Lost hub cap and leak

[14Platoon]

Land Rover Defender 1992 ex MOD

The hub cap cover came off my front wheel today and left a lot of grease on the wheel. 

Im going to create an emergency hub cover but How and where do I replace the lost grease?

thanks 

[Simon Smith]

Most of it will be EP90 from the swivel mixed with a little grease from the bearings. I've never lost enough to worry about despite the mess. Just top up the swivel with EP.

Cured mine permanently by fitting HD drive members.

[idioms]

Clean axle breathers mine was doing the same and the breathers were blocked

[14Platoon]

On 08/07/2018 at 10:26 PM, idioms said:

Clean axle breathers mine was doing the same and the breathers were blocked

Yep going to check these out. 

[Martin M McHale]

I’ve cleaned the breathers yet the plastic cap covers still pop off from Tim to time , what else should I do it’s happened 3 times in two years ??

[reb78]

Put genuine ones on. Aftermarket plastic things are rubbish. 

[western]

New genuine LR caps, to fit heat them in hot water, dry quickly, a blob of gear oil in, then push onto hub drive member, the oil will keep moisture out of the driveshaft & drive member splines. 

Upto 300tdi use FRC4377

300tdi on use FTC5414

[monkie]

8 hours ago, reb78 said:

Put genuine ones on. Aftermarket plastic things are rubbish. 

I second this. Only use the genuine part, the aftermarket ones seem hard and brittle, they won't last and that's if you can get them to fit in the first place! 

[miketomcat]

I had an issue with mine splitting after a few weeks of fitting. Genuine are much better but I gave up and fitted HD drive flanges with a screw on cap.

Mike

[reb78]

Haha. In a hurry, all i could get one time was britpart ones. They were split before they came out of their sealed packet. The guy in the shop went through eight packs and found one that wasnt split. 

[Snagger]

16 minutes ago, reb78 said:

Haha. In a hurry, all i could get one time was britpart ones. They were split before they came out of their sealed packet. The guy in the shop went through eight packs and found one that wasnt split. 

Few of us will be surprised by that. How they aren’t prosecuted by Trading Standards I don’t know.

[hurbie]

45 minutes ago, Snagger said:

Few of us will be surprised by that. How they aren’t prosecuted by Trading Standards I don’t know.

maybee nobody complains about the quality (most of the parts have a 2 year warranty)

[Snagger]

I think a lack of official complaints is the key - it seems most people just blame themselves for buying blue box rubbish, throw it in the bin and write it off to experience rather than kick up a fuss.  The shame is that Bearmach lost the fight against Britpart, and now we’re stuck with no choice but their carp or overpriced Gen Parts rubbish made to far inferior standards than before Tata took over.

[Peaklander]

Yes, I wonder if more sellers should complain about Britpart problems. There was a guy behind the counter (now retired) at Paddocks and he was a lovely chap and knew every part number and its application, across the range of vehicles. I told him that I didn't want any Britpart items and he asked why. I was rather shocked and said, surely you know that they are of dubious quality / reliability? He said he didn't realise that and also that as he wasn't a LR enthusiast, he didn't buy parts himself.

I wonder what happens when a supplier receives a return. Is there a system to notify the distributor / manufacturer so that corrective action can begin? In automotive and aerospace manufacturing, the parts suppliers are certainly kept on their toes and have to jump when needed. Perhaps this doesn't happen across some areas of the aftermarket parts supply.

[FridgeFreezer]

7 hours ago, miketomcat said:

I had an issue with mine splitting after a few weeks of fitting. Genuine are much better but I gave up and fitted HD drive flanges with a screw on cap.

Same here, HD flanges are cheap as chips now and are just a nicer design.

[reb78]

6 hours ago, hurbie said:

maybee nobody complains about the quality (most of the parts have a 2 year warranty)

I always seemed to have trouble getting my complaints taken seriously. Even tried reporting the carp quality of some items to britpart directly once. But they simply didnt care. 
 

I speak in the past tense as i stopped buying their rubbish about 15 years ago. 

[FridgeFreezer]

I've returned stuff to them under warranty (seller promised me they were worth a shot - they weren't) but it's hardly worth the trip to the post office and the hassle of doing the job twice.

Thing is, we're so used to Britpart's prices that perfectly reasonable OEM/genuine stuff starts to look expensive when in reality it's actually not bad at all compared to lots of other manufacturers.

[Snagger]

6 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

I've returned stuff to them under warranty (seller promised me they were worth a shot - they weren't) but it's hardly worth the trip to the post office and the hassle of doing the job twice.

Thing is, we're so used to Britpart's prices that perfectly reasonable OEM/genuine stuff starts to look expensive when in reality it's actually not bad at all compared to lots of other manufacturers.

Gen Parts is usually vastly overpriced.  Look at the difference when you buy a UJ in a GKN or Hardy Spicer box vs a LR box, or a brake master so cylinder from TRW vs Gen Parts.  The trouble is compounded because Tata predictably moved a lot of parts manufacture/supply to India and quality of much of it plummeted.  Maybe not to Britpart levels, but certainly not the original standard.  So, they really always forced owners to look for cheaper alternatives.  If suppliers had offered OEM stuff, especially the big suppliers like Paddock, then we may have been in a better position, but they mostly went with the cheapest wholesaler with no regard to quality whatsoever.  They can’t be unaware of the problem, though perhaps they don’t realise the severity.  But they are just money grubbing businesses with no enthusiasm for the marque and no loyalty to the customer.  They see us as a cash cow and don’t give a stuff.  
 

