Is Britpart Really That Bad

[dave88sw]

I bought a britpart rear door lock, went to open it one day and nothing, the weld on the handle was non existent and failed, had to cut the thing off to get the door open. Never buy britpart again, yeah the price is attractive but its not worth it if you value your time having to repeat the job

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

Is Britpart Really That Bad

No, worse

Nige

[Green Bob]

It's not necessarily that everything by them is utter plopplops, but there are enough stories and experiences to keep away from them as a brand for me.

Pricey as they are, genuine parts ought to match the lifespan of the bit you replace, if they don't, then you have a complaint. Paying bugger all for something? You get what you pay for.

I'll fit britpart if there's nothing else available, but only with a mind to expect to replace it fairly soon.

[ejparrott]

Oh yes, and then there was my swing away spare wheel carrier, the powder coating failed after about a month, the weld on one side of the lock lasted about 2 months, and after i'd repaired that the other side failed about 6 weeks later......

[Julian]

It seems it's often the buyer that's at fault, they expect top quality but only want to pay bargain prices.

If you pay £5 for a wheel bearing and fit it to an old series that does a couple of thousand miles a year, fine. Fit it to your 34" tyred challenge truck or do 20,000 a year fully loaded and you're asking for trouble.

I don't agree with your analogy. If you go to Simplybearings.co.uk you can buy top quality bearings from SKF etc, they also do a budget branded bearing for a fraction of the price that comes in a box that carries a good brand name - I've used these several times and had no troubles.

The Britpart £5 bearings are not even 'budget branded,' they are shocking bits of horseshwite that you wouldn't even use on an egg whisk or hairdryer and are unbranded and doubtless made by some back street factory in Mongolia. I've had these types of bearings (in a flat-pack 1/2 ton trailer) and had to replace them after a thousand miles or so.

The point is that you can get perfectly sound budget priced bearings for (as near as dam it) the same price as the Britpart ones so the decision is a no brainier to me!

Julian.

[tuko]

Is Britpart Really That Bad

Reliability wise, YUPP. If your lucky enough to get something that actually fits, it won't last. You get what you pay for, with Sh!tpart at the lowest part of the spectrum.......you can figure the rest out.

Todd.

[pat_pending]

I don't agree with your analogy. If you go to Simplybearings.co.uk you can buy top quality bearings from SKF etc, they also do a budget branded bearing for a fraction of the price that comes in a box that carries a good brand name - I've used these several times and had no troubles.

The Britpart £5 bearings are not even 'budget branded,' they are shocking bits of horseshwite that you wouldn't even use on an egg whisk or hairdryer and are unbranded and doubtless made by some back street factory in Mongolia. I've had these types of bearings (in a flat-pack 1/2 ton trailer) and had to replace them after a thousand miles or so.

The point is that you can get perfectly sound budget priced bearings for (as near as dam it) the same price as the Britpart ones so the decision is a no brainier to me!

Julian.

I'm saying my personal experience of Britpart stuff is that for the price, and the use most of it is acceptable. I've been a professional mechanic for over 30 years so I think I know how to tell the difference.

Maybe I've been lucky, perhaps quality has gone downhill lately. Certainly the material their seals are made of has changed (for the worse).

BrItpart exists because people don't want to pay for quality, buy cheap and accept the limitations, your choice.

If the comments on here are representative of Britpart customers as a whole, I think they'd be out of business by now.

The point is knowing what's good and what's not. Shareing that Knowledge is in my opinion, more constructive than the wholesale slagging off of a company that, like it or not, has kept the cost of running a Land Rover down for all of us.

Also, as I spent 10 years as a Foreman in a Land Rover main dealer, I can tell you some of the stuff fitted at the factory was pretty plopplops too.

[Mo Murphy]

I think the success of the likes of LR series and the fact that even those arch Britpart suppliers Paddock Motors are now offering alternative suppliers for parts indicates that many have learned that if you pay pennies you'll get pennies worth.

For myself I choose to avoid Britpart where ever possible, as the majority of my experiences with their parts have been poor.

Mo

[Julian]

BrItpart exists because people don't want to pay for quality, buy cheap and accept the limitations, your choice.

If the comments on here are representative of Britpart customers as a whole, I think they'd be out of business by now.

.

Actually, I think Britparts exist because of people's ignorance and lack of knowledge. I was in that category when I got my series three. Not knowing any better I got the little blue boxes from Paddocks and just about everything that arrived was carp. (rear light units where the bulbs fell out of the bayonets that were made too big, speedo cables with ends hammered flat rather than squared off that dropped into the speedo drive so far that they disconnected from the head etc etc. nothing much of merchantable quality) I've since discovered that you do NOT have to buy this craap, alternatives are available at a similar cost and so the message must be to anyone 'Avoid Brit Part at all costs!'

Pat, post #4 sums it up nicely and I only wish I'd learnt more from these forums at an earlier stage of series ownership. :-(

Julian

[simonr]

I don't agree with your analogy. If you go to Simplybearings.co.uk you can buy top quality bearings from SKF etc, they also do a budget branded bearing for a fraction of the price that comes in a box that carries a good brand name - I've used these several times and had no troubles.

To expand on this a bit. I was looking for a Suz<cough>uki bearing - and thought the main dealer price was poor value. I found the same thing from SimplyBearings - and it was even more expensive than the dealer!

Their budget range are very good on the whole but it only covers the commonly used bearings. Once you move into special purpose bearings or odd sizes, they can get quite expensive.

It might be worth a look to see if they carry a Land Rover Wheel bearing and see how it compares for cost? I'd be interested!

Si

[nickwilliams]

Is there a cross reference anywhere between LandRover part numbers and standard bearing suppliers' numbers? If not, can we start a sticky thread in the part numbers forum where people can post these cross references when they find one out? I've got two or three I can post pretty much immediately.

Nick.

[discomikey]

I wonder what percentage of Britpart stuff is returned ?

If, as people seem to make out, it's nearly all unuseable, then how come they are a very successfull multi million pound business ?

I've experienced some poor quality Britpart stuff, but most of it is certainly acceptable for the price.

It seems it's often the buyer that's at fault, they expect top quality but only want to pay bargain prices.

If you pay £5 for a wheel bearing and fit it to an old series that does a couple of thousand miles a year, fine. Fit it to your 34" tyred challenge truck or do 20,000 a year fully loaded and you're asking for trouble.

I also suspect a fair few failures are due to poor fitting, that then gets blamed on the fact it was a Britpart used.

Seems to be the "in thing" to slag them off, but most of the stuff is nowhere near as bad as is made out.

There are also many people out there that simply woudn't be able to run a Land Rover if it were not for cheap parts, keeps all parts prices keen too.

If you want top quality, pay for it. Don't buy cheap and complain.

i kind of agree. they are cheap. but its no excuse for a pattern part to be completely wrong/worse than the part you want to replace/doesent even physically fit!

i much prefer to pay the extra 8 or 10 quid for whatever, in the knowledge that it will usually last the lifetime of 2 BP products. the old saying, buy cheap, buy twice is definately the case too.

i would NEVER use anything but genuine or at least OEM (borg&beck/AP for clutches etc.) on anything like engines or gearboxes. or diffs.

rebuilt my rear diff, new pin and planet wheels and they were LR branded genuine for £30.

i would choose new old stock over anything made today too

That said, a part should be fit for the purpose it's sold for, so there is no excuse for parts that don't fit/don't work to begin with

[Julian]

To expand on this a bit. I was looking for a Suz<cough>uki bearing - and thought the main dealer price was poor value. I found the same thing from SimplyBearings - and it was even more expensive than the dealer!

Si

Yes, I had a similar experience today. I needed a belt jockey wheel bearing for a Bobcat lawnmower. I found that I could buy the entire jockey wheel (fitting loads of mowers) from an ebay dealer for the same price (approximately) as a bearing from simplybearings. I'm taking a chance on the quality as it's a pattern part but the job is so quick and easy that I'm not worried.

Julian.

[muddy]

I too normally shun britpart ( wheel bearings etc) but I have a defender seat base from them which is ok for the money, a HD clutch that is getting on for 10,000 miles and still seems ok ( touching wood!).

As alas been said you get what you pay for, perie NAS lights are very good, wipac ones ok but even all makes ones are plopplops, tail lamps are pink with pinky hue with a massive 21W surging through them!

Will

[mickeyw]

Is there a cross reference anywhere between LandRover part numbers and standard bearing suppliers' numbers? If not, can we start a sticky thread in the part numbers forum where people can post these cross references when they find one out? I've got two or three I can post pretty much immediately.

Nick.

I have a feeling someone has already done something along these lines.

Ah here in the tech archive

Not exactly a full list, there may be other lists I haven't found, have a read.

[discomikey]

this simplybearings sounds expensive. my local bearing supplier (TBF) will always get in the right bearing and is always cheaper than DLS or paddocks.

the other week i had to order in a bearing for my aircon belt idler pulley, which i used in my conversion as a tensioner for the water pump belt. they had it in next day, where neither paddocks, DLS, or any other land rover place could get hold of either the right pulley, or the bearing on its own.

[Julian]

Took the series three out for a run yesterday evening, heater blowing out hot air, pulled up, opened bonnet, confirmed heater valve lever fully closed. Arrghhhhh, another effing Britpart water valve fitted just over two years ago :-(

Julian.

[pat_pending]

Took the series three out for a run yesterday evening, heater blowing out hot air, pulled up, opened bonnet, confirmed heater valve lever fully closed. Arrghhhhh, another effing Britpart water valve fitted just over two years ago :-(

Julian.

So email them the details and post up their response.

Maybe they'd welcome the feedback.

[Julian]

I know I should, you are quite right. I just know that the pain involved will far out weight any benefit. I doubt I have the receipt now as I tend to bin them.

I've learnt the lesson and the less exposure I have to Britpart, and the likes of Paddocks who sell this craep by default, the better!

Julian.

[mcc1979ian]

Maybe someone could forward the whole post to britpart if its that bad and give them an insight to whats going on. I personally though havent had any probs with britpart parts yet.

[Fandrover]

Be careful you don't jinx yourself!! Like I have lol

In a moment of silly vanity I decided to fit lovely shiney pointless clear lenses to my Pig..... off to fleabay I went.... couple of days later they arrive.....

NOOOOOOO!!!! Not the dreaded britpart blue and white!!! It never said that in the advert!!!!

Hey I figured 2 clear lenses with bulb holders and 2 orange bulbs...... at least they can't screw up something so simple eh?

Wrong!

One of the lenses had the screw hole drilled at nearly 45degrees instead of 90 and with the screw fitted so must have been noticed!

That had to be re drilled to enable lining up with the holes in the front of the wing.

The other lense was cracked where one of the screws was located

Of the 2 bulbs 1 was ok, the other had the pin contacts located at 3oclock and 6oclock instead of 6 and 12..... so had to drive to motorfactors for replacement

Once fitted, neither worked..... after 20mins discovered both of the bulb holders were faulty so had to replace with the older removed ones which worked

Contacted the seller (major business seller) and britpart directly....... surprise surprise no reply from either!!!

Please PLEASE do yourself a favour and stay away from them!

[pat_pending]

I know I should, you are quite right. I just know that the pain involved will far out weight any benefit. I doubt I have the receipt now as I tend to bin them.

I've learnt the lesson and the less exposure I have to Britpart, and the likes of Paddocks who sell this craep by default, the better!

Julian.

But if no one brings it to their attention nothing will change.

Some Britpart stuff is very good, some is acceptable for the money and some is very poor.

Logic tells me that either the very poor stuff is only a small percentage of total sales or lots of people are buying the stuff and hardly anyone is complaining direct to Britpart when it goes wrong, because they seem to be doing very well as a company.

I suppose it depends what your expectations are of something that cost a fraction of the genuine part.

Edited to add Britpart current turnover, £50 million plus. That must be a lot of (dis?)satisfied customers.

[mickeyw]

There is one good thing they sell.... and that is their waterproof seat covers. I have a set on my 90, they are a nicely tailored fit, and have lasted very well.

I now want to buy a set for my mother's FL2, Britpart do offer the version I need, but currently out of stock until October

Evidently anything good they make they have supply issues with, which explains why everything else is available in plentiful quantities

[Julian]

Edited to add Britpart current turnover, £50 million plus. That must be a lot of (dis?)satisfied customers.

I think their business model is fashioned upon one of those 'tourist' centred public houses in London. You know the ones, union flags all over the front, beer chilled down to about 4 degrees, food via the microwave etc - all in all a bad experience but they don't care as many new customers arrive to replace those that leave. Customers are basically cannon fodder!

I think Britparts exist due to enough people coming into the Landrover scene thinking they're getting a bargain without realising that they run about a 50% risk of buying rubbish thus learning the hard way, and (probably) garages that are just interested in doing a job as cheaply as possible giving themselves the chance to 'mark-up' the spares prices.

Julian.

[pat_pending]

Julian, there's probably a degree of truth in that, except from personal experience and through what others are saying the percentage of carp they sell is nowhere near 50%.

This constant "everything Britpart is rubbish" is simply not true. Allmakes and Bearmach are not exempt from selling tat either but I don't see people running them down.

You get what you pay for, I don't see anything wrong in criticising, so long as it's constructive.

As for garages marking up, no chance, first thing that happens when you charge £30 for a wheel bearing is the customer says they're being ripped off because they've seen them on the internet for £5.