59 replies to this topic

[Remylebleu]

God did not invent humans. Humans invented God.

think we should save that discuss for another day lol

[Remylebleu]

the mini is back, all sorted

2x ball joint kits, rubber brake pipe, wheel bearing, track rod end, hub, inner cv, £170

at www.oldskoolminis.co.uk

Birmingham

Edited by Remylebleu, 19 November 2011 - 12:09 PM.

[Frisco]

You might want to remove the vat bit there mate.

Edited by Frisco, 19 November 2011 - 12:05 PM.

[Remylebleu]

You might want to remove the vat bit there mate.

what vat bit?

thanks

[tiger99]

I must say that if they have done the job correctly, it is excellent value. Economics dictate that to make a profit, they must be very quick at it. In some places (typical main dealer in London) that would be just over an hour of mechanics time, without the cost of the parts.

I would be intrigued to know how they manage to stay in business....

[Ethel]

Any chance of a peek at the snapped pin?

[Cosford Cowboy]

Yuo said the hub was knackered did ti get changed ?

[Remylebleu]

yes, i supplied the the hub though, so he just charged £30 to take my brand new bearings out and then fit the other one

Any chance of a peek at the snapped pin?

i forgot to ask for it, but it looked more like it had unscrewed than snapped. abit like a cornetto ice cream wrapper how it peels round? it was the actual ball part that broke. there was the threaded bolt and about 1/8 of the actually ball still attached in a spiral design......hope that makes sense?

I must say that if they have done the job correctly, it is excellent value. Economics dictate that to make a profit, they must be very quick at it. In some places (typical main dealer in London) that would be just over an hour of mechanics time, without the cost of the parts.

I would be intrigued to know how they manage to stay in business....

there was 2 minis in for complete rebuilds, 1 having a webber carb set up and 3 mot failures that needed extensive welding when i was there (always got to have a nose round at other minis to see what other people do to theres ) and a B reg mini with genuine 28000 on the clock having new bearings fitted that belongs to an elderly chap who lives round the corner from me........obviously i dont know the prices for everything but a spray job is a £1000 but they sell alot of parts aswell

Edited by Remylebleu, 19 November 2011 - 08:13 PM.

[tiger99]

Sounds like a very unusual type of fracture, which makes me wonder if this is one occasion where it was not necessarily just too tight, but made of the wrong material. They normally snap at the thin neck due to fatigue, but this sounds more like some weird kind of brittle fracture.

The important thing is that you have had it fixed by a garage which sounds like they know what they are doing, and are back on the road. But I am wondering about the quality of parts nowadays as someone else said above that you really do need to lap the joints because they are not as well machined as they used to be. I immediately think of cheap Chinese junk, because the majority of car spares nowadays are better made than ever before, at least if made in the UK or Europe.

I was hoping to get Mini number 4 in about a year, once house renovation is finished and new garage built, but now I am not so sure. Too many tales of badly fitting panels and badly machined parts. On the other hand, I have been without a Mini for 15 years, and the urge to get another is getting stronger every day.....

Those cars are addictive, and I am way off topic.

[Ethel]

I don't think there's any reason why service parts for Minis need be any worse than for other cars. The spurious ones are likely to be made in the same factories as similar parts for other models. Some may even be knocked out with the same tooling used by Rover's suppliers.

[maggies_minder]

old skool are brilliant at one point i was down there at least 3 times a week, now im more compitent and have mates willing to help im there maybe once or twice a month.

im such a regular im allowed to just roam around normally. and my car practically has its own space.

they always help you out if money is tight.

top guys.

[Cosford Cowboy]

I was hoping to get Mini number 4 in about a year, once house renovation is finished and new garage built, but now I am not so sure. Too many tales of badly fitting panels and badly machined parts. On the other hand, I have been without a Mini for 15 years, and the urge to get another is getting stronger every day.....

15 years ago ? did you used to come on this forum back then ?? if not how many of your friends had Minis that they were working on ?

My point is that if you had 5 friends with Minis and 2 of them had parts issues that is 40%

Now if you listen to all the issues that people have with parts then at a guess it might be 100 or 300... out of a membership of over 30,000 which equates to 1%.

