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Britpart - The good and the bad


Tetsu0san

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So I happen to have a free minute and for whatever reason I started perusing the Britpart business page, I was looking at there quality accreditation initially, anyways, I cam across these films which was a bit of an eye opener really, less so about the films content rather than what the films show, I'm not quite sure I appreciated the scale at which Britpart are now operating as well as the business clout they now appear to have, openly stating that they are the/one of the main suppliers of LR parts to the MOD. - its worth a look around the website.

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2 hours ago, Eightpot said:

They have been a primary supplier to the mod for many years.  I'd imagine thats a different side of the business to selling cheap blue bag stuff through retailers though, more about central warehousing and logistics. 

I'm sure their MOD supply is more tightly controlled than the cack they flog to the general public, and as you say they may well just be a warehousing operation for the MOD to get all their parts from one place.

I'm also sure that they're not above using the fact they have some sort of contract with the MOD to make a lot of PR strongly implying that their parts are of unparalleled quality :ph34r:

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4 hours ago, Eightpot said:

They have been a primary supplier to the mod for many years.  I'd imagine thats a different side of the business to selling cheap blue bag stuff through retailers though, more about central warehousing and logistics. 

Are they?  They had a contract in the 90s, but I’m pretty sure it was stripped.  Did they get a new contract?

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Not sure but I'd have thought they are still a main supplier.  Britpart is just a brand name for the blue bag stuff,  they operate under Border holdings for MoD supply, I used to buy lots of ex MoD vehicles and spares and a lot of the new genuine parts on the vehicles or bagged and boxed stuff had border holdings shipping labels.   They will be able to negotiate better pricing from suppliers plus save the MoD a fortune on warehousing & transport. Some of this stuff obviously finds its way into the blue bags I guess which is why some of the stuff is decent if you know what to look for..

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That sounds disappointingly familiar - a shoddy contractor loses a government contract only to have it handed straight back.  I was at St Athan when Airworks wrecked 22 Tornado F3s through incompetence and corruption .  They were stripped of that contract, though astonishingly not all contracts, but a decade or so later were back on it...

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If you dig through the websites Border Holdings is then affiliated to the ADS quote

"ADS is the Premier Trade Organisation for companies in the UK Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space sectors. ADS Group Limited registered address is Salamanca Square, 9 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7SP and is registered in England no. 7016635"

Doesn't fill you with so much confidence.

I was sifting through and noted that Britpart hold ISO 9001 issued by Lloyds Register of all people. I've been perusing 9001 as I'm not overly familiar with the Regulation, I guess a few things clocked when I saw the scale of the operation, grips from an enthusiasts group like us is nothing compared to the big picture Britpart is living. - I have to say I was not overly surprised of certain details when I checked up on the board of directors, they have some quite strong links to far east. - kind of reflects where a large portion of the Britpart product catalogue appears from i should imagine.

 

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  • 1 month later...

DONT BUY BRITPART STUB AXLES OEM OR NOT!...

 

ok, so I have a Stub Axle saga to report... deep sigh, patience well and truly worn out.

So been planning to overhaul the front axle as its had some odd behavior recently.

Note: CV joints are genuine LR GKN type.

Bought 2x stub axles "FRC4320G" - claimed to be OEM parts off Britcar website, it was the only option for an OEM part other than the LR supplied unit. OEM - £36+vat each.

So I pulled all the bits together as I dont like the truck being off the road if I can help it.... long story short I bolted up the stub onto a freshly painted swivel housing and found it lacked the full swivel articulation, pulled it back off and found that the CV joint physically didn't fit into the brass bush which I'd pressed into the stub axle. cue lots of huffing and throwing spanners around.

On doing some comparison between the one I removed and the britpart one I found that the brass bush seat was measurably tighter then the one I took off resulting in the bush (which was the correct size) having a reduced inner diameter which then clashed with the cv join front face... ok I could fettle the bush, but thats not why I bought the correct parts... so cue the returns polava (which is still going on)...

Soooo I thought at the weekend I'll preempt this and get another pair ordered up to get fitted up, so picked a general "aftermarket" type off ebay for £28 each...

Fool I hear echoing... thus came a big blue box full of x2 now FRC4320 (no G) they looked identical to the other pair I had already got. So I measured it up and found that the brass bush seat was also tight, so I made up a wee mandrel for my drill and proceeded to dress the brass bush down a tad, on successfully fitting the bush without all the force of the previous attempt, thought I'd pop the CV join in to see how it fitted... see picture below...

Cv joint wouldn't even get past the first taper on the inside of the stub axle tube,  least I kept the boxes for these ones... now on there way back to the supplier...

Just pricing up some Genuine ones now... deep sigh and flapping of wallet. This latest faff is really putting a question mark over whether I want to continue with LR ownership.... :( 

FYI - yes they are the correct stub axles for the CV joint.

 

903841455_CVstubstuck.thumb.jpg.c563f476576fcce3d14561cebcfc520a.jpg

 

 

 

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I instinctively avoid Britpart stuff if the part-in-question involves any kind of going-up-and-down, going-in-and-out or going-round-and-round.

