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New Ways To Save Time, Money, Effort & Frustration
Dorman gives repair professionals, enthusiasts and owners greater freedom to fix motor vehicles. For more than 100 years, Dorman has been driving new solutions — releasing tens of thousands of aftermarket replacement products engineered to save time and money, and increase convenience and reliability. Founded and headquartered in the United States, Dorman is a pioneering global organization offering an always-evolving catalog of products, covering cars, trucks and specialty vehicles, from chassis to body, from underhood to undercarriage, and from hardware to complex electronics.
The Driving New Solutions Anthem
Cars and trucks provide freedom. They let us go where we want, when we want. Our lives and livelihoods depend on them. They drive our economy.
But they don’t last forever. Every new model brings new components and complexities. Even older vehicles face new challenges as they age. The more people drive, the more problems that need to be solved.
That’s what we do. We relentlessly deliver new ways to solve people’s repair problems. We were one of the first to do it, and still lead the way today. Because we are driven like no one else.
We are Dorman. We give people freedom to fix cars and trucks with innovative ideas that save time, money, effort and frustration. And a promise to never stop driving new solutions.
IF YOU SEE AN OE FIX™ SOLUTION, YOU KNOW IT’S BETTER THAN OEM.
Dorman puts repair professionals and vehicle owners first. Whenever an OEM doesn’t offer the service solution you deserve, Dorman develops a better solution — an OE FIX™ solution.
Learn About Dorman Innovation, Engineering & Quality
Dorman has teams of engineers around North America and across the globe, all working to develop and deliver high-quality aftermarket auto parts and components. Go behind the scenes of our facilities to see the difference you can expect with Dorman repair solutions.
Electronics Manufacturing & Remanufacturing In Pennsylvania
Dorman Virtual Tour – Electronics Development in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania
Modern vehicles increasingly rely on electronic modules, as well as mechatronics that combine
electronics with mechanical parts. To continue being a leader in these new technologies, in 2018 Dorman acquired Flight Systems Automotive Group, one of the industry’s leading manufacturers and remanufacturers in complex electronics and mechatronic diesel components.
Our highly trained contributors use state-of-the-art technologies to build brand-new modules, as well as to fully restore the functionality of previously used parts. To produce new parts and components, we started an automated surface mount technology line that precisely and reliably assembles complete circuit boards of our own design.
Throughout the process, components are verified using automated visual inspection technology. Completed electronics undergo in-circuit testing, as well as inspection by quality control experts, before they’re installed in their respective assemblies.
The final step before they leave the plant is end-of-line testing to ensure proper function. In our electronics remanufacturing area, components such as PCMs and TIPMs are inspected, processed and prepared for a thorough rebuild. Preparing cores for reman starts with cleaning and reclaiming all reusable components.
Prior to testing, any original designs assembled by wire bonding can now be remanufactured and upgraded with our state-of-the-art, in-house wire bonding equipment. This capability, normally seen only in OE manufacturing, sets Dorman apart in the aftermarket, and results in stronger bonds than those found in many of the original parts.
Following assembly using new electronics, each unit is thoroughly tested to ensure it operates properly. This testing includes full vehicle simulation to validate that every function is fully operational.
Mechatronic components, including TEHCMs and diesel fuel injectors, undergo a similar process. Cores are cleaned and evaluated for remanufacturing, including for example flow testing on common rail injectors. Components are assembled using all new seals and fittings, undergoing final testing before their packaged for delivery.
By investing in both people and technology here in the United States, Dorman is prepared to respond to the changing needs of the automotive aftermarket with quality and innovation.
Dorman Virtual Tour – Drive Shaft Manufacturing in Reno, Nevada
Dorman builds, balances and delivers drive shafts throughout North America in production
facilities around the US, including its primary facility here in Reno, Nevada.
At the center of every Dorman drive shaft are quality components from suppliers in North America and around the world.
The manufacturing process starts when an order is processed. Components are selected for each build, prioritized by warehouse location and workstream to increase speed and accuracy.
Metal tubes – either steel or aluminum to match the OE material – are cut to precise dimensions using a CNC cold saw.
Joint components are then pressed onto the drive shaft tubes using a Hines Push-Up Press, a 25-ton hydraulic ram that simultaneously pushes the joint assembly and a splined tube shaft into the tubing.
The shaft is then welded to the joint components to permanently secure the assembly. Welded shafts receive a mid-ship straightening prior to final assembly to remove any distortion introduced during the previous processes.
