So Landy parts are expensive and hard to get!

[p38arover]

I was at KLR Auto (outer suburbs of Sydney) today when a bloke in an older 75 series Land Cruiser trayback came in. He'd just been to Toyota to get suspension bushes and pins for his Cruiser.

They couldn't supply them. No pins in Oz and only some of the bushes. Cost for what they did have? $450. He was not happy.

That's odd, all the Oz 4WD mags talk about how expensive and hard to get are Landie parts. :D

[komaterpillar]

The good old toyota tax strikes again :D bloody muppets and there "superior" Asian 4wd's
Hmmm what else is Asian? Great Wall? Sangyong? I guess we can by default stick all nissans, toyotas, great walls, and sangyongs in the same group because of their common oriental heritage? And say all are unreliable with inferior build quality because of a few shortcomings from a couple of earlier examples?

[TheTree]

Ahh yes some myths die hard :angel:

I heard someone at the Expo recently saying "series one parts are becoming hard to get" ;)

Steve

[p38arover]

Of interest to owners of P38A and possibly late model ABS equipped RRC, whilst I was there, Brad handed me a new part in a packet and asked if I recognised it.

I did, and it was something that doesn't appear in the parts catalogue and has been previously unobtainable. It was a brake pump pressure switch.

I had to replace my brake pump some years back when the switch failed. (I kept the old pump just in case.)

I forgot to ask the price. It came from TR Spares in Sydney.

[p38arover]

Ahh yes some myths die hard :angel:

I heard someone at the Expo recently saying "series one parts are becoming hard to get" ;)

Steve

Yeah, pretty slack that parts for a car that's not even 70 years old are hard to get.

[Bigbjorn]

I recently went to the nearest Ford dealer for some common bits for my Falcon ute and all the items I required were obsolete, no longer serviced. Off to Norman Park Auto Parts and got the lot from the aftermarket.

Honda and Toyota both used to have ruthless obsolescence policies. No point in supplying parts to keep old ones going. The customers should buy new vehicles. Generally speaking, the people who are keeping old vehicles going do not buy new vehicles so the factory has no interest in supplying their needs.

One of the major European heavy truck makers has a policy that a part number not used in production for x years is no longer serviced by factory outlets and dealers.

[PAT303]

If you want a heart attack price the little digital clock Hilux's have in the dash,or a blinker switch on a Lexus. Pat

[Bigbjorn]

If you want a heart attack price the little digital clock Hilux's have in the dash,or a blinker switch on a Lexus. Pat

A friend once priced four bolt forged dural connecting rods for a classic Euro performance car. The workshop manual said replace at 85,000 miles. After he was resuscitated he explored other avenues. Got quotes from Milodon and Carillo in LA. Had to send a sample. Got the set of six from Carillo in forged steel barely heavier than the dural ones for less than the price of one from the distributor.

[Homestar]

Front disks for my 1989 Commodore - $110 each. Front disks for my 2003 L322 Range Rover - $78 each delivered to my door.

[UncleHo]

Recently I replaced the rear springs and shockers on our D1 TDI,not genuine,Dobinson's springs,Max Gas shockers,all from Repco,admittedly I get trade,but under $375 including. :)

We did the front a few months ago,vehicle has 390,000k plus on it.

[Jeff]

Honda and Toyota both used to have ruthless obsolescence policies. No point in supplying parts to keep old ones going. The customers should buy new vehicles. Generally speaking, the people who are keeping old vehicles going do not buy new vehicles so the factory has no interest in supplying their needs.

I have a different tale of Honda, but the motorcycle division. I used to race a sidecar with a 1988 Honda CBR1000 engine, and due to some rough treatment, I bent a selector fork in the gearbox. Honda found they did not have any worldwide, so made a batch so I could have one. I was amazed, I don't know if they treat all customers that well, especially as it was around 2006, so long after they had stopped making that model engine.

Jeff

:rocket:

[jimr1]

As spare parts go Land Rover owners are quite lucky , We can get most parts here in Oz , With the internet we can go over seas as well . Also there are so many aftermarket suppliers . Some of the none genuine stuff is of poor quality , but lots is as good as original . I do know It's hard to get Toyota gearbox bits that are none genuine , " except bearings/seals " , and they cost top $$ ...

