Thread: Suspension lifetime

Originally Posted by DiscoDB

Will take that as a comment for the conspiracy thread.

I am the most anti-conspiracy person, but it’s a seriously great idea right. I bought some struts that were ground off - I have no idea what they are, but the ride is comfy and they haven’t failed so I’m ok with that. I think mine came from LRDirect.

Having worked for an Australian run company with Chinese ownership in the past, I can certainly relate to the identify crisis that a USA founded company with Chinese ownership would now have with today’s anti-China sentiment.

In some regards they should have kept the Delphi brand name, but in 2009 they obviously considered changing the brand to BWI Group made more sense.

Where they shoot themselves in the foot is not putting BWI labelling on the OEM struts.

Originally Posted by DiscoDB

Having worked for an Australian run company with Chinese ownership in the past, I can certainly relate to the identify crisis that a USA founded company with Chinese ownership would now have with today’s anti-China sentiment.

In some regards they should have kept the Delphi brand name, but in 2009 they obviously considered changing the brand to BWI Group made more sense.

Where they shoot themselves in the foot is not putting BWI labelling on the OEM struts.

Only a matter of time before it becomes cheaper to manufacture in the good ol' US, UK, EU anyway.

That's the way it's always been with changing standards of living in developing countries.

DL

Originally Posted by DiscoJeffster

I am the most anti-conspiracy person, but it’s a seriously great idea right. I bought some struts that were ground off - I have no idea what they are, but the ride is comfy and they haven’t failed so I’m ok with that. I think mine came from LRDirect.

The real conspiracy is JLR (Indian owned company in the UK), also buy their struts from BWI (Chinese owned company in the UK) - no doubt pay less for them than the UK aftermarket sellers like Advanced Factors and LRDirect as they don’t need the original LR logo ground off - and then add LR stickers to the plain cardboard box they receive them in and sell for a 200-400% mark up as a “genuine” item. The mark up being for the genuine LR sticker on the box, and JLR “quality checks” before shipment.

It seems to me (personal opinion not associated in anyway with AULRO), the real scam is the genuine parts market and not the OEM parts market. (Yes this is for the conspiracy thread too).

In all seriousness, I guess LR paid for the development of the struts and the tooling to allow the Land Rover logo to be used on the shock absorber body, but to then sell as an OEM item and not be associated with the genuine part, the manufacturer is obliged to grind off the Land Rover logo.

At the end of the day, it is actually the use of the branding that determines if an item is genuine or just an OEM part. I am personally happy to know I have a genuine Delphi item.

And I truly doubt BWI are into counterfeiting their own high quality OEM parts. The real scam would be an aftermarket seller claiming a part is OEM but then they source from elsewhere - hence only buy from trusted parts suppliers.

Originally Posted by 350RRC

Only a matter of time before it becomes cheaper to manufacture in the good ol' US, UK, EU anyway.

That's the way it's always been with changing standards of living in developing countries.

DL

Eastern Europe = the new China.

Originally Posted by DiscoDB

The real conspiracy is JLR (Indian owned company in the UK), also buy their struts from BWI (Chinese owned company in the UK) - no doubt pay less for them than the UK aftermarket sellers like Advanced Factors and LRDirect as they don’t need the original LR logo ground off - and then add LR stickers to the plain cardboard box they receive them in and sell for a 200-400% mark up as a “genuine” item. The mark up being for the genuine LR sticker on the box, and JLR “quality checks” before shipment.

It seems to me (personal opinion not associated in anyway with AULRO), the real scam is the genuine parts market and not the OEM parts market. (Yes this is for the conspiracy thread too).

In all seriousness, I guess LR paid for the development of the struts and the tooling to allow the Land Rover logo to be used on the shock absorber body, but to then sell as an OEM item and not be associated with the genuine part, the manufacturer is obliged to grind off the Land Rover logo.

At the end of the day, it is actually the use of the branding that determines if an item is genuine or just an OEM part. I am personally happy to know I have a genuine Delphi item.

And I truly doubt BWI are into counterfeiting their own high quality OEM parts. The real scam would be an aftermarket seller claiming a part is OEM but then they source from elsewhere - hence only buy from trusted parts suppliers.

Not in regards to BWI or suspension components. I purchased a viscous fan from fleebay in Netherlands and what arrived what looked like a genuine (to me) item with serial scratched out.

Got a A/C compressor locally by Sanden which is only a fraction of the LR price, again another genuine supplier.

Purchased the tensioner and idler last week from JLR uk at almost 40% of what local LR wanted delivered.

Geez these past 11mo have kept me on my toes..

Originally Posted by imaz

How are you finding them after a year of use?

Hi imaz, yeah fine, left home with the new units fitted towing the van (3.3T or so) did 23,000 km to, from and around north west of WA including the Gib RR, Tanami and lots of sensational places in between with some demanding terrain. Certainly noticed the better control of the rear end with the van attached immediately, which validated my feeling that the original rears had gone off a bit. I must confess driving without the van it seems to wallow around mid-corner undulations/bumps more than I remember, but then again, that was 8 years ago so it could be old-timers as well. No leaks, oil or air, no mechanical degradation that I can see so in short, happy as

Peter

A lot of the OEM debranded gear is “Cat B” quality - so something on it didn’t pass QA/QC and they sell as OEM aftermarket.

Remember to, genuine parts were covered by all LR dealers if they failed. Your OEM aftermarket will need to deal with PofS for any issues.