Final assembly of U-joints, bearings and other fittings takes place before each drive shaft is balanced. Any runout corrections are made with heat straightening, with accuracy to within 1/1000 of an inch.
Each shaft then undergoes final bi-directional balancing to simulate road use, before weights are welded in place.
Some longer drive shafts are manufactured in two- or three-piece designs that are pre-balanced and keyed to perfectly match up with each other, and remain balanced during installation.
Completed drive shafts are packed in durable boxes for convenient parcel truck shipping.
Dorman backs its drive shafts with a Limited Lifetime Warranty. That’s why, when you want a quality drive shaft you can trust, check Dorman first.
Dorman Drive Shaft Manufacturing In Nevada
Window Regulator Quality & Testing
See The Quality Difference For Yourself With Dorman Power Window Regulators
When shopping for a window regulator, it’s easy to be tempted by a low price. But what are you really getting to save a few bucks?
So today, we’re going to take a few moments and talk about a few key points about why Dorman is, and will continue to be, the aftermarket leader in developing, designing and releasing quality window regulators to the aftermarket.
So quality, what does that mean? We hear about it all the time. Let’s head upstairs to our state-of-the-art window regulator laboratory, where we have some competitive samples to review.
Let’s look at this regulator for certain Nissan Pathfinder, Frontier and Xterra models, as well as the Suzuki Equator. As you can see, our competitor does not have Dorman’s exclusive OE-FIX cable sheathing.
Over time, this can lead to a window that jumps as it rolls up. This will cause the window to move more slowly than the factory unit. You can also hear the unpleasant grinding sound this failure causes.
Next, we’ll look at this regulator for some Ford Super Duty trucks and E-Series vans. As you can clearly see, our competitor’s part does not even go down all the way. Not only that, but when the windows roll up, you can see the competitor’s part moves at a much slower pace.
Let’s move on to this regulator for Chevy, GMC and Cadillac full-size pickups and SUVs. The first thing we noticed when we test fitted the competitor’s part was that it didn’t even line up to the mounting points in the door. Our engineer had to drill into the door to get this window regulator to fit. Not only that, but when the window regulators start going up, you can once again see how much slower the competitor moves.
Finally, let’s show you the regulator for the popular Chevy Cruze. Since the beginning of Dorman’s Smart Motor Program, we’ve invested over a million dollars in our smart motor technology. Here’s why that’s important. As you can see in our competitor’s version, the interior lights remained on after the door was closed because of improper programming. This could result in a dead battery.
We also measured the competitor’s pinch force, and found it was set too high, which could result in serious injury. This is a violation of federal motor vehicle safety standards. All of Dorman’s smart motor window regulators are FMVSS compliant.
Another frustration with our competitor’s regulator is an unresponsive window lift switch. And once again, you can see another example of our competitor’s poor window speed performance.
Since our competitor sample doesn’t have Dorman’s OE-Fix on their rubber grommet, this piece could become dislodged, resulting in glass breaking — a scary and potentially dangerous situation.
So in conclusion, window regs are what we do here at Dorman. Over the last 10 years, we’ve invested millions of dollars into this program, and we’re going to continue to do so through innovation, through development and through new products.
Can You Trust Your Steering Shaft? See The Quality Difference With Dorman.
Howdy, this is Lemmy with Dorman Products, here to talk to you today about our vehicle steering shafts.
Steering shafts, better known as intermediate shafts, link the steering column to the steering box or the rack, and transmit driver input at the wheel to the steering components themselves within the vehicle.
Steering shafts are usually replaced for one of two reasons. In some cases, the coupling between the sections of shaft develops excessive freeplay, better known as “slop,” in vehicle steering. This freeplay often manifests itself with an audible clunk or click.
In other scenarios, water makes its way into the needle bearings in the small universal joints at the end of the shaft. This may also manifest itself as an audible noise, and sometimes a tight or notchy spot in the steering wheel can be felt when operating the vehicle.
Now these are safety-critical components. If you lose your ability to confidently and accurately steer, that’s obviously a concern. The second more subtle reason they are safety items has to do with collisions.
OEM intermediate shafts are designed to collapse or retract in the event of an accident, just like the steering column. This design is to help absorb energy during a crash, so the shaft does not pierce the cabin or passengers.