[crash]

With Toyota spare parts is it possibly due to the fact that the mother land (Japan) makes ownership of vehicles >5years old (it may be 3) rego etc very expensive and they are almost forced to change their vehicles over more frequently that they really do not need to keep many older spares?I think by law manufactures have to keep at least spare availability for 10years in Australia?
Then again I do not know too many people restoring / keeping old toyotas? I am sure they are out there.

[MBZ460]

Its got to be getting close to the day when nobody stocks car metal bits, except the general service stuff and sheet metal. Everything thing else is made on-demand using CNC and 3d printing machines. Perhaps by 3rd party specialists, fully automated.

Would be handy to have a central database of 3d models.

Or perhaps the OEM's get a license fee everytime a part is made, like a recording artist gets a fee when the radio plays their song.

[Sprint]

who the heck would go to toyota for that stuff? plenty of it out on the aftermarket, and a LOT cheaper!

[Cliffy]

Shaken (like MOT) in Japan gets steadily more expensive as the years tick on.
At around 8 years (100000km max) you basically hand over your old car for zip.
As my inlaws car had major damage in it's life (smashed headlight) they had to pay to dispose.
Having said that, old cruisers are real collectors items over there but you need $$$ to own and operate.
10 years is about the limit for Japanese car mfg to continue to catalogue old models.
Having said that, it amazese me that my customers come in to work asking for parts for 60's equipment and are surprised we don't have them on the shelf!!

[Sprint]

back when I worked for Holden, I had a customer get pretty abusive one day because I didnt have a taillight for a HQ ute.... and this was 5 years ago!

[scarry]

Current model Hi ace,diff bearings gone:mad:

i couldn't wait for someone to rebuild it,needed it on the road ASAP.

Only two diffs in the country...

[Bigbjorn]

I think by law manufactures have to keep at least spare availability for 10years in Australia?


If there is such a law, does anyone enforce it? I have been told many times "nil stock in Australia. Available ex XXXXXXXXXX by surface freight 10-12 weeks or air freight 2-3 weeks your cost". I know several smash repairers who have had damaged vehicles in their shops waiting 6 months and more for parts.

One popular Jap make has almost nil stock of high value and slow moving parts in Oz. Low value service parts and fast moving regularly used parts are stocked but not others.

[JDNSW]

This effect is at least in part due to the large number of models (even from a single manufacturer) and the rate at which they change. There are so many different parts that it becomes simply impossible to stock everything.

Where Landrovers have an advantage is that they have maintained parts commonality to an almost unprecedented extent for the last sixty years - those who have decried the company's failure to innovate over the years should think about this!

As those who have short lived models have found, the parts availability does not necessarily extend to all models.

John

[p38arover]

In the case I mentioned, that model Cruiser has been around for a long time and there are a heck of a lot of them on the road.

[Sprint]

Where Landrovers have an advantage is that they have maintained parts commonality to an almost unprecedented extent for the last sixty years

They got it right the first time....

[Bigbjorn]

One of the big diesel engine companies had a tiered system of parts ordering and obsolescence for their distributor/dealer network.

As best I remember it went something like this-

Current and recent production - can be ordered by distributor parts clerk
Out of production maybe 5 years but still significant demand - parts supervisor
Older parts - parts supervisor approved by parts manager
Older again - parts manager approved by manufacturer's rep.
10 years and more - parts manager approved by national distributor parts manager - no return policy.
Around 14 years - will be supplied from manufacturer's stock if any - no return
Obsolete - will not be supplied. Stocks have been written off and destroyed.

The intention, of course is to not keep older plant operating. Customers should replace aging plant with new. This is a common outlook amongst makers of industrial plant and machines. Of course, this creates a market for after-market suppliers to open up a business supplying obsolete parts. These are known in the mining and construction equipment trade as "pirates" and if they branch out into competing with the authorised dealers in newer parts then they become a problem by sucking potential profits away from the dealer.

[460cixy]

Don't quote me on this but a manufacturer has to suply parts for a min of ten years after production by law in Australia. Not sure if that's rumour or hear say. That was to stamp out dumping of cheap junk with no parts back up

[scarry]

Don't quote me on this but a manufacturer has to suply parts for a min of ten years after production by law in Australia. Not sure if that's rumour or hear say. That was to stamp out dumping of cheap junk with no parts back up

Happens all day in our industry:mad:,wish there was an enforceable law against it.

[Sprint]

IIRC the law applies to "critical" parts...... service parts arent covered...