I will guess Black tube and lighter box are real.

 

First pix the one on the right (my right) is my guess. Looks of better quality albeit older. The big question is where the fake one was purchased?

 

The laser engraving is what I’m focused on. Grey insulator printing is perfect, so I conclude the black tube to be genuine Denso.

 

I would always buy direct from denso or right from Toyota.

 

two things make me think the made in USA denso is the genuine one.
first if you were making a denso part, why make it say USA when you can make it say japan. japan better.
also both boxes say assembled in USA, why does the part have a japan stamp?

second thing that stands out to me is the quality of the crimp of the ferrule where the wire leaves the sensor. the crimp on the USA part is beautiful, the crimp of the "made in japan" looks pretty bad. I'd bet it isn't made in the USA or made in japan, but somewhere else entirely.

 

The stamping on the Japan part looks crooked to me. I would go with the black insulator as the legit one. I just bought Denso O2s from Rock Auto, now I'm going to have to check them when I get home.

 

Yes, do check them. One of these sensors is from RA the other was from Orielly’s.


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Last hint of the day:

The Japan printed black wire cover is from the dark box. The USA is from the bright blue box.

The dark box had the paperwork with less prints at the bottom. The bright blue had more trademarks.


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If the paperwork is written in 3 languages then I would expect the legal parts (trademarking and rights) to be in 3 languages as well.

 

If my tires weren't super grippy I would be laying down stripes on my way home. I really want to see what I have. Thank procrastination I haven't gotten around to installing them.

 

Even before you gave another clue, I was looking at the paperwork and boxes. I figured if you bothered to give us photos of those, then you considered them important.

Both paperworks say Copyright 2013 but only one has a lot of trademark stuff in 3 languages about First Time Fit. It's reasonable to ask why they'd be different. A corporation's legal department could have added text in a later revision, which still could have been in 2013.

Only 1 box has a QR code on it. Did a QR based marketing campaign come earlier or later, in the product's history?

Looking very carefully at the ad copy on the boxes, the copyrights on the dark blue box with the QR code are from 2018 ! Darned weird to have a 2018 box with 2013 documentation in it.

I put the photo through a web based QR scanner. The URL it represents is A/F Sensors | DENSO Auto Parts which takes me to A/F Sensors | DENSO Auto Parts . Note that Toyota Nation is representing both URLs with the same convenience text, but they are different URLs.

It seems possible that a counterfeiter combined the boxes and documentation they had on hand, not noticing the discrepancy.

 

In my opinion, the one that says "Japan" is counterfeit. Both boxes say "Assembled in the USA with foreign components". The sensor marked with "Assembled in USA" is consistent with the box. The one marked "Japan" would be an FTC violation.

 

I'm guessing the fake one came from RA and the real one came from O'Reillys?

 

Interesting read: Fake Denso parts. How you can tell? - ClubLexus - Lexus Forum Discussion

Denso just replied me in e-mail with more details.

DENSO is primarily an Original Equipment Manufacturer and Supplier to many of today's vehicle and equipment manufacturers. As DENSO supplies products to our customers, they gain control of the after sales and service support of those products, and unless given permission by those customers, DENSO can not provide product /
data to the industry.

DENSO is offering Aftermarket (First Time Fit - FTF) Air Fuel Ratio & Oxygen Sensors to the industry. However, due to our corporate bylaws, DENSO is not allowed to sell product directly, thus DENSO has authorized distributors for the sale and warranty administration and or exchange consideration of our products. At this time EBay is not an authorized distributor for DENSO products, they are generally a selling agent. All that said:

• Unfortunately, DENSO exhaust sensors & and spark plugs are being counterfeited.
• As EBay is not an authorized distributor, DENSO can not control the products that are available.
• Part Identification, is difficult, you will not find the DENSO FTF p/n on the actual sensor.
• The DENSO FTF sensor should arrive in a sealed plastic bag inside of a box.
• The DENSO FTF sensor # is on the box & sealed plastic bag.
• If your sensor was not received in a sealed plastic bag, I would return it.

The identification makings on the actual sensor, can only be deciphered internally at DENSO. If you can provide DENSO the suspected FTF part number and any identifying numbers or marking's, we can try to authenticate your sensor.

DENSO Products & Service Americas, Inc.
Technical Services Department
For more questions please contact: 800-366-1123

 

Great input from you guys. If any of you follow my prior posts, I have had a recent Denso issue as well.

I think it’s important that I share this so that the community is well aware of the problems in the Denso products in todays market.

