Service and wear parts from Dubai in trade quantities

A service-parts basket is the replace-on-schedule half of a car: oil, air, fuel and cabin filters; brake pads and discs; shock absorbers, control arms, ball joints and bushes; drive and timing belts; spark plugs; wheel bearings. UAE customs data show how big that half is. Under heading 8708 the UAE reported exporting USD 214.9 million of brakes and USD 201.6 million of suspension and shock absorbers in 2023, against USD 3.92 billion for all vehicle parts. The UAE has filed no later year.

Buyers abroad describe the same basket in their own words. One Ghanaian trade article lists brake pads, oil, air and fuel filters, fan and timing belts, clutch kits and headlamps as the fast movers in a mixed container. Harare's Kaguvi Street, in a 2019 Herald report, sells brake pads, shock absorbers, clutches, ball bearings, oil filters and service kits to kombi and pirate-taxi operators. Neither is a market survey, but both describe lines that wear out on a schedule and sell by the box.

What we quote is the list, not the single part. A basket usually follows one vehicle family: a Hilux and Hiace fleet, a set of Isuzu N-series trucks, a workshop's Land Cruiser customers. Each line carries a part number, a quantity and a grade, so a buyer can compare lines before choosing. Six or more parts on one list is the working minimum, because a single set of pads cannot carry its share of freight, paperwork and any certificate.

The only measured ladder for a wear part is the front pad set for the Land Cruiser 300 and Prado 250, Toyota 04465-60380, read on Dubai price pages on 3 November 2026 with 5% VAT included. Genuine stock from Deira counters ran from AED 322 to 399. An MK Kashiyama pad, from a Japanese brake brand, was AED 216. Budget pads from Orient, Axios and Takamaya were AED 58 to 73. No quality aftermarket pad was priced for this number, so that row stays empty rather than guessed.

On those prices genuine costs roughly 1.5 to 1.8 times the OE-brand pad and 4.4 to 6.9 times a budget pad. That gap is the reason a quote names a grade on every line. It is not a reason to buy the cheapest: the Takamaya listing describes its budget pad as genuine quality, so the word genuine on a listing proves nothing, and a buyer should look for the carmaker's own part number on the box.

The same number fits more than one car: the pad set is listed for the Land Cruiser 300, Prado 250, 4Runner, Sequoia, Tundra and Lexus LX600. That helps a trader who stocks for several models. It also means a buyer should send the vehicle and its VIN as well as the part number, because a quote is checked against the car before a grade is chosen.

Filters are the most faked service part in the UAE's own enforcement figures. Al-Futtaim Automotive reported seizing more than 2.5 million counterfeit parts worth about AED 7.46 million in 2024, after 20 raids in Sharjah, the Northern Emirates and Al Ain. Oil filters made up AED 2.81 million of that, and air and cabin filters another AED 0.85 million. The total is up 116% on AED 3.45 million in 2021, and the company gave no statement on where the fakes came from or whether any were exported.

Buyers abroad meet the same problem. A 2025 consumer study in Kenya, reported by The Star, put counterfeit prevalence in automotive spare parts at 21 percent, the highest of any category it measured. In August 2025 Zimbabwe's government fleet agency warned that fake brake fluid and sealants were on sale in backstreet shops, and advised buying from members of the Motor Industry Association. Both warnings point the same way: buy a named brand with a paper trail.

Where a supplier allows it, the distributor's invoice for the lot can travel with a genuine filter order, and that paper is what separates a distributor's stock from a doubtful carton. Ask your agent to keep the invoice with the packing list. A clearing agent in Nairobi or Riyadh who finds a branded filter with no paper behind it has little to go on if customs asks where it came from.

Kenya is the clearest case. In 2019 KEBS told its pre-shipment inspectors that 17 categories of used spare parts could not be imported, tied to standard KS 2190:2013. Press reports of the list name brake pads, filters, bearings, spark plugs, clutch plates, bushes and ball joints, and KEBS's acting managing director said that anything outside the list was legal. We found no revision since 2019 and no current KEBS list, so read the categories as reported, not confirmed. New parts are not affected, which is why Kenyan buyers order these lines new.