Now as you can see, choosing a replacement steering shaft is a bit more important than just finding out who has one and what it costs. We build our steering shafts with thought and care.
Now, there are many different shaft styles, but we’ve got one cut open here I think really helps illustrate some of the design and engineering details in a Dorman steering shaft that you might not find in a competitor.
Now, the first thing you’ll notice is a difference in the thickness of the metal used to make these pieces. In this scenario, since the job of the steering shaft is to collapse to keep occupants safe, this excess thickness is rather concerning. Note that ours is much thinner. It’s strong enough to do its job, but it also will buckle in a controlled manner, as the FMVSS standards demand.
Next up, to me perhaps the most egregious offense on this no-name competitor shaft. And that’s the mock corrugation you can see here. Externally, this looks the same as ours, but notice since their sections are solid and not hollow as ours are, the section offers no ability to absorb impact energy. They just spun in what appear to be decorative grooves on a lathe. I’d hazard a guess they’re not even aware of the function of this area on the shaft.
We take this very seriously, as the ability of the shaft to absorb the impact and safely dissipate the energy of a crash is mission critical in terms of keeping vehicle occupants safe. To this end, we perform tensile testing on OEM units, as well as our own, carefully crafting our shafts to perform just like original units. If you’re using a different brand of steering shaft, are you confident they’re performing that same test?
This tensile test measures the amount of force required to deform the shaft. Note how much more force was required to begin collapsing the competition’s components. You can clearly see here the results of our controlled, planned deformation. The competitor? You be the judge. Also, look at this, their yoke is welded on crooked! That’s obviously going to affect steering feel and joint longevity, right?
Next, I want you to look at the U-joint here. Note that ours is black, and theirs is silver. That’s because we coat ours; we don’t want it to rust. Theirs is unpainted. Interestingly, in multiple samples we examined, we found rust forming inside the part packaging on competitor units. We wait to coat our shafts until they’re assembled, so we don’t have unpainted sections like this, and the results speak for themselves.
In salt spray testing simulating a much longer on-car time period, you can see how the items fared. Our competition showed significant oxidation in the critical U-joint area, exactly where these pieces tend to fail. While salt spray is abusive to any manufacturer’s part, we feel ours held up rather admirably. Look at the time spent in the chamber!
Now let’s look at the seals at the end of the bearing caps. This is a real tragedy. See how swollen their seals look? You can see them cracking right out of the box. That’s because the bearing caps are staked at the incorrect depth. Instead of leaving some room for the cross to “float” just a little between caps, these are sandwiched so tight they’re swelling the seals. In fact, if you notice, the caps are actually so incorrectly installed the seals foul one another. Look how they make contact as the joint naturally moves.
As you use your new steering shaft, you wind up wearing out the seals prematurely, thus allowing the ingress of water and debris. Take a peek at the Dorman shaft, and you can see our seal design is such that the seals are nowhere near one another, and the staking depth is held to a better tolerance, and the joints simply operate more smoothly.
I’m not up here to sound like Safety Sam or an alarmist, but these are safety-critical parts. As auto industry pros, we are responsible for the safety of our customers, and as DIYers, you’re responsible for the safety of anyone you transport in your car, including yourself.
At Dorman, we design and engineer our steering shafts for the worst-case scenario, because sometimes the worst thing does happen. Saving a few dollars for steering components that don’t last and don’t protect vehicle occupants doesn’t seem like the best plan to us, so we don’t do it.
We hope you learned a bit about what makes our steering shafts the best in the aftermarket. And remember, if you need anything at all, the Dorman Technical Support team is always handy to help. Thanks for checking out this video on our steering shafts. I’m Lemmy, and I’m out of here!
Steering Shaft Safety & Reliability
Replacing A Fluid Reservoir
What To Look For When Replacing A Fluid Reservoir
Howdy, this is Lemmy with Dorman Products, here to talk to you today about our fluid reservoirs. While a fluid reservoir isn’t the sexiest auto part in the world, they are incredibly important.
Every vehicle needs to carry an adequate supply of different fluids in order to function. Think about your own car. You’ve likely got a coolant reservoir, a washer fluid reservoir, probably a power steering reservoir and a brake fluid reservoir, too. And Dorman makes all of them. Heck, we even offer universal coolant expansion bottles for those plumbing-up custom or non-automotive cooling systems.
