just gort a e mail back from britpart................................
Thank you for your email regarding the quality of the parts Britpart supplies, it is good that you have taken the opportunity to contact us rather than just listen to the ‘chatter’ you mention.
Britpart has a range of over 16000 parts in stock, that’s about £20million, and we supply over £120 000 of parts to customers worldwide everyday.
To run this sort of operation we have to sell quality parts and we have to listen to our customers when things go wrong, which they always will from time to time, if Land Rover were perfect we wouldn’t be in business!
Britpart has many ways of ensuring that the quality of our parts is suitable for their intended use. We have a quality department that employs 9 people who check samples sent from suppliers against OE drawings or samples, we batch inspect all stock that is delivered to us and we have procedures in place to monitor customer returns and these are highlighted when a part shows returns above certain preset levels.
We also have a workshop at our head quarters where we test fit, evaluate and develop virtually all products that go into the Britpart range.
Overall our returns have consistently run at below 1.0% for the last year, and this includes parts sent back for non quality related issues.
All these systems are monitored and audited by Lloyds every year to ISO standards.
To address the points you mention, I do recall a situation where a customer had fitted parabolic springs to a 109. Because he had made other modifications to the vehicle it was causing the spring eye to contact the chassis, we advised him to heat the spring and bend the eye slightly, which he did and was grateful of the advice.
I am not aware of a problem with radiators needing modification to fit. The only issue that sometimes occurs is on the turbo diesel 90/ 110 where the radiator has 2 connectors in the box for the oil cooler to fit, some need it, some don’t and this can cause confusion.
Discovery brake discs were a problem for all suppliers including Land Rover. They would warp after approx 2000 miles causing a juddering through the steering. I couldn’t agree that this was dangerous, just annoying.
We have spent a lot of time analyzing the problem and therefore changed the design and material specification of the disc to overcome this problem. Since these changes we have sold over 3000 of the discs without any major issues.
We do take our reputation very seriously, and we believe that amongst our customers we have a good reputation. I have seen some of the postings on Land rover internet forums and most of these have little or no element of truth in them. Indeed one of the most vocal people on one of these forums was an ex employee who left under a cloud and went to work for a competitor of ours!
I hope this doesn’t sound like I am dismissing your comments and as I say I am very grateful for you taking the time to contact and they will be entered into our quality log, and I will discuss the points you raise with our quality manager and purchasing manager. I know that you are based in France but if you are in the UK and have the time to visit us in Shropshire I would be delighted to show you our operation and I am confident that you will see the effort we put into ensuring we offer the best quality at an affordable price.
I am confident that the parts you have bought for your Series 3 rebuild from Britpart are safe, good quality and offer good value for money, I am also confident that you will enjoy driving it when you have finished it.
Best Regards
Paul Myers.
They are plebs.
