Britpart by Allmakes

[Snagger]

Note that their banner just says “quality parts”, not “high quality” or even “mediocre quality”.  Still, at least the dropped the “the quality parts for Land Rover”, which was as grammatically poor as the grade of aluminium of their parts.

[Sheffield]

I fear Britpart just supply what most of the market requires, which is of course, cheap. I can not blame them for that. My complaint with Britpart is the variable quality of their parts. Some are good, some just about acceptable, and some poor or even unusable. The problem is knowing which is which before I buy.  

 

[geoffbeaumont]

19 hours ago, Sheffield said:

I fear Britpart just supply what most of the market requires, which is of course, cheap. I can not blame them for that. My complaint with Britpart is the variable quality of their parts. Some are good, some just about acceptable, and some poor or even unusable. The problem is knowing which is which before I buy.  

But as has already been observed more than once on this thread, quality assurance is part of what you're not paying for at those prices.

[Snagger]

On 2/26/2020 at 7:23 PM, Sheffield said:

I fear Britpart just supply what most of the market requires, which is of course, cheap. I can not blame them for that. My complaint with Britpart is the variable quality of their parts. Some are good, some just about acceptable, and some poor or even unusable. The problem is knowing which is which before I buy.  

 

Geoff’s response above is correct, and as others have also said, many owners don’t know about the quality issues.  Worse, Britpart’s market dominance is squeezing out supply of decent quality components and leaving us with only tat to buy.  It’s a bad situation forced on the more discerning owner by the inexperienced or cheap owners and businesses.

[Sheffield]

While I agree with what has been said, I feel we must also ask if Land Rover's parts policy has not been a factor. I wish to purchase a new master cylinder for the Discovery 1. The internet offers me one for less than £50, ex vat, while there are two more at just below and just above £70. A Lucas one seems to be £170. The price quoted for the Land Rover branded one of over £310. Faced with that choice I suggest most people would not buy Land Rover. We may question the quanity of the £50 one, but is LR 6 times better? I suggest that had LR parts priced more reasonably there may not have been quite such a move towards the likes of Britpart. They do after all offer 2 year warrany, which would put a lots of minds at rest.

 

[Ex Member]

22 minutes ago, Sheffield said:

They do after all offer 2 year warrany, which would put a lots of minds at rest.

Perhaps not for your example of a master cylinder....  A warranty won't bring you back to life.

[reb78]

3 hours ago, Sheffield said:

While I agree with what has been said, I feel we must also ask if Land Rover's parts policy has not been a factor. I wish to purchase a new master cylinder for the Discovery 1. The internet offers me one for less than £50, ex vat, while there are two more at just below and just above £70. A Lucas one seems to be £170. The price quoted for the Land Rover branded one of over £310. Faced with that choice I suggest most people would not buy Land Rover. We may question the quanity of the £50 one, but is LR 6 times better? I suggest that had LR parts priced more reasonably there may not have been quite such a move towards the likes of Britpart. They do after all offer 2 year warrany, which would put a lots of minds at rest.

 

Depends on whether you think its worth risking a £50 part from Britpart that may fail within days of fitting and leave you stranded somewhere with the hassle of changing it. The two year warranty is a waste of time as is extra hassle to claim and many (most?) dont bother. It also doesnt cover your wasted time for two fittings (and that has some value to me)  

 

Better to fine a decent branded TRW/Delphi etc master cylinder and buy that for reasonable money. 

[Ozzy50]

5 hours ago, Sheffield said:

While I agree with what has been said, I feel we must also ask if Land Rover's parts policy has not been a factor. I wish to purchase a new master cylinder for the Discovery 1. The internet offers me one for less than £50, ex vat, while there are two more at just below and just above £70. A Lucas one seems to be £170. The price quoted for the Land Rover branded one of over £310. Faced with that choice I suggest most people would not buy Land Rover. We may question the quanity of the £50 one, but is LR 6 times better? I suggest that had LR parts priced more reasonably there may not have been quite such a move towards the likes of Britpart. They do after all offer 2 year warrany, which would put a lots of minds at rest.

 

Their parts pricing matches their vehicle pricing , Overpriced !