We build the best fluid tanks you can buy. Quality matters here. Imagine your loved ones in a car with a brake fluid reservoir that wasn’t up to the job. Seems like a crazy place to shortcut quality, doesn’t it?
Even a simple thing like washer fluid bottle plays an important role. Anyone living in the Salt Belt of the USA knows how quickly ice and salt can cut vision to nothing on a snowy day. A few squirts of wiper fluid immediately improves visibility, and thus safety.
Or consider something like a coolant overflow tank. Under high pressure, these can cause massive scalds, putting anyone near the bottle at risk, including DIY mechanics, pro wrenches, pedestrians involved in vehicular collisions, as well as first responders who may need underhood access in the event of an accident.
However, all fluid tanks are not created equal. We perform stringent testing on OEM units here at Dorman, as well as on our own pieces and those of our competitors. For something as basic as a container that contains fluid, you’d think it would be simple to build one of high quality, but as in most things, the devil’s in the details.
So today, I want to walk you through two parts. An interchange may tell you these parts are equivalent, but your own two eyes (and our testing) should tell you that they certainly are not equal.
This particular part holds the coolant in some larger Fords (three-quarter ton and one-ton trucks and Excursions), so it’s a pretty common unit. I want to start here at the cap.
First, caps are included on nearly all of our fluid reservoirs. You may not find that with the competition. Our competition has put a Ford number onto this cap, which is a bit disingenuous, because this cap doesn’t perform like OE equipment.
The cap is actually a safety device, since a modern coolant reservoir actually holds pressure, instead of the old days where it served just as an expansion tank. The Society of Automotive Engineers develop standards for various parts of a car. For this style cap, Standard J151, specifies that a cap must be rotated at least one and a half turns after pressure releases. This prevents someone from accidentally opening the cap too far before the pressure is released and being scalded with the hot steam.
But this cap? It doesn’t even make it one and a half turns from being fastened. We perform rad cap pressure tests on all our units. Note in our testing facility how fast our engineer’s hand is blown away from the container when we put some pressure to it, and listen to how fast the pressure blows off. Now imagine what that hand would look like with some 180° coolant gushing out. Not pretty.
In the exact same test, our cap vents the pressure in a much more controlled manner. And, you actually need to turn ours a few times, providing that critical time between turns for the pressure to subside and save the flesh of an unwitting motorist.
Let’s also talk about how that cap functions. Ours has a nice, positive ratcheting mechanism when it is closed, just like the OEM cap. It lets you know the cap has been tightened sufficiently. Our competitor has no ratcheting function, leaving the possibility of over- or under-tightening wide open.
Next, let’s talk about reservoir strength. Your average cooling system runs around 16 psi or so, but it can spike to maybe 40 pounds. And, sometimes performance-minded individuals nudge that number north by increasing the cap pressure, trying to keep coolant from boiling when an engine is making lots of power and running real hot.
We have a custom-built burst-tester to rigorously vet out the quality of OEM units, our own bottles and the reservoirs of our competition. Our coolant bottles are tested to 100 psi to keep mechanics, medics and other motorists safe. If it doesn’t hold triple digits, it doesn’t go in a Dorman box, it’s that simple.
When we burst test our bottles, we fill them with fluid, and pressurize it to make sure our tanks can take the heat, literally. Ours held up right through testing. And the competition? 20 percent weaker than ours, and we tested some that rang in less than this one did.
How big is that difference after six or eight years in a car, receiving repeated heat cycles? Are they testing to any type of standard, and if they are, why are we finding variances? Testing isn’t inexpensive, but it’s necessary to prevent inconsistent product from hitting the shelves, which is why we do it.
While we’re looking at this part, note how we reinforce our hose barb here with a metal sleeve. That ensures that a leak won’t form at this critical junction, helping keep the work trucks, where this bottle is used, in service and actually working. Now, please remember this is just one single coolant reservoir, but we put the same level of care into all our fluid bottles, whether they hold coolant, washer fluid, brake fluid or power steering fluid.
There are a multitude of reasons to replace fluid reservoirs, which is why we sell so many of them. Whether it’s mechanical impact damage from a collision, etching on the inside of the tank reducing level visibility, or the formation of a simple leak, know that a Dorman tank has been tested for safety and longevity, and will keep motorists, mechanics and medics safe.
Thanks for checking out our video on our fluid reservoirs. And remember, if you need anything at all, the Dorman Technical Support team is always handy to help. I’m Lemmy, and I’m out of here!
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