Hello folks. My friends have recently gotten a Defender, and today they have just let me know their nudge bar appears damaged.


They have not hit anything or scratched it etc, yet it appears the paint is peeling off the dealer fit A-Frame Protection Bar. I didn’t even think it was painted?! Does anybody know what is going on here?

 

Aren't these made of a hard rubbery material? Assuming they're under warranty, they shouldn't have any issues getting it replaced. Is the vehicle garage-kept or does it bake in the Australian sun all day? I'm sure that can affect this, but still unlikely. Definitely not normal, and I've never seen anything like this before.

 

That is odd. Guessing they purchased this pre-owned ie used?

So those protection guard gizmos actually do come in two different colors. Silicon silver which is a metallic silver matte colored paint that matches the paint color of the bumpers of certain spec Defenders, and the black color, which matches the matte plastic bumpers of other Defender trims. The silicon silver ones are rare and I’ve never seen one in person but they are in the parts catalogue.

I wonder if they somehow got one that was silver and someone painted black. Or it was on the car silver and someone painted it and the bumper black (a common modification).

That would explain this. I’m betting someone painted it.

 

Yea, I thought they were just black plastic. It’s a garaged car, but I don’t own it so I don’t really know how much time it spends outside.

 

This car is ‘used’, with about 9000 km when they got it early this year. However, it is an ex-press car (we evidence to back it up, though I won’t be sharing further photos of the car just because I dunno if they would be comfortable with that) and was basically brand new when they got it. Yet, in the press material it appears without the A-Frame (and side ladder).

When you say they come in silver, are you referring to this?

I thought the half-half silver one was only available in the ‘front expedition system’ package, which is fitted to this car that I spotted, but not fitted to my friends car. It might be a bit hard to make out, but it has the improved approach angle pieces of the pack with the bottom left/right front trim pieces having a cut out.
I just don’t understand why an official LR dealer would paint one of those black and fit it to a car coming out of press use? Can this even be replaced under warranty to the proper black one? It’s no even in the same state as the dealer it was bought from, so I’m sure it’ll be a right pain in the ***.

 

Yep - exactly. The bottom part is silver. Just like in that pic you shared. That is what I think happened here. BTW dealers do all kinds of crazy things. Stupid things. Nonsensical things. Would not put it past them to do exactly this to tart up a vehicle prior to sale. Either way should be a warranty item for sure !

 

Ok, but how will they get it replaced with a black one because the original part that ‘failed’ was the two-tone? What about being across the country from the original dealer?

 

Should be pretty easy. The thing just pops off, and the black part is ordered, and you pop on the black one. I have no clue how that would be managed with the dealer -- a dealer near you ?

I think the question is: Is the vehicle under warranty or not, and if so, then it’s JLR’s problem.
If not, your friends are paying for it / or the dealer is paying for it because it’s such a recent purchase it's out of “goodwill”. It looks to me like it went thru the pressure wash and the paint just flaked off. Right?

What is annoying to deal with is the camera housing (front camera), the license plate mount, and the 2 front parking sensors. Here are the install instructions.

https://accessories-instructions.lan...ender/G2409784

The part #VPLEP0385 is the black one. I think. In those install instructions on the first page are the part #’s.

There’s one on ebay . If you look at the pic, it sort of shows how it’s constructed. They dont’ have to replace the whole kit and caboodle (although the parts aren’t avail separately I dont think). It has an inner structure which I’m sure is fine on theirs... right?). And then an outer skin. Here’s the pic from ebay - see what I mean ? I havent installed one of these but I watched one of them be pulled off by someone in a parking lot. It was held on by velcro at the top (literally). It is not hard to remove from the car, I don’t think. it was on a winch-capable car, so a bit different, but I think this is pretty easy to snap on and off.

 

I got to look at it in person last night and the bottom is very obviously painted - a completely different shade of black. You can also see the metallic-ness of the silver underneath the black paint, and silver around the edges. Great job, Brighton Land Rover