[Mutley]

I have always gone with....If it's a moving part buy GENUINE or Original Manufacturer for all other bits I try to get None Genuine quality whether Britpart or Bearmach? I have NEVER liked or used ALLMAKES!!!

But that said with the price of GENUINE you do look at the cheaper options and accepting that they are of poor quality,  you can usually buy x3 cheap for the price of x1 Genuine, and if x1 cheap item lasts, say 3yrs then that's 9yrs of use in total. Where as x1 Genuine item being better quality might last mmm 6yrs. So sometimes financially the cheaper option can win in the long run?

Cons.... 3x more work fitting cheaper stuff.

Cheap stuff failing may lead to other issues?

The problem is we all take it as GOSPEL  that GENUINE parts are the best!?! And in some ways Land Rover are the same as Britpart in so much that they buy in most parts and repackage in their boxes, this making them a supplier not a maker. Granted these will be a better quality but they usually only give 12 months warranty on most parts.

Basically we all sleep better knowing we didn't fit a Britpart or the likes, but when we do we may not sleep as soundly but often surprised how long the part has actually lasted when it does fail.

[Anderzander]

1 hour ago, Mutley said:

 

I have always gone with....If it's a moving part buy GENUINE or Original Manufacturer for all other bits I try to get None Genuine quality whether Britpart or Bearmach?

 

I used to think that - then I bought a Britpart seat and it turned out to be the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever sat on.

[Mutley]

@Anderzander the thing is, when buying none genuine parts we know we are taking a gamble. It's just whether we think it's worth that gamble!?! So you consider where that part is going on the motor and what it's job is and how important its role is in the running of the vehicle? But the inside information is if it's that much cheaper usually it's for a reason, the main one being quality and then you have to decide knowing this how much quality you are willing to sacrifice for that individual item?

Butt I feel your pain regarding your seat! 😂

[Sheffield]

I am not defending Britpart or the cheaper end of the supply chain, but was trying to illustrate the situation from the "mass market" point of view. Take some one who likes his Discovery, but is not a Land Rover enthusiast who spends a lot of time on the internet. He looks online, or goes to his local garage, and finds he can pay £300 for a Land Rover part, or £60 for a non Land Rover part. He sees or is told the non Land rover part has a 2 year warranty. What is he going to do?. Is it surprising so many people go Britpart? And what about the garage trade? They can sometimes do parts and labour for around the same as the cost of genuine parts.

If there was a reasonable difference in price genuine parts would be defendable, but 500%? Land Rover once said they were going to support the "classic" market for spares, but nothing useful seems to have come of it.

I have also suffered with Britpart parts, but I understand why they have come to dominate the market.

[Escape]

Sometimes the pricing of genuine parts is truly shocking. I just ordered some filters for a Freelander and chose Mahle, a reputable brand as far as I know. So no reason to doubt it will do a good job keeping the oil clean. Priced €5.55 compared to €105.88 for a LR branded filter!! 😲 We all know LR doesn't produce filters, so they come from some other factory anyway. I doubt they will be gold plated to warrant the price difference... That begin said, I would never consider fitting the €1.84 Brittpart filter either, always try and find a known brand in the middle of the price range.

Filip

[Snagger]

I think Sheffield’s point is that the problem is not just how cheap Britpart are, but how unreasonably expensive LR Gen Parts are.  He’s right.  The mark up between OEM same spec parts and LR Gen pParts branded items is incredible in some cases, but then they had many items at good rates like wheel bearing kits for £15 that included both Timken bearings and all the correct seals and gaskets, proving they can also be competitive, further undermining any justification for the usual overpricing.  Their greed forced many owners down the path of supporting shoddy competitors, which is good neither for the owners or LR.

[Mutley]

The problem is we live in a THROW AWAY society!?!

Britpart don't care about product quality so long as they have every part on their shelves ready for dispatch when you part with your money.

Yes Britpart do offer some parts a Genuine  at a fraction of LR prices but it has to be fairly obvious that the products they sell cheaper than your local Pound shop will be made of Plasticine!?! Quite often Britpart has several options for a part, good, bad and the ugly!