I've fitted Britpart door-mirror-glasses though, and recently a Britpart exhaust-system and a TD5 cambox-cover gasket. They seem to be working OK. So far.

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Reading this thread has me wondering what to do.

I recently bought some bits off John Craddock for my upcoming clutch job on the Disco, and when the bits arrived....

The heavy duty release bearing is in a BLUE BOX...😬 as is the master cylinder.

Now, the master cylinder is going on, as replacing that won't be a master class in frustration, but the release bearing has me worried...

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I dont buy anything from Craddocks as they seem to simply be a Britpart dealer. Paddocks are a little better but you have to be very selective with what you buy. LRDirect and Britcar are a lot better and give you a clear choice of genuine, Bearmach, Blue box, Allmakes and where possible both tell you the actual manufacturer (corteco, borg warner etc etc)

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1 hour ago, Retroanaconda said:

Try Elite Automotive for stub axles - I have used their OEM ones with success. Their web shop is Shop4AutoParts which sounds dodgy but isn't! 

Also good for things like propshaft UJs.

Yeah I've used these guys before actually through there ebay shop. Will have a look.

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15 hours ago, Red90 said:

Sounds like a bad bush.  It would not compress the inner diameter any appreciable amount.  I've done many of these and never had an issue.

No, not a bad bush - I ended up with 6 of the things in the end and they all measured up the same, the bush measured up perfectly to the original and quite happily fitted the old stub no problem.

 

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15 minutes ago, Gazzar said:

The crazy thing is that it can't cost that much more to get the parts made right first time around.

Trouble being it all adds up. I've got a couple of allmakes ones in the workshop, now only for mock-up as the seal land is like a thread! So like the above, it's probably been 'machine to the 'right' diameter, but with too high a feed so its left some material behind.

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The old parts guy at the specialist I used to use would always grumble at my insistence on not getting Britpart stuff for my orders and would claim that no-one else complained and the parts were great.  The mechanics there thought otherwise, but he’d just keep ordering the same carp for the business... Parts Vader, they used to call him.

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4 hours ago, Snagger said:

The old parts guy at the specialist I used to use would always grumble at my insistence on not getting Britpart stuff for my orders and would claim that no-one else complained and the parts were great.  The mechanics there thought otherwise, but he’d just keep ordering the same carp for the business... Parts Vader, they used to call him.

My local land rover indy/parts place was like that. They get no business from me even though they are five mins away. 

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I bought a new halfshaft for my Disco 3 a few weeks back and spent quite a while finding the cheapest source of a GKN item. Devon 4x4 had the best price so I went with them. I was a bit surprised when it turned up in a Britpart box but had to press on as I need the vehicle for work. They then confirmed that it was not a GKN part, complete with the ominous mis-type of 'this should fail'…! In fairness to them they offered to deliver the correct part and pick up the old on the next day but it was a bit late by then. Still miffed as I could have bought a Britpart one for far less elsewhere. A classic case of being caught out by knowing that Britpart are box shifters so have some decent kit and assuming that would be the reason for the blue sticker. 

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On 9/26/2019 at 1:47 AM, Ratty43 said:

I bought a new halfshaft for my Disco 3 a few weeks back and spent quite a while finding the cheapest source of a GKN item. Devon 4x4 had the best price so I went with them. I was a bit surprised when it turned up in a Britpart box but had to press on as I need the vehicle for work. They then confirmed that it was not a GKN part, complete with the ominous mis-type of 'this should fail'…! In fairness to them they offered to deliver the correct part and pick up the old on the next day but it was a bit late by then. Still miffed as I could have bought a Britpart one for far less elsewhere. A classic case of being caught out by knowing that Britpart are box shifters so have some decent kit and assuming that would be the reason for the blue sticker. 

Seems to be standard practice for Paddock and for Craddock, though with the latter only after three months delay because they claimed to have stock when they didn’t!

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On 9/25/2019 at 8:57 AM, reb78 said:

I dont buy anything from Craddocks as they seem to simply be a Britpart dealer. Paddocks are a little better but you have to be very selective with what you buy. LRDirect and Britcar are a lot better and give you a clear choice of genuine, Bearmach, Blue box, Allmakes and where possible both tell you the actual manufacturer (corteco, borg warner etc etc)

I ended up getting an NSK release bearing, and will sell the HD one on.

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On 9/24/2019 at 6:51 PM, Maverik said:

... deep sigh and flapping of wallet. This latest faff is really putting a question mark over whether I want to continue with LR ownership.... :( 

 

The trouble is that this isnt just a LR problem - its rife across all markets. A while ago I bought replacements brake pads from Milner for a Mitsi (simple purchase I thought). WRONG - they were too tight to fit inside the calipers, and it wasnt just the thickness of paint on the new calipers -must have been over 1mm oversize. Milner clearly play the same game as Britpart. Now if its a quality Jap part I need (or time-critical) I always get BluePrint - never had a problem with them  

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