For all of you that have installed the TuffAnt Under Armor and take your vehicle in for service work, make sure they understand how to remove and reinstall the under armor. I took my defender in to get its oil changed and some brake work done on the rear wheels at a third party Land Rover service shop. They did what they were asked and for a much more reasonable price than the dealer. About a week later I start to notice a clunking and metal scraping sound on the front of the vehicle, but only when hitting the brakes. Very odd sound. At first I think they screwed something up with the brakes or possible something is going wrong with the suspension system. So I have my wife very slowly drive the vehicle back and forth in our driveway while listening. It quickly becomes apparent it is something to do with the under armor. So I put the vehicle in offroad height and on some ramps and crawl under there. As I start to undo the bolts I get to the center one and it is in there really tight, to the point that I can barely get it off. Once it is out I can see the bolt threads are all mangled and it was clearly forced in. Which is odd because it wasn't that hard to get in when I did the original install. I set that aside to ponder and move on to removing the rest of the bolts and lower the plate. That is when I see the ware spot on the aluminum plate. Great at least I know where it is rubbing. The question is why. So I go to put it back on to see what adjustments I can make. It quickly becomes apparent that it can not go back on in this orientation without a lot of force. This is mainly because the lower part of the transmission is in the way and the "V" shaped ridge in the plate is hitting it (this is where the rub spot was). Then the ah ha moment. The plate is upside down. On the plate there is a cut out specifically for the lower part of the transmission. This part of the transmission doesn't hang below the plate but basically sits flush to a millimeter below the top surface.

What appears to have happened is the tech at the service shop installed the plate upside down. Which is possible because all the bolt holes are a mirror image of each others. And when the tech encountered the resistance of the ridge hitting the transmission they decided to use brute force and bend the plate to their will and in the process messed up the threads on the center bolt. This bolt is closes to the transmission.

So if you have the under armor and take it in for service make sure they understand how to take off the plates and put them back on. Hopefully they never need to take off the rock rails. I don't have much hope for them trying to line up all the different plastic spacers.

 

Ugh! Thanks for the heads-up.

 

The 100k km service involves replacing the flexible brake hoses. I haven't followed the path to the rear wheels but can this be done without removing the sliders? Or do they only replace a small section near the wheels?

 

I’d be inclined to simply pop off the armor before having anyone service it.

Anything under there is all simple drain and fills so I ain’t paying someone for that.

If someone isn’t competent enough to remove and replace sheet metal plate, you really don’t want them tinkering with torque specific bolts and copper crush washers.

Full disclosure. I’m incompetent in all.

 

Very well said…

thanks to the OP for bringing this up, sorry you had to have this happen

 

I'm currently under my vehicle changing the transmission oil/pan and doing an interim engine oil change which requires removing all regular armour. I also have the Tuffant Sliders. In the next scheduled service, they will replace the brake hoses.
Has anyone who is monitoring this thread had that service already and if so, can they advise what replacing brake hoses entails? I'm hoping it's just a section that can be accessed when removing the wheels, as I don't want to remove these sliders for a service unless I have to, for my own incompetence in putting them back on properly.

 

Pretty sure you will never have to remove the sliders for any routine service - definitely not the brake hoses.

 

Maybe TuffAnt should emboss one side with the message - "Side Towards Engine", or at the time of installation write the same with permanent marker.

 

I’ve not finalized the part numbers but looks like there are two separate hoses on the rears wheels and a single one on each front.



Front P400

Rear. P400