I’ll give more people to respond and conclusion will be shared so no other reader here will fall into a money pit when trying to maintain, repair, and diagnose issues on their vehicle.


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I dunno if anyone caught it. But I saw on the insert 2 very different websites. The one on the right, lists densoaftermarket.com and the one on the left is densoautoparts.com.

By typing either of these website addresses, it takes you to densoautoparts.com. Still not definitive on the inserts, but you would assume that an insert containing certs and trademarks would be legit. I’ll have to check my denso air filters when I have time.

I feel the lighter blue box is the legit one. But can’t be certain since I don’t study counterfeits.

 

Well, both of the stickers mis-translate "in USA" into French

It's not "dans l'USA", it's "aux E.U."

 

That is some really good fake packagaing and it does make me question how real my DENSO remanufactured starter I bought as an open box item on ebay is. The starter works really nicely, and the box looked really genuine, so go figure. I correctly assumed the made in JAPAN was fake simply because it makes more sense if your doing a fake to claim JAPAN made. The QR code also seems more realistic for the box

 

Assembl’e dans l’USA
or
Assemble dans l’USA

Edit :

Per google translate.
assembled in the USA from foreign components

French
assemblé aux États-Unis à partir de composants étrangers

 

Camus wrote a novel about that. De Composants Étrangers.

 

The Japan sensor is the fake sensor. Purchased from RA. A month ago I posted about a remanufactured Denso alternator that was also faulty. I RMA’d it and received an equally faulty Denso Reman.

Be aware that Denso quality may no longer be the standard. At least for O2 sensors and alternators.

I have good success with their radiator division and production thus far.

For those who want to see an original Toyota branded Denso sensor, it has a braided looking silver wire cover and a blue tag. It also has an extra black shrink wrap towards the connector.

I suggest getting a sensor from the dealer to save the headache. Or gamble with the Denso crazed market and ensure what you get is inspected.
Unfortunately my original sensor threads were destroyed as it was stuck on the manifold on first removal. It still works, just needs new threads.


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The Japan sensor is the fake sensor. Purchased from RA. A month ago I posted about a remanufactured Denso alternator that was also faulty. I RMA’d it and received an equally faulty Denso Reman.

Be aware that Denso quality may no longer be the standard. At least for O2 sensors and alternators.

I have good success with their radiator division and production thus far.

For those who want to see an original Toyota branded Denso sensor, it has a braided looking silver wire cover and a blue tag. It also has an extra black shrink wrap towards the connector.
View attachment 424884


I suggest getting a sensor from the dealer to save the headache. Or gamble with the Denso crazed market and ensure what you get is inspected.
Unfortunately my original sensor threads were destroyed as it was stuck on the manifold on first removal. It still works, just needs new threads.


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Interesting discussion and thank you for the heads up. Looking at the “used threads” which are not visible, my impression is I’m looking at heavily applied anti seize compound ! 😏

 

This is unfortunate to hear. But we knew quality was falling by the wayside. It was a matter of time before it impacted the bigger companies.

Other than the RMA process, after you got the replacement did you just ask for your money back?

 

For this O2 sensor I held onto for too long. I didn’t install it up until this point in time. No actionable items can be done here.

The alternator I kept because I am experimenting with it to find out which components are at fault. My theory is that the remanufacturer only replaced the bearings, brushes, gaskets, and cheap hardware with half of the housing were new. The remaining high dollar items like rectifier, rotor, and regulator are reused. I will be taking good used alternator to Re-remanufacture the unit as a spare.


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Mine are the legit Densos purchased from Rock Auto within the last 2 weeks. The engraving on them did say USA. FWIW mine shipped from a warehouse in Huron, OH.

 

It looks like you got the real one. The upstream is suppose to look this this. The wire cover looks like a braided pattern with heat shrink portion by the connector.

The downstream sensor I never had to replace so far.


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So how did you decide?
Do they market, made in Japan else where in the world.

 

Since RA has multiple warehousing locations, one could get old stock or new stock. You know how anyone gets the counterfeit? It is sent by someone who got one and returns it. This isn’t going to always be the case.

Amazon and RA need to start to be more diligent. Eventually it will be so flooded with counterfeit parts.

 

What’s the most noticeable issue is that the box is a different color. It somehow did get past RA without a hitch. Not only the sensor was bad, the box is noticeably different.

I found it was a fake sensor by installing it. The heater element gave low resistance. And the sensor had barely if any capability to sense air/fuel. The motor didn’t know what to do in power delivery.


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