I was working on my brakes last week and noticed that the sway bar links I installed last July were already cracked and bleeding grease. Suck. They were whatever brand Lucky8 was selling. They were cheaper than the other usual sites, but gosh, I sort of expected L8 to have a baseline standard of quality for the parts they sell. Nope.

So I ordered some Dephi links from Atlantic British. They were about 2x the price but wow, what a difference. Basically everything that could be different is. Some photos below to show you what you're getting for the money. Something that doesn't photograph too well but is super noticeable in person is how much thicker the actual rod is on the AB part.

Moral of the story (telling myself this too) - the bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten. It would've cost me way less over the last year to simply by the Delphi parts rather than buy them plus the oatmeal that L8 sells.

 

"Buy once, cry once"

It doesn't apply to everything, but daggone there's a lot that it does apply to. I learn that more and more all the time.

 

I unfortunately have kind of stopped ordering from there unless I'm on a major time crunch and don't mind replacing it in short order and they are the only option to get me the part in time.

 

Most Discovery suppliers have a low end product, even if they carry a better product, because of market demand. So, you need to be wary buying a lower price item from every vendor.

 

Pretty much, you have to research everything these days. Way too much built out of China with variable Q/A

 

This thread sort of encapsulates Land Rover ownership.... Even if you bought it cheap, it is not a cheap vehicle.

You shouldn't treat it as a cheap vehicle...

And of course you shouldn't buy the cheapest parts or the cheapest gas.

You have a heavy formerly expensive vehicle that will chew up and spit out inferior parts. Enthusiast owners tend to test the limits and actually use their vehicles as intended.

This is why I cringe whenever I read one of those posts that says "HI I'm a student about to go to college and I just bought a $1000 Land