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It can only be one thing QUALITY CONTROL

All these problems aren't necessarily down to QC. I would suggest that it is more down to quantity. If a good OEM manufacturer to the motor industry making OEM CV boots receives an order from a major motor manufacturer it will be in the millions of units. These HAVE to be correct & in spec. However if the same company receives an order for a few thousand units it is simply not worth their while doing them. Therefore smaller orders have to be placed with smaller (less good) suppliers who are prepared to cut corners & maximise their profit.

Add top this peoples reluctance to pay a relatively large sum of money for what they consider to be a cheap gaiter & the circle is set.

This is NOT down to companies like Minispares it is down to pure economics.

mk1 wrote: I would suggest that it is more down to quantity.

I made mention of some rubbers that I may have made locally in a previous post. When doing the big ring around and email out to try to get something moving, it was suggested to me by one of our local custom suspension wholesalers to try a few places in Thailand as he felt they did the best quality rubber bits and that was where they got much of their stuff done, however, he did also caution me that many won't even even pick up the phone for less than 10 000 units. I did get a reply for 2 over there who would do small runs - of 5 000!

You've mentioned this before Mark in term of quanitities and yes, you do have a point. If I can get anything moving locally at this end, it will all take a while but it seems I can order more reasonable smaller runs!

If you can find a good quality supplier of these sort of parts its like finding a diamond in a desert. I am sure they are about, but it's finding them that's the tricky bit. I hope you manage to get something sorted.

the only problem with the supply of rubber parts is that its often 6-12 months before they show signs of distress, so its a long winded process

1) you either believe the word of the supplier (who may just be a middle man), order your 1000's of boots only to discover they are junk much later

or

2) you get a few samples made, use them for 6-12 months and asses them, by which time the supplier has sold the rubber material stock and you are back to 1)


we have a 'window sill' full of rubber bits and bobs that are getting hammered by the sun to see what happens to them, but its certainly not a problem that's going to be fixed anytime soon.

as has been said above, its all down to price per unit and volumes ordered

I bought CV joint gaiters from Wood & Pickett about 3 years ago, I fitted them to my Mini & also one belonging to a customer, I think they cost £3.00 each & are still in perfect condition to this day. I see there is a lot of mention of handbrake lever gaiters, the original ones on my Mini are 34 years old & still perfect, so maybe searching for used originals is the away to go with those.
Regards, Rich.

I wonder what the gaiters that the major Hillman Imp suppliers sell are like? I haven't heard or seen on forums any mention of the type of problems that are being voiced here. Obviously the quantities that are needed to supply Imp owners are far smaller than the market for Mini 'rubber' components. Got to be worth asking on the Imp Forum!

Having started this thread last June i thought i would look under car , Looks like i have got to strip the front suspension completely down thanks to MINISPORT selling me inferior products. As i stated before i did not know about about this RUBBER SHITE on the market and it seems as though ALL the Mini parts company's are still selling it. Again what gets me is they know its rubbish but carry on selling it , So i guess until this is sorted we are stuck with it or source NOS , What they should do is put a warning sign on the product saying this item is guaranteed to DISINTEGRATE within 12 months and you are wasting your time and money buying it

First image Jan 2014

Second image today

As a matter of interest is there any warranty offered on these parts?

Even if there wasn't, I bet you could return them under the sale of goods act as being unfit for purpose.

mk1 wrote:As a matter of interest is there any warranty offered on these parts?

Even if there wasn't, I bet you could return them under the sale of goods act as being unfit for purpose.

Possibly, but what would one get in return?

believe me, I rant at our purchasing guy like a good one (and far more than a normal customer would probably feel comfortable with!)

I regularly send him little bags of decaying rubber boots that I have removed of my fleet!


however, I have listed the problems we have finding stable rubber products previously, and whilst we know that there is an issue with it, its a very difficult problem to solve..


it IS something that we are chewing through, but as the decay takes time to appear (and can vary across a batch) its a slow process

It's not original but on my restoration I used poly bushes where I could and old gaiters for steering rack and drive shafts as it's far too much hassle to strip everything down, it would take a lot for me to get confidence in new rubber gaiters and will continue to avoid when I can.

I've seen these silicone ones available in Australia...

http://www.minis.com.au/minis/catalog/p ... cts_id=515

Here's some original MOWOG lower arm bushes.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NOS-BMC-AUSTI ... 51ce2122fd

I wonder how much demand would be needed for someone to tool up to make classic mini ones,

http://www.duraflex.co/index.php?cPath=2_22_39

I'm digging out this thread !

i'm currently in portugal for a few days and i went to visit a local shop in porto. i found that they could sell me engine mounts for 8 quids and made in portugal (written on it) and the old owner swearing he would rather die than selling stuffs made in china.

As i never tried a portuguese made rubber part, i still guess the quality would be significantly better.

Does any of the big shops like minispares, get some parts made in portugal?

tictor wrote:
As i never tried a portuguese made rubber part, i still guess the quality would be significantly better.

Does any of the big shops like minispares, get some parts made in portugal?

if portugese made rubber parts are made to the same quality and standard as the new portugese made Dunlop CR65 tyres, then I'm afraid to say that the products would have a 'life' of about 20 minutes.

if you want to know what a sick feeling is, try spending £600 of four tyres which simply blow themselves to bits in one race

I don't know that they have managed to do to the contents or production, but its causing huge problems for historic racers.

A couple of TMF members are reporting good results with 'Delphi' branded knuckle joints/rubber boots not degrading and spliting within a short time, unlike most others that are currently available....
http://www.theminiforum.co.uk/forums/to ... ?p=3438957

£13.10 a pair

Wasn't Delphi part of the Lucas group at one time?