Frustrated by poor quality product

[Hugo]

You're not the only one! Unless it's just the cooler weather?

[Bobb]

Returning to the original post...craptastic parts... while instaling my new engine bay wiring harness, I had one of the swaged-on bullets come off when I had to remove the wire from the connector to reroute it. This does not instill a lot of confidence in the rest of the harness. I've replaced several of the connectors as I thought they where lousy quality but I'm now considering soldering ALL the connectors for piece of mind. Next time (if there is one) I'll buy bulk wire and make my own harness. I can live without the fancy cloth loom. Thanks bunches, ### in New Hampshire, USA.
Argh!

[Hugo]

I'm about to buy an engine bay harness. Would you care to PM me with the name of your supplier so I know whom NOT to buy from?

[Bobb]

Hi Hugo,
I'd email ALL of them and ask specific questions regarding swaged vs soldered on and gauge of wiring used. I believe that most of the regular suppliers are getting their harnesses from the same manufacturer as I've seen harnesses from different suppliers and they where pretty much the same. There's a few places that specialize in just harnesses but they are quite spendy. Cost was a factor in my choice but I feel I may have bought in haste.
Bob and his soldering iron.

[jonhall88]

I have never used this supplier but I am afraid many of the suppliers for equipment for our E,s sell sub standard parts. for example coupe v12 rear chrome vent, chrome rusted out in 3 months, fulcrum shafts which were 18 thou oversize and didn't fit, replacement chrome didn't fit and bad quality, brake reservoir bottles which leaked the list goes on
The common denominator all manufactured in China all rubbish

[Hugo]

Your 18 thou over sounds like a typical metric/Imperial muddle.
Going back to wiring, I bought an engine bay loom from Autosparks - all terminals are crimped on. I figure that they sell a heck of a lot of looms so they should work, but I'd have preferred soldered terminals. Better to pay a proper price and do the job once I reckon, but that doesn't seem possible most of the time.

[johnetype]

Without going in the merits of soldered versus crimped, if you want soldered bullets on a crimped loom it only takes seconds to solder them before you fit the loom and because they're already crimped, they won't move around as you try to do it.

[Hugo]

That's a thought - there's a lot of them though

[cdaubs]

For Tim and everybody else...

This is supposed be an information sharing website. Why not just do a review of the offending part and name where you bought it. Quit dancing around the subject. Also indicate what kind of customer service you received when you contacted them to explain your problems. If the suppler is a legitimate one and is concerned about their reputation, they will be grateful for your feedback and will remedy the situation, not only for you, but for all customers.

Am I wrong on this?

[Hugo]

No you are not wrong. Everybody is scared of being sued these days though - blame the damned lawyers. Honest factual feedback is perfectly in order in my book.
Funnily enough, some of my best trading relationships have begun where something went wrong, but I have been so impressed by the supplier's response that they have become firm favourites. Any honest businessman will welcome constructive negative feedback as a means of improving their service.

[mgcjag]

Read Davids post a bit further back...he said
"Depends on how you do it. If you were to, say, write a review of the positives and negatives of your experience there would be no problem. If however you decided to do a complete hatchet job on the vendor we would have a problem."
Steve

[Gfhug]

Geoff

[cactusman]

As someone who has spent 40 years soldering things together I have probably made more than 100.000 solder joints...and that is not an exaggeration. Soldering is the most reliable way of jointing metals...electrically. Crimped, swaged... call it what you like....they are not going to be as good....

HOWEVER.... be aware that the vast majority of my joints have been with good old lead Tin alloy solders. They wet copper well and "dry" joints are rare. This y withstand thermal cycling well.

The ROHS regulations prevent the use of lead so any commercial applications requiring solder will use lead free solders....manufactures would have to use lead free solder. My experience of these is that they are far inferior in wetting ability and more prone to failure, especially if temperature cycled....lead free solders have a far higher percentage of tin and tin undergoes a change of structure at about 13 degrees Celsius. If you plan to solder your bullets use traditional lead solder. It is still available...

[cdaubs]

Read Davids post a bit further back...he said
"Depends on how you do it. If you were to, say, write a review of the positives and negatives of your experience there would be no problem. If however you decided to do a complete hatchet job on the vendor we would have a problem."
Steve

I did read the entire posting, which is exactly why I made my post. Oh well, complain about something without backing it up and let the rest of us fall under the same bus! Way to have our backs.

[mgcjag]

Hi Charlie....i wasnt replying to you......it was to reinforce the fact that any one can do a review......i do get a bit bored of hearing about poor quality products.....if someone has been supplied with something that dont work or dosnt fit then send it back, or complain.......then its up to you what to do....i think we are very fortunate to have what we do.......yes it would be great if everything was perfect.....if tbats what you expect then dont own a 50 year old car...

[Hugo]

The ROHS regulations prevent the use of lead so any commercial applications requiring solder will use lead free solders....manufactures would have to use lead free solder. My experience of these is that they are far inferior in wetting ability and more prone to failure, especially if temperature cycled....lead free solders have a far higher percentage of tin and tin undergoes a change of structure at about 13 degrees Celsius. If you plan to solder your bullets use traditional lead solder. It is still available...

Good old EU banned lead solder some years ago - where can you stil get it?

[mgcjag]

Just google search.....lots out there

[cactusman]

Www.rswww.com. for one... The EU did not ban lead solder. They banned lead solder in the manufacture of new electrical and electronic equipment (big simplification) but its use in the repair and maintenance of old equipment is permitted. Incidentally it is still permitted for soldering copper water pipe so far as I know as even they recognized that cold causes lead free solder to fail and leaky pipes are bad...

[Barry]

For an owner of a concours condition car, I am Extremely frustrated by the people with 3 initials in front of their name that 95% of us go to! i bought several trim parts recently, including window winders, wiper arms etc which all arrived scratched or of suspect quality. For example, the central trim for the transmission tunnel is of a flimsy quality compared to original etc etc. Frankly, the items I was going to replace are in better condition. Also, I thought I'd order new ancillary dials, and the ones they could supply all had the wrong bezel. I was told, "that's all we can supply" (a winter project of refurbishment beckons!) I applaud these guys for keeping many an old Jag on the road for very little money, but if you are in the market for as new and concours, There are other people who may be able to provide a more consistent product, but will be a lot more expensive. You do get what you pay for! I do wish to point out I am only alerting a specific owner, I have to say the said firm are helpful, courteous and I am sure will please most owners, and I will definitely continue to use them for certain service type items. But to buy many trim parts with the consistency of the original you may have to look elsewhere. just beware.

[265bhp]

ok, here's one specific item, which I mailed directly to Julian to give feedback, am not asking for any refund and or otherwise...just passing on comment


post

".....Part C19654, which is your white rope seal for the rear crank seal was a nightmare to try and fit…being too long I had to trim it, which is surely wrong and far too thick in cross section it ultimately ripped across the width as I tried and failed to fit the seal (using the correct Jaguar tool I had hired)….it needed me to extend the hiring period and pay for a second seal….EBC1705* was by sharp contrast almost a joy to fit"


reply

......"We are actually now out of those rope seals so we will drop them in favour of the modern seal. Getting those rope type seals was ever harder so its definitely for the best..."


if it helps someone else along the line then that's enough for me, feedback is always a good idea..and a lost opportunity if you don't express it

As I building up my engine I am going to also point out to Julian other items which are not as good as the original...parts C2151* oil pump gear lock washer (locking tab too big to fit in the slot) and C8665 oil pump strut (extended bracket to locate oil pipework not long enough)

Jonathan