ARB Warranty - I never knew !

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

An interesting thing happened at work today, we had a customer who

we had fitted an ARB Too his truck (Not a LR Izuzu "Big Thing" 4x4)

and he has been back 3 x now with poblems when he has come back from expeditions abroad

Now, before I get accussed of spamming KAM products etc I will add we fitted him an ARB

as we don't do anything for this truck, in fact other than ARB I don't know who might

but we entered the "I am going to take this all the way / fit for purpose / warranty /

sue you sir type "Chat" and we then looked at the ARB warranty, which, becuase WE

bought it for him and WE Fitted it moves us in to the "Responsible " area

We therefore thought we had better see what we have to honour warranty wise, and now hence my post.

I would suggest that anyone who buys a locker, be it an ARB KAM Detriot Eaton etc etc may well

use it in competition, and also the chances would be high that the truck may have modifyied itself a tad,

say maybe bigger tyres ?

Have a look at this then, its struck us as "Clever" in that you have killed off most warrnaty claims

if they come your way under 1 or more of the cluases ! - And people moan at times about our warrnty

Kin Hell :

AIR LOCKER, INC. / ARB LIMITED WARRANTY STATEMENT

Air Locker Inc. (ARB) products are warranted free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of twenty four (24) months from the date of initial retail purchase, with the exception of the freezer/fridge which carries a thirty six (36) month limited warranty. Air Locker Inc's (ARB) obligation under this warranty shall be limited to repairing, replacing or crediting at its option, any part found to be defective.

Air Locker Inc. (ARB) does not warrant or make any representations concerning its goods when:

The products are not installed, used, and maintained strictly in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions

The products are installed in vehicles that are used in competition

The products are installed in vehicles fitted with aftermarket non-standard tires with diameters in excess of OEM specifications

The products are installed in vehicles with engines that have been modified to increase performance

Air Locker Inc. (ARB) will not be liable for labor charges and other intangible or consequential losses that might be claimed as a result of a failure of any ARB component or part thereof to the extent permitted by state law.

A claim under this warranty should be made as follows:

Contact Air Locker Inc. technical department at 425-264-1391 or via email at tech@arbusa.com to request a Returned Goods Authorization (RGA) number and instructions for returning the defective component

FWIW we still have agreed to help the client out, over and above the warranty above as it just feels "Wrong"

I must admit this has been the subject of much discussion here today, I for one (And I have ARBS don't Forget ) was stunned to read the warranty and suprised - wondered what others might say if brought to peoples notice ?

Thoughts ?

Nige

[GBMUD]

FWIW we still have agreed to help the client out, over and above the warranty above as it just feels "Wrong"

I must admit this has been the subject of much discussion here today, I for one (And I have ARBS don't Forget ) was stunned to read the warranty and suprised - wondered what others might say if brought to peoples notice ?

Thoughts ?

Of course, a warranty cannot reduce one's statutory rights, it can only add to them. I refer everyone to the Sale of Goods Act 1979. ...or in English, The sale of goods act.

Items must be Fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. Your agreement, as Nige correctly observes, is with the dealer and not the manufacturer - whatever they may argue! Items must comply to contract (not break!) for up to 24 months under EU legislation. For the first 6 months the onus is on the dealer/retailer to prove that there is no fault with the goods, not with the buyer to prove that there is.

Chris

[Retroanaconda]

That's what I would have expected. They can't test or plan for the vast arrays of upgrades people might do which could affect the locker, so they only warrant it on the base OEM spec.

You'd have a hard time arguing that they weren't fit for purpose under SoGA, unless you were told they had been designed for use with 35"+ tyres or what not. If you tried to claim it under that, ARB would just turn around and say "the purpose was for fitting to standard vehicles, you are using it outside of it's design parameters".

A pain in the bum really.

[mad_pete]

Seems fair to me. What is the alternative wording supposed to say ?

If I bought a standard diff from land rover and bolted it to massive 37" tyres, a huge V8 and thrashed it off road for a day and then returned to the dealership saying my diff is broken can have a new one please they are going to be inclined to say no.

Nail it down tight in the wording and then judge each case to see if you want to "I don't have to but just this once" fix it to prevent too much bad press.

[white90]

What was actually wrong with it?

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

What was actually wrong with it?

Seal failure - yet again.

Pump on 100% and blowing past seals in axle pushing oil up the air line

"Kinscrewed" is the technical term

Seen this on the new rd128 type, but not on older rd56 type, seems the air in unit

is very different in design, no reason having had it in rebuiolt it again, and put new seals

etc that it should have failed again same reason so soon

Customers taking ARB out and going factory LSD Unit

I a, actually a tad suprised by the comments that members feel the warrnaty from ARB re tyres, engines off road is OK. I expected the "If you use oin competition" etc viod, byt who fits an ARB /Locker to a 4x4 keeps std tyrs, no engine tweeks or doesn't do competitions ? seems the warrnaty is designed to knock out many claims before they get off the ground

On the KAM locker and shafts we warrnaty up to 35" tyres, and have only a few claims, with the above wording we woiuld habe had zero

Interesting, I do like the "individual situation" claim - often what we do, as PR and goodwill can count for much, I was as I said genuiely suprised by ARB Warnty terms

Nige

Nige

[M&S]

Same wording came with my Truetrack, and is probably with most components. Not a surprise really.

[white90]

Should try enlarging the Breather to the axle this can also cause the oil to blow-by.