[tiger99]

What I thought I was saying was that the tales of badly fitting or unsuitable parts are to be found in this forum. Of course I was not here 15 years ago, but I did have a Mini with good balljoints that did not need lapping. And, the few body panels that I had to fit, did actually fit, which, if we believe everything on this forum, is not so common as it was. It seems that there is lots more junk on the market now, if everything that is written here is to be believed.

The only bad spare parts I ever had were two genuine Gold Seal engines in quick succession. The first blew a core plug and siezed. Although I had fitted it myself, it was replaced under warranty, but the local dealer managed to charge about £50 for new oil, gaskets and anything else they could think of. Oh, and within a week the replacement blew a core plug, this time it drowned the distributor so the engine stopped before any real damage was done. Cost this time about 20p, I avoided the dealer who would have stung me for another £50 and fixed it myself. About 1988, and obviously BL, as I think they were then, had a serious problem with installing core plugs. But there was nothing wrong with the machining of ball pins in those days.

My 3 Minis must have totalled about 400,000 miles, which is not bad considering the first one, the van, was in fairly poor condition when I acquired it.

[Remylebleu]

What I thought I was saying was that the tales of badly fitting or unsuitable parts are to be found in this forum. Of course I was not here 15 years ago, but I did have a Mini with good balljoints that did not need lapping. And, the few body panels that I had to fit, did actually fit, which, if we believe everything on this forum, is not so common as it was. It seems that there is lots more junk on the market now, if everything that is written here is to be believed.

The only bad spare parts I ever had were two genuine Gold Seal engines in quick succession. The first blew a core plug and siezed. Although I had fitted it myself, it was replaced under warranty, but the local dealer managed to charge about £50 for new oil, gaskets and anything else they could think of. Oh, and within a week the replacement blew a core plug, this time it drowned the distributor so the engine stopped before any real damage was done. Cost this time about 20p, I avoided the dealer who would have stung me for another £50 and fixed it myself. About 1988, and obviously BL, as I think they were then, had a serious problem with installing core plugs. But there was nothing wrong with the machining of ball pins in those days.

My 3 Minis must have totalled about 400,000 miles, which is not bad considering the first one, the van, was in fairly poor condition when I acquired it.

your right about quality of parts, im only 23 but ive bought parts for my mini and then gone to my dad for help and i just get the "ive got loads of them still" from when he had minis about 15 years ago like yourself......and the weight in parts are alot lighter, cheaper looking ( like when you buy a hammer from a carboot, its heavy and old looking) nowadays tools are all shinny and snap easy. and theres loads of posts about how to get panels to fit properly......now this could be down to there cheaply made theses days or there wasnt internet 15 years ago for people to moan about them not fitting! its like sports pack arches, the originals fit, the cheap copies dont....same with all parts, less care goes into cheaper parts

[johnsn]

Quote
your right about quality of parts, im only 23 but ive bought parts for my mini and then gone to my dad for help and i just get the "ive got loads of them still" from when he had minis about 15 years ago like yourself......and the weight in parts are alot lighter, cheaper looking ( like when you buy a hammer from a carboot, its heavy and old looking) nowadays tools are all shinny and snap easy. and theres loads of posts about how to get panels to fit properly......now this could be down to there cheaply made theses days or there wasnt internet 15 years ago for people to moan about them not fitting! its like sports pack arches, the originals fit, the cheap copies dont....same with all parts, less care goes into cheaper parts
Un-Quote

A better engineered part can be lighter. Material only where needed.
That said, Some companies have no morals, or quality control (some Chines come to mind), and will sell marginal (some bad) parts. They look OK, maybe a little lighter and cruder, but they could be made of a bad mix of metal. Also the workers may not know or care about quality.
I bought a cheep body and fender tool kit (hammers and dollies) off fleabay, and one of the dollies had a casting void right on the dolly surface. They just finished it like there was nothing wrong with it. it was obvious the worker didn't know or care.
Price is an indicator of quality. Just not the only one.
Look and think. Ask around. How are they doing lately. Ask where they get there parts. I have delt with companies that say "we don't use or sell parts from XXXX, because they're crap".
I like the integrity
john