While it is owners that have chosen to support Britpart over others because of price, and the concept of the cheapest alternative being the lowest quality is hardly new, I think it is not unreasonable that inexperienced owners assume that there are certain assurances over quality, and that for vehicle components, a level of quality enforcement would be in place.  That there isn’t is a lesson that takes a while for most to learn, but during that time, they help the bad players get stronger and the good players wither.  Sadly, the experienced owners with the budget for decent parts are replaced by new owners who continue to make the same mistake, and so the situation worsens.

[reb78]

A fair number of suppliers do offer a lot of oem. Britcar and LRDirect are great at it. So you can find corteco, hardy spicer, gkn, qh, etc etc products. They are the options i go for. 

[FridgeFreezer]

4 hours ago, Snagger said:

Look at the difference when you buy a UJ in a GKN or Hardy Spicer box vs a LR box

Hardly controversial that there'd be some markup on it  but it also depends if you're buying the identical spec with the same design life etc. too - it's been shown that (for example) LR gen parts starters have more seals inside than an aftermarket OEM starter that looks and fits identically.

Someone (maybe here) described similar after a visit to one of the big suspension manufacturers - shocks sold into manufacturers looked identical (same basic design) but were subject to much stricter QC and had to last the full OEM warranty period.

Anyway, the suggestion wasn't that JLR are running a charitable parts supply foundation... just that the genuine prices are not vastly out of whack with whatever you'd be paying with any other marque.

[Mossberg]

8 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Hardly controversial that there'd be some markup on it  but it also depends if you're buying the identical spec with the same design life etc. too - it's been shown that (for example) LR gen parts starters have more seals inside than an aftermarket OEM starter that looks and fits identically.

Someone (maybe here) described similar after a visit to one of the big suspension manufacturers - shocks sold into manufacturers looked identical (same basic design) but were subject to much stricter QC and had to last the full OEM warranty period.

Anyway, the suggestion wasn't that JLR are running a charitable parts supply foundation... just that the genuine prices are not vastly out of whack with whatever you'd be paying with any other marque.

I think the issue here is the vast difference in price. Unfortunately people like land rover seem to charge like a wounded rhino. 

I will buy some parts from Britpart. I think about the part I am buying and decide if I feel it will be suitable.

I did buy Britpart calipers and discs - but not pads.

I bought Britpart swivels but not wheel bearings (got Timken), or seals (I got Corteco).

I don't do much mileage so that also influences my decision. If a Britpart part will do 50k miles to a land rover doing 150k, the Britpart will last me well over 10 years anyway.

I feel its such a shame that some parts, with just a little more care or perhaps better materials, would be a match (or very near) for the genuine part and probably for not much more cost than what they charge now.

[FridgeFreezer]

3 hours ago, Mossberg said:

Unfortunately people like land rover seem to charge like a wounded rhino. 

That's my point though - they aren't that bad for a lot of stuff if you go and look at other manufacturers, it's just that Britpart flogging wheel bearings for £6 makes everything else seem expensive.

[landroversforever]

12 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Hardly controversial that there'd be some markup on it  but it also depends if you're buying the identical spec with the same design life etc. too - it's been shown that (for example) LR gen parts starters have more seals inside than an aftermarket OEM starter that looks and fits identically.

Someone (maybe here) described similar after a visit to one of the big suspension manufacturers - shocks sold into manufacturers looked identical (same basic design) but were subject to much stricter QC and had to last the full OEM warranty period.

Anyway, the suggestion wasn't that JLR are running a charitable parts supply foundation... just that the genuine prices are not vastly out of whack with whatever you'd be paying with any other marque.

I think it was @simonr that also did the same with UJs. Plenty of UJs sold that will fit in a LR prop, but just because it's made by the same manufacturer to the same outside dimensions doesn't mean it's an equal part. If memory serves correctly it was different sized roller bearings and and seal count again.

[simonr]

That's correct!  I bought one of every (apparently) different UJ I could find, ranging from a 'county' part costing about £2 to a £40 genuine one from a main dealer.

Most of them were very similar with marginal differences in the size of the rollers, designs of seals etc.

The genuine main dealer one had rollers about twice the diameter of any of the others and very different seal construction - and was the only one with no grease nipple.

I figured that if the seals are good, the grease won't escape so you don't need a way to add more - and the longevity of these seems to back that up.

I think the addition of the grease nipple is almost an admission that the seals don't work!

The 'G' suffix, OEM or 'Genuine Quality' ones were barely different from the cheapest.  Only the ones bought from a main dealer were substantially different.

The reason for the bigger rollers is to reduce wear and heating.  A bigger roller doesn't have to rotate as much, for the same deflection of the joint.

With my first 110, I drove it for about 50k miles without having to replace anything.  It was only after I started replacing the genuine parts with patterned, the amount of maintenance went up & up until I was replacing a UJ, wheel bearing or seals maybe once a month.  It suddenly ocurred to me why this might be.

After the UJ investigation, I replaced everything with genuine - and never had to touch them again!

[simonr]

My conclusion was that if it turns, seals or is safety critical - I'll buy it from a main dealer.  Anything else, I'll buy the best apparent quality I can afford.  This has proven a good policy (unless you love tinkering with your truck & breaking down by the side of the road)