other vendors that were worse for much more than the Proth. I found some german parts are more inferior than the Chinese parts I got from proth. It just depends on what you purchase and what you are putting them on. I put the Turbo kit on my 1.6 and have had great luck with it. Some people say the ports dont line up and other issues but the truth is I scream 13lbs of boost and fly by my TDI with only a few mods to the Kit provided by them. I avoided the $60 german glow plug relay from a local vendor and got the $8 from the Proth and it works great. But I wouldnt buy much of anything for my 06 tdi from them. You just need to be smart about how you are putting on the parts you buy from anyone!! Check seals, Check castings, check to make sure they are tightened. I have gotten German parts that were not to my standards. Also Amercan made and China parts that were no good. Dont just assume because it is a _____ brand that it is good. Be a good consumer and check it out before you install it.

Thanks for listening. Mike

He has refused refunds, ignored peoples plea's etc when they have installed his parts and they killed their engine, you can't justify the guy, just look at some of the threads about the problems HE has caused by supplying total rubbish. I wouldn't blame the chinese personally as I've seen some amazing stuff they've built, they just have factories with cheap labour but it's upto the buyer to take care of quality control. I've bought stuff from most of the big countries that are a mixture of good and bad including yours and mine. I can't however find any way to justify prothe and his concience.

Yeah, why the heck would anyone defend someone who has caused at least $100,000 in damage to TDI owners and taken NO responsibility? The real number is probably much higher than that!! :EEK!: He needs to be in jail; even if a relay he sells works that point is entirely moot. It's immoral to support a business like his!

I've not purchased anything from Prothe. However, I've purchased parts made in China for my vehicles at places like, AutoZone, Advance, Orielly, etc., with rediculious prices on them.

On the contrary, my old '84 MK1 has rear wheel bearings that are made in China. They've been in operation since 1997 with over 50k miles on them.....work fine!

These are questions that come to mind: do all Timing Belts made in China have such a high failure rate? Where do the Chinese get good Timing Belts? Are China cars all sitting beside the road with broken timing belts? Are the folks that buy the cheaper priced China made products the ones that are installing it? Does that tell us anything?

There's so much stuff made in China along the whole spectrum of quality. There's no sense in bashing everything made there.

But, Prothe's VW parts have routinely ruined TDIs, and since this is a TDI enthusiast forum, you're going to have a hard time convincing anyone to give the guy any sort of credit. If the guy was even close to a stand-up business man, he'd stop selling crap that has a high risk of ruining engines. And you can be CERTAIN he knows about it.

I bought a car off a customer of mine after an independent shop used Chinese parts and the rollers and water pump locked up... Valves smacked the pistons of course. This wasn't a TDi but an Acura MDX... Lesson to be learned and I kept the old stuff to show my future customers: use OEM timing belt components or risk the fate of my super clean MDX. Another customer of mine has a 95 Maxima with a VQ30 motor in it, he used a Chinese water pump which started to leak and made screaming noises, ruined the chain, sprocket n gears and hopefully will run normal Tueday when OEM stuff arrives to fix it. I don't mind using cheap Napa rotors or bulbs etc.. But I tell everyone to stick to OEM internal engine parts.

I'm not bashing on Chinese parts, I'm bashing on Prothe. BIG DIFFERENCE!

Napa/Autozone/etc. may be selling similar stuff, but at least you know that they are a business that will need to take responsibility if they have spectacular high-rate recurring failures.

Chinese
Replacement
Auto
Parts

I was replacing the rear bearing on my wife's A3 Jetta, so I am at the auto parts store and I ask him how much and he says Federal Mogul $6.95 or our discount brand $2.45. I was like no way you can make a tapered roller bearing of that low a price; he just smiled and said China. I splurged and bought the Federal Mogul.

I currently am replacing my injection pump again due to me making the mistake of buying one from Rothenbacher! NEVER NEVER NEVER buy anything from that company! I bought it on hansdieselparts.com and it shipped from Rothenbacher. I received it and had to send it back twice! Put it on the third time and thought it was good. Just went out again on me. It lasted about 4,000 miles. This time I just got a used pump on ebay. I would rather have something OEM even if it is used than a rebuilt one (especially if it's done by them jokers)!

Curious Chris said:

I was replacing the rear bearing on my wife's A3 Jetta, so I am at the auto parts store and I ask him how much and he says Federal Mogul $6.95 or our discount brand $2.45. I was like no way you can make a tapered roller bearing of that low a price; he just smiled and said China. I splurged and bought the Federal Mogul.

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I had the same sort of experience about four years ago. I called my local parts store (Advance) for a rear set of wheel cylinders for my '84 Vanagon. Yep, we can have them in the morning by 10:00.

So, next day I went by and picked them up..........gees, almost $60.00. Anyway, I took them home to install, but got side tracked! It was probably three weeks or longer before I got to the job.............Damn, made in China! I liked to have croaked. I couldn't find my receipt to take them back....so, I just installed them. One has leaked until this day!

Out of curiosity, I did a search in eBay and other places and found German made at half the price, including shipping!

well i am guilty of buying from prothe, someone stole the lower front plastic bumper grills on my son's jetta, so I got replacements from prothe for like $20 (dealers and on line venders wanted around $100 for the pair). But if it spins, has a vacuum/coolant/fuel hose or any electric wires going to it, no way would I buy from prothe.