Soo Angry....

[justinc]

Puma series build quality/ QC strikes again.

Had a 2015 130 in for fitting an Ashcroft ATB to the transfer case. All went well drives fine etc however difficult to get into and out of difflock. Owner hadn't really done much offroading at this point but had complained to the dealer about the poor CDL operation. (Obviously now I have worked on the case there is no warranty on it ...) Removed case AGAIN and disassembled the front output housing only to discover that the fitment of the ATB had nothing to do with the issue at all (Which was what we thought all along as the splines are perfectly broached and the unit is of incredibly high quality) and the problem was the bronze selector assembly that has a little ramp on it to push against the difflock switch had a burr on it that wasn't removed after casting, stopping the slidinig action of the whole selector assembly by hanging up on the switch pushrod.. A few seconds with a small flat file and everything works as it should.

Admittedly I should've checked all this on the bench the first time however at 6,000km on a NEW vehicle one would expect it to be operational in the first place!!!!!!!

On an even more annoying note after removing and refitting the switch about 20 times to ensure smooth operation I seem to have damaged the wiring where it goes in to it so I have ordered a replacement at $90!!! :angrylock:

JC

[TeamFA]

Very poor form indeed... obviously the selector mechanism wasn't tested at all during any stage of assembly.

And this after the centre diff rubbish.

This is really the sort of thing that turns people away from a car marque.

[steane]

I recall Dave Ashcroft saying that the quality of the LT230 has dropped a lot in recent years and that each Defender can vary dramatically in how good/bad their TC is. Leaks, noise etc.

They don't make 'em like they used to.

[austastar]

Hi,
"Tar and plaster the muddy bucket of pitch", said with much vitriol, is an appropriate statement in a case such as this.

cheers

[Chops]

Fitment is major problem in an assembly process.
With our assemblers at Albury, we used to teach them about burrs etc, how to find, fix or repair various problem encountered during assembly. Easy fix, replace faulty part as you go. Not so easy when the line is moving at speed, so rarely done. Most times, the trans would be tagged and sent to the reworker.

The hardest thing to teach though is getting someone to recognise the fault in the first place. And by this I mean "care factor". Most of the people who work on moving assembly lines, which I'm assuming is the case at hand, are young, and unfortunately with that comes a "can't be ****ed" attitude. Monday's and Friday's don't even come into play at this point.

We used to encourage our people to do fitting and machining courses to help with this, it gives them some pride and ownership,,,, something that's even hard to find in some mechanics these days. Even with training, time of course is a priority and so people tend to say "she'll be right" and move on. Every operation has procedures in place to find all faults and give quality the number 1 priority, but mindset and care are really paramount in the assembly process.

JC, with your attitude, I wish I'd had you on my team.

[Turtle130]

Thanks for posting this JC, I think I now know what is wrong with mine

[Blknight.aus]

getting to the point where Im begining to suspect that anyone who wants to work on vehicle manufacturing should be given a box of parts and a shell that resembles a ferret scout car and told "build tune and adjust that till it works right and drives nice."

if you cant get the hell out of my trade or at least have the decency to refer to yourself as "pathetic rank amature butcher"

[alien]

Stupid phone double post.

[alien]

So reading between the lines I should not be thinking of buying a new Defender out of the show room next finacial year:wasntme::censored:

[justinc]

Kyle the problem is as i see it that an icon of vehicles is being treated to the automated assembly line mass production woes of most other makes as far as QC goes. Much as i love em i have never had to do some of these types of jobs on any preceeding models of defender, ever.

Just frustrating, thats what makes me angry because it should be getting better not worse.


Jc

[muddymech]

that sucks, i remember some one having the same problem when the puma was first launched.

[roverrescue]

So Solihull are planning on refurbing series ones ... Perhaps they should offer to take brand newies and run them through the lines again. Maybe with two trips through the factory a few QA issues might get ironed out!

S

[DeeJay]

Little wonder then, that the last Puma off the assembly line was going slow with it's hazard lights on...:p