The other reason Britpart are still doing business is because they stock their shelves with anything that retains it shape, thus having the availability of giving you access to the parts 24/7

[Tanuki]

I understand the whole cheap-and-nasty vs OEM-parts thing, and am happy to reflect this understanding when having work done on my Defender.

So I tell my local garage/workshop.... .:.:.:.:.:

"I really don't like Britpart stuff, I know lots of their parts are utter-carp, but use your judgement: their stuff comes with a 2-year warranty but if you fit their stuff and it fails in less than 2 years I'll expect you to cover all my associated incidental costs, along with the labour and recovery-costs before replacing the failed parts".

Cheap parts are expensive.

Missing an client appointment to negotiate a £300K contract because a nasty-cheap part let me down on the journey is horribly-expensive.

[Mutley]

@Tanuku .....

"Call me anally-retentive, but this is the sort of little-issue for which I'd happily refuse a 'fit-to-fly' certificate back in my days dealing with aircraft"

I can't believe it!?! 😂😂 a quote of yours from a previous thread.

Sorry couldn't resist 

 

[Tanuki]

28 minutes ago, Mutley said:

@Tanuku .....

"Call me anally-retentive, but this is the sort of little-issue for which I'd happily refuse a 'fit-to-fly' certificate back in my days dealing with aircraft"

I can't believe it!?! 😂😂 a quote of yours from a previous thread.

Sorry couldn't resist 

 

I've got a few decades of history... in times past I was part of what was then known as the "Scary Devil Monestary" [alt.sysadmin.recovery]... which in turn spawned the writings of the "person I'm not that keen on-Operator From Hell" - https://www.theregister.co.uk/Author/Simon-Travaglia/

There are plenty of historic quotes of mine to be plundered----

 

https://banana.fish/sysadmin/ASR.Quotes

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2020 by Tanuki

[Gazzar]

You're BOFH?

Cool!

[Bowie69]

Oh really? 

Gosh, I can remember having them daily delivered when I was a sysadmin back in the early noughties.

Email was a big thing back then down in Somerset.

[Romahomepete]

I have mentioned this before but here goes.

I have a mate who drives for XPO, 2 or 3 years ago he did a regular run twice per week pickup from a vehicle parts manufacturer in the midlands, it was always a 2 part load, His first stop was JLR and the 2nd part of the load carried on to Britpart.  what the contents were no one knows but they all came from the same place.

 

Peter

 

[Mutley]

I worked at the main Land Rover parts warehouse in Desford for 10yrs. and they had what was called a "Kitting" section, basically it was a number of people repackaging parts. Take said part out of suppliers Packaging and put it into a Land Rover box and attach parts label then off into the warehouse ready for order picking!

All manner of things were repackaged from other suppliers and shipped as LR's own parts!

If only I still worked there, I could do a Johny Cash "One piece at a time" 🙄

[Sheffield]

Is not that part of the issue?. Once upon a time a car maker either made the parts himself, or purchased from an identified source such as Lucas. Now most of the parts they use are made by someone else, who is not always known to the wider world.

[steve b]

........Lucas may not be the best example of OE Manufacturers...

I've recently fitted to a 90 (last week ) a Brake master cyl. out of an AP Lockheed box and I'm about to put it on the lift for the 4th time to bleed . Each time it bled up with a good hard short travel pedal and each time at only 10mph moving test it has 3/4 travel .........everything else is in good condition , no leaks or siezed pistons (discs all round) . One more go at bleeding to prove the point then it will be coming off to be returned .

Frankly the whole replacement parts quality is like russian roulette ....

Steve b

 

[Nonimouse]

I like Bearmach... I always ring up to order. Nice people.

I like to be manufacturer specific - only using Lockheed for clutch hydraulics, only using Valeo for clutch plates; that sort of thing. Bearmach are cool with that. Price is good, delivery superb; all with lots of discounts

I've not used Allmakes since the great Timken scam of 2006

 

Steve, you aren't reverse forced bleeding it enough. You need to connect a reverse bleeder to the slave, then run at least three reservoir refills through. It'll be worse if you fitted the damper as well