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Can Britpart Get Nothing Right??


need4speed

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After being stung years ago with inferior parts ( back before I knew they're reputation) I made it my policy never to buy "important" parts that came in a Blue box.

However when I discovered that my steering column upper shroud had a few pieces missing I thought what could they possibly get wrong with that?

How naive was I...

The genuine part has got 4 little brass inserts to allow the M5 screws to tighten the upper and lower shroud together. The Britpart item doesn't have these. Only 4 plain holes about 4mm in diameter. God knows how I'm going to tighten the 2 halves together now. If I try some long self tappers, the plastic will probably just split as it's very brittle..

Sh!tpart strikes again.

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Ever bought a Lucas part and discovered it doesn't last as long as the original? its no long manufactured to the same tolerances as the 60's and 70's because of price, so be careful what you wish for and then consider why its cheaper than OEM

No connection to Brit Part, Brit-Car or any other LR parts supplier, however if they were really that bad that they got nothing right they'd be out of business, and we'd all have less options for parts less competition means higher prices. Part's are sourced worldwide and even JLR when supplying parts will get it wrong.

Remember quality has a price, if you consider the original engineering budgets spent on design and don't mock it, vehicle manufacturing is an expensive business, then reverse engineering a product is how the entire 'clone' parts industry is based.

Remember low volume will probably mean hand picked by low wage earners that's how you get an acceptable market price, JLR however have the original suppliers and clout to get picking right 99% of the time but still wrong 1%.

If you have a problem and they don't sort it then' s the time to have pop , but if any one entrusts their vehicle to an independent I would say 9 out of 10 indi's use Brit Part and Bearmach and other non OEM parts as well as OEM.

Poor quality, poor fit or function , poor reliability , or just poor stock control take your pick , but remember how much you valued it to start with , if you didn't value it at OEM prices then your standards must reflect the price.

I'll get slated no doubt and everyone will have parts problem but I seldom hear anyone praise a 'clone' part supplied at a fraction of OEM price

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Sorry but I totally disagree with you.

Why? Because I have actually bought lots of pattern parts (cloned as you would call them) and been happy with the quality. Bearmach springs to mind.

The only pattern company that CONSISTENTLY fails is Britpart.

Maybe I've just been unlucky with them. However if you read many of the LR based forums I think you will find that I'm not alone...

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Britpart survive because there's enough people out there whose LR's are only used as toys and they're far more likely to break something by off-roading or just scrap the vehicle as they are from it wearing out prematurely. If you're off-roading all the time then there's no point splashing out on genuine "consumables" like brake pads, discs, UJ's, bushes, etc. which is where the cheapest possible option is not so terrible. That and people have short memories and often minimal technical knowledge (and how many people ever bother sending back a rubbish part that cost them less than the price of postage?)

All the people I know who use their vehicles a lot, do a lot of miles, or just maintain them as LR intended tend to fit genuine or at least OE, and I have to say since I started doing high miles it's actually visibly paid for itself on numerous occasions. If I was doing less than 5k a year and mostly off-road playing I'd probably struggle to prove the cost/benefit case quite so clearly.

Shining example: Freelander VCU bearings.

Genuine - £70 each, last for years even when off-roaded

Non-gen (think they were Bearmach but can't swear) - £30 each, lasted months, died after 1 off-road outing

Britpart - £11 each, lasted about 2 weeks of road use.

Plus I'd say the hassle of changing the blasted things repeatedly eats the initial "saving" if you value your spare time at even minimum-wage level.

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Given this situation, I want to replace the brake master cylinder on our 96 Discovery 300TDI. It seems OEM non abs master cylinders are nolonger available, so it seems I have to buy a copy/pattern. But these are priced from less than £30 (Brit part), through £40 (Eurospares) to well over £100, depending on the supplier. How do I know which is the one to buy, and how can I be sure they are not all made in the same Far East factory, just in different boxes? Buying parts these days is a mine field.

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Your right Les.

This one is down to me. I ordered the pattern part. Like I said in my op I naively thought "what could they possibly get wrong with this"

Famous last words....

Didn't get a chance to call britcar today but I will call them tomorrow. I have no doubt they will sort it out.

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Just a little update to the thread.

Spoke to Johnny at Britcar earlier. He agrees that it sounds as if it has been a quality control issue at Britpart. He has agreed to order me one from Bearmach as a replacement. The funny thing is the Bearmach one is cheaper, which I didn't notice when ordering.

Anyway here are a few pics showing the difference. The original broken part has 4 threaded brass inserts for the M5 screws. As you can see the Britpart item has nothing. In fact the M5 Landrover screws won't even fit in the holes!

post-4644-0-68623000-1434112654_thumb.jpg

post-4644-0-74880100-1434112688_thumb.jpg

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ok, but parts change during production so a copy is only good for one production run, the door glass is a good example its only 1mm difference but that change means the tracks all change as well, so it may not be a fault with the part but a listing error and a failure to recognise a production change?

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ok, but parts change during production so a copy is only good for one production run, the door glass is a good example its only 1mm difference but that change means the tracks all change as well, so it may not be a fault with the part but a listing error and a failure to recognise a production change?

Sorry, but Britpart are just useless, don't forget they once sold me a set of brake pipes some of which were solid....

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Yes but it doesn't need to move, seal, rotate or even attach to anything, even a blind, deaf, mute and drunk fish could get that right.

That was my point! Apart from the mat, I won't let anything that comes in a blue box within 10 feet of my 110!!!

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