If I was replacing an O2 sensor, a MAP sensor, or a Throttle Body I would definitely go O.E.
But what about a wheel sensor? The dealer wants a $100 + + and Rockauto has plenty of off brands for a lot less. The car is 15 years old and may not be with me much longer.
Opinions?
O.E.M.'s don’t make those parts.
They’re supplied by vendors who submit the lowest bids to get the contracts.
So, the aftermarket component you buy might be from the same vendor.
And if you look on Rockauto for a part, it’ll list if it’s an OEM part.
Tester
But the suppliers are held to rigid technical standards for performance and durability as well as cost. The aftermarket parts have no such standards. Their parts just need to fit and function until you sell your car.
While the OEM part may last 15 years and 150K miles, the aftermarket part need only last 5 years and maybe 30K miles to be acceptable. The really cheap aftermarket parts may not fit well or work more than 6 months.
You pretty much get what you pay for…at RockAuto or other parts suppliers. You WILL pay more at the dealer for their OEM parts because their profit margin is higher.
Another risk is getting older revision parts. The dealer will purge their inventory of parts that may have a deficiency identified by the car manufacturer and has been replaced by an updated part. I ran into that buying a steering angle sensor. The aftermarket guys have no qualms about exhausting their inventory of existing parts…
I have no problem buying aftermarket parts for my vehicles but there are certain parts I will pay the premium on to get something of known quality.
When you go to Rockauto, and when you see a part that is listed as OE, it means the part was manufactured to the OEM’s specifications.
Even though it’s an aftermarket part.
And for all we know, that’s the vendor who supplied the original part to the OEM.
Tester
Yes agree…and it is nearly always cheaper than the dealer!
I think a RA or auto-parts store version would do the job ok. Suggest however to not purchase the most inexpensive version, neither the most expensive. Choose a mid-priced option, from a well-known-brand vendor.
… which sounds appropriate for the OP, who is driving a 15 year old car which he doesn’t plan to keep for the long term.
Then why fix it at all? If the conventional brake system is still functioning normally simply drive on like you did in a car that didn’t have ABS in the first place.
My TPMS light has been on for a couple of years …….now with the abs light on it’s just one too many lights for me, besides it’s an easy and cheap ( if I go off brand ) fix.
We’ll, I put a Hella brand ( decent brand, made in Korea ) wheel sensor in and still have the abs light.
( I’ve turned the warning light off twice and it comes back immediately each time as I start to drive )
The tone ring looks clean and shiny as I spin the hub and look through the sensor hole with a flashlight.
Aside from going over the complete wiring harness, anything else I should try.
I imagine there is also a CPU that could be bad 
The problem might be occurring on another wheel too. Your shop should be able to put the rondo on their lift and hand-rotate each tire, while checking the validity of the wheel speed sensor signals one by one with their scan tool.
Is there anything unusual with the tires? Are all four the same make/model/size/inflation and close to the same amount of wear?
Does your car use in-tire sensors to determine the tire’s psi? Or does is that inferred from the wheel speed sensors?
Rather than take the old Rondo to a garage I’ll just drive without abs. Fifteen years of driving it and I’ve never had it come on once.
( I know it worked since someone else driving it experienced it coming on once years ago)
The tires are all new and matching but the TPMS has been out since the original batteries went dead after 14 years.
The tone ring looked good through the sensor hole but the original sensor did have a small amount of metal filings on the tip. Maybe tomorrow I’ll go back in, and with compressed air spin the hub and blow off the tone ring. I guess I should have checked the replacement sensor to see if it was producing any voltage by spinning the hub. The one I took out didn’t so I “assumed “ it was the problem.