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

Spot on TC

But, done as one of the 1st tweeks - took locker out

this is what it did on the bench - a few weeks old

New seals, did it again, and now 3rd time

http://s982.photobucket.com/albums/ae303/Kam-Diffs-UK/?action=view&current=21042010003.flv

Hey Ho, gald I have the old system, only the black plastic cage goes on them, which I think is a sort of heat hardening wear thing

However in fairness to the above, the truck in Q is an expedition 4x4 hugely loaded, drives with trailer off road 1000's miles,

and has HUGE tyres (36 x 12.50 or maybe even bigger) so unsure

what the added forces may be doing to the ARB which is worked hard as you can imagine so not in any way a standard rig

Nige

[nickwilliams]

who fits an ARB /Locker to a 4x4 keeps std tyrs, no engine tweeks or doesn't do competitions ?

I do, for one.

Nick.

[Dave W]

You may, or may not, remember the problems I had with leaking air seals on my rear ARB. It took me 2 years, 3 sets of seals fitted by me and 1 professional rebuild which included replacing parts of the ARB that had any kind of mark on them. Every time I thought I'd fixed it and at the next competition it would start leaking again, filling the axle with compressed air and blowing oil vapour out of the axle breather.

Having replaced everything else, I swapped the axle case in desperation, problem fixed. There was never anything wrong with the ARB and changing the seals was just fixing a symptom, not fixing the problem.

Given the use of the truck, have you checked to see if the axle is bent ? Expeditions normally = very overloaded truck traveling on carp roads, bent axles aren't going to be unusual.

As for the warranty, it seems reasonable for an item like that to have limitations when it comes to competition, there are very few places that will replace items under warranty that have been used in competition, Ashcroft are one exception to the rule that I know of.

[BogMonster]

seems the air in unit

is very different in design

Sorry - that just sounded a lot like the wrong type of snow on the line

[mickeyw]

Just one Q here, I may have misunderstood the situation, but here goes:

The nature of the failed component is an O-ring. I have heard of this problem from many people, and understand that it's failure prevents the locker engaging.

How does the size of the tyres on the truck, or the size of the engine mean that such a failure is more likely to occur? I can understand the increased liklihood of physical failure of gears and associated bits; but O-rings? Can anyone explain this to me please?

Anyway, it looks like their warranty wording doesn't leave much room for manoeuvre

[BogMonster]

Having thought about this some more - it's probably not surprising that they draw a line somewhere on warranty, and OEM specs has to be the obvious place otherwise where would you draw it? A normal ARB or any other part like that is not going to be 'Bathtub on 54" Boggers proof'

[Dave W]

Just one Q here, I may have misunderstood the situation, but here goes:

The nature of the failed component is an O-ring. I have heard of this problem from many people, and understand that it's failure prevents the locker engaging.

How does the size of the tyres on the truck, or the size of the engine mean that such a failure is more likely to occur? I can understand the increased liklihood of physical failure of gears and associated bits; but O-rings? Can anyone explain this to me please?

Anyway, it looks like their warranty wording doesn't leave much room for manoeuvre

Regardless of the wording of the warranty I'd still expect any claim to be treated on it's merits but then I've never had an ARB item fail within it's warranty period so haven't had any dealings with them I've had pretty disappointing service from some UK off road companies when it comes to defective parts but in general I would say it's better to judge based on how they handle actual warranty claims rather than on the wording of their warranties.

Most "big name" off road suppliers are pretty good at playing fair with warranty claims in my experience, regardless of any legal get out clauses they may have in there as an opt out should they suspect you're taking the p**s From the original post it's not clear if they actually tried to claim under warranty or just read the warranty and didn't bother. Personally, if the unit is in warranty period, I'd claim for the repair anyway and see what happens although I'd also be looking at any external factors as potential causes of the O ring failure.

[mad_pete]

and bearing in mind in the US all they do is massive V8 rock crawling and that is the land of the law suit I can see why that would be so. I know it wasn't intended as an ad but knowing the KAM locking diff warranty is up 35" and ARB is doesn't cover anything non-standard I'd be much more likely to by a KAM diff than I was before.

ARB have set up shop in the standard market sector so sounds good to me KAM are catering for the slightly modified market.

If I was KAM I'd make a selling point out of that. ;-)

[reads90]

Although to be fair to ARB they just fixed my fridge and that was nearly a year out of warranty. They just took it back and fixed with no charge

[tel]

ive had alot of problems with terrafirma stuff through work their stuff doesnt seem to last 5 mins and allnakes make it so difficult to claim for a warranty part so its most compainies out there to be honest ive got to the stage now that im not going to use terrafirma shocks anymore as im getting sick and tired of replacing them now the seals are just rubbish

[Bushie]

Interesting.................

This is from ARBs US site

Of the many ARB products seen in off road competition, it's the one you can't see that makes the difference - ARB Air Locker diff locks continue to dominate the world's toughest off road events.

As Paul Vanderhorst, manager of Australia's world renowned Outback Challenge, states: "Our event attracts some of the world's best off roaders, competing in incredibly well prepared 4WDs. We've seen a plethora of accessories over the years, with participants constantly striving to improve their vehicle's performance. Throughout the event's seven year history though, Air Lockers are by far the preferred traction aid... 57 vehicles competed in the 2005 Challenge for instance, 48 had Air Lockers. The top 10 place getters all had front and rear Air Lockers fitted.

So they are happy to accept the accolades when some one wins with their product but if it fails "you're on your own buddy"

The Australian site is pretty much the same

Bushie