Mauritius goes further on paper. Item 11 of the Second Schedule to its consumer-protection import regulations prohibits second-hand tubes and wheels, MacPherson strut assemblies, injector nozzles, brake linings, clutch parts, filters, hoses, engine mountings, belts, oil seals, ball joints, bearings, shock absorbers, springs, body shells and jacks, among other groups, 18 in all. A US government guide dated February 2026 still lists them as prohibited. A Mauritian buyer of service parts therefore buys new.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia act on the new part instead. Qatar requires a certificate of conformity, issued by an approved body before shipment, for each consignment containing brake pads, safety belts, wheel rims or tyres, and its notice does not say whether used items are covered. Saudi Arabia's SASO regulation for auto spare parts, adopted in 2017 and amended in August 2023, names brake linings and pads, filters, suspension parts, radiators, mirrors and lamps, with the certificates held by the Saudi importer through SABER.

A buyer picks the vehicle family first and the grade second. Start with the cars you service: their makes, model years and engine codes, or their VINs. For each car list the wear lines in the order a workshop replaces them, then give a quantity per line. A basket for Hilux and Hiace work trucks might carry many filters, a good number of pad sets and fewer arms and bearings, because filters and pads wear out first.

Quality aftermarket is where most price-led baskets land. In the Dubai trade table the Quality aftermarket names include GMB, NPW, 555, CTR and Brembo, while OE-brand means a maker that supplies the carmaker, such as Aisin, Advics, KYB, Tokico, NGK or Denso. Which of them fits a given car is a part-number question, and a person on WhatsApp checks it. Our guide on OEM against aftermarket explains the same split from the UAE retail side.

Mixed baskets are normal. Toyota pads, Nissan filters and Hyundai belts can sit on one list, because the quote is line by line. What matters is that every line is unambiguous: one part number or one VIN-checked description, one grade, one quantity. A line that says brake pads for Hilux invites a second round of questions; a line that reads 04465-60380 front pad set, OE-brand, 24 sets does not.

Your agent charges for the greater of actual weight and volume, and a service basket plays both ends. Discs, pad sets and bearings are dense and small; filters and belts are light and bulky; shock absorbers are long. DHL's 2026 UAE rate guide divides length by width by height in centimetres by 5,000 for each piece, so a carton of filters can be billed for far more than it weighs. Ask your agent which divisor it uses before you decide how many cartons to make.

Pack the groups apart. Discs and other heavy lines go in their own cartons, filters and belts in theirs, each box marked with its part-number list on the outside and a packing list that matches. Keep every part in its maker's retail box, because that box is what shows the grade. DHL's guide adds a surcharge of AED 87 on a piece that is not in a corrugated box, a reminder that the carton matters to carriers as well as to the buyer.

Freight is your agent's business, and these figures are published guides, not our quotes. One Dubai air-cargo agent's card for Nairobi starts at AED 38 a kilo from 30 kg and falls to AED 22 a kilo at 1,000 kg. A Dubai forwarder's guide of February 2026 gives USD 80 to 120 per cubic metre for sea groupage to Mombasa, with most forwarders asking for a one-cubic-metre minimum. A full basket reaches those weights; one set of pads does not.

Genuine means the carmaker's own part in the carmaker's box, bought through the distributor or parallel-trade channel. OE-brand means the part comes from a firm that supplies the carmaker, sold under that firm's own name. Quality aftermarket means a branded replacement made to the OEM pattern and sold under its maker's name. Gulf sellers say original for the first and tejari, meaning commercial, for the third, as Qatari press and a Saudi buying guide describe them.

We do not quote a copy or a first copy as a grade. Those words describe replica goods, which can count as counterfeit under the UAE's Federal Decree-Law 42 of 2023. A line on our quote carries one of the three grades, a brand and a part number, so a buyer can set it against the ladder above and against the same number on any other quote.

Send one message per vehicle family, or a list photographed or pasted into the chat. For each car give the make, model, year and engine code, or the VIN. For each line give the part name, the part number if the old part shows one, the quantity and the grade you prefer or the price band you are aiming for. Add the country the goods will be imported into, because Kenya, Mauritius and Qatar treat wear parts differently, and the name of your cargo agent.

A person replies on WhatsApp with each line priced by grade where UAE distributors and aftermarket lines can supply it, and says which lines cannot be had in the quantity you asked for. How to pay is confirmed in that chat. Nothing is collected until you and your agent agree the packing and the paper: the commercial invoice with a customs code for each line, the packing list and, where it applies, the destination's certificate.