Sounds like an interesting program .

I have a few Britparts I'm waiting to return ( bought before I was knowledged) but I will wait till I'm back in the Uk otherwise the return postage will cost more than the items.

Knowing the problems with Britpart bits and having experienced a few of them (air springs with only 1 O ring so they never seal properly and when I first bought my Classic it took a good 20 seconds at idle before the oil pressure light went out because the Britpart oil filter fitted to it had no non-return valve so all the oil drained back to the sump when it was left overnight), I've always steered well clear of them since. I do have one Britpart component on my car though that I thought they couldn't get wrong. The bottom part of one of my windscreen washer nozzles had broken off so the pipe was jammed onto what remained. It worked but dripped slightly so I had a permanent puddle on one of my rocker covers. At only a fiver I figured that even Britpart couldn't get something as simple as a washer nozzle wrong. They can. Instead of two nice clean jets of water on my windscreen, I get two sprays that look like they are coming from shower heads that sometimes hit the correct part of the screen.....

If its known that these parts are so bad why do the reputable retailers sell them, annoyingly when looking at some parts they will also only list a Britpart.

At a guess, the reputable dealers sell 'em because they're easy to get hold of and cheap. They're also listed as alternatives to other more expensive options where they're available, but in some cases, where LR don't make/ stock them anymore, and neither does anyone else, the dealers have no alternative but to list only Britpart. They're out there to make money and don't want their customers spending their dosh with another dealer.

Surely that only works in the short term though as they will end up with returns and pissed off customers who will then need to buy the more expensive products anyway and maybe take their custom elsewhere due to the fact they received faulty products in the first place.

That's assuming the customers actually realise the parts are cr@p in the first place! Let's take brake shoes/ pads for instance. You swap 'em, your brakes work pretty much as before right up to the time they fade to nothing on a long descent towing a 3000 kg trailer by which time it's too late! Even Britpart have a "quality" alternative now- Britpart XL or something similar. They wouldn't have done that unless they knew their originals were sub- par. <br>
Their parts aren't necessarily overtly faulty. They just don't fit very well perhaps or last very long. Built to a price rather than quality.

Gilbertd wrote:

They can. Instead of two nice clean jets of water on my windscreen, I get two sprays that look like they are coming from shower heads that sometimes hit the correct part of the screen.....

Hey, I've got those as well!

Changed the hoses and flushed , it was all clean and still not fixed. Next is to replace the Thermostat.
Looking at the invoice from Land Rover who replaced my radiator 18 months ago, its just confusing. I'm not sure if they replaced the thermostat or not and looking at it under the car, it doesnt look new so I have ordered a cheaper OE replacement just to test if that fails than I'm gonna have to strip the engine I guess.

Just waiting for new thermostat to arrive.

The bottom radiator hose is definitely cold when the rest is hot but Ive just put the old thermostat in boiling water and its opened up although I didnt notice at what temperature. Hopefully it was a temperamental thermostat as on the odd occasion when it overheated the needle did drop back from the red line to centre again.

Did your infra-red thermometer ever turn up? It would be majorly useful and more informative than just feeling the hoses as you can tell exactly when things open and close.

It did, I gave it a play and all the hoses more or less read the same temperature. I didnt use it on the bottom hose as its cold to touch anyway plus as a last resort before pulling the engine apart I am swapping the thermostat.

Rather than pulling the engine apart, I'd be treating it to a new radiator if a thermostat change doesn't do anything. If the bottom hose is cold and the top hose is hot, that shows that you've got no flow between the top and the bottom. As you've already changed the water pump, that should be working so the only thing left is that the water can't flow through the radiator. If you had an engine problem, the hoses would be rock hard from the build up of pressure but both the top and bottom hoses would still get hot.

I would agree with you if Land Rover hadnt replaced it 18 months ago. I blew through the expansion hose and it drained out through the radiator ok.

Was it Land Rover themselves and how much did they charge for it? If they charged less than £500 for a radiator, then they didn't fit a genuine one. See here http://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/Item--i-GRID009567 for the differences in price.

Rimmers are selling the genuine for £350 P/N PCC106850 . I was charged €468 which is about £375 ( not incl fitting) but it was fitted by an authorised L/R dealer.

Authorised rather than main dealer so I suspect they fitted the cheapest they could find but charged you the price of the genuine article. Unless it still has any labels on it you're going to have a job finding out what it is though. Do the hoses get hard?

Yeah , top hose when overheated.

That isn't the question. Pressure will build up when it is overheating due to thermal expansion, it's when they get hard before it gets hot when you have a problem. If you start the engine and let it idle, do the hoses get rock hard, the coolant is spat out the overflow and then it starts to overheat due to a lack of coolant? If not, there isn't an engine problem.

Overheating is caused by one of two things, a lack of coolant or a lack of flow. When a head gasket leaks, combustion gases get forced into the cooling system. That causes the system to pressurise enough to cause the coolant to be forced out. The gases that are in the cooling system get heated too and expand far more than the coolant would normally which speeds up the rate the coolant is being forced out. The engine then overheats because there isn't enough coolant left to keep it cool. Something like a boat engine that has an unlimited supply of coolant, won't overheat because it'll never run out of coolant. Lack of flow is far simpler, the coolant doesn't circulate so it doesn't pass through the radiator and get cooled by the airflow.

My money is still on a lack of flow.......

I've nothing useful to add by my genuine commiserations at having such a persistent problem :(
Best of luck in fixing this, and well done for standing by it so far. I'm sure my remedy would have involved some matches and a can of petrol by now...

Well, I am getting frustrated now with the no arrival of the thermostat.

I took the old one of in anticipation but the cars been sitting there for 9 days now. Bloody ebay seller.

I thought I'd buy a cheap replacement first to see if that was the problem then if so buy an original but it looks like I will have to get an original from Island 4x4 now as I cant wait any longer.

There's a moral in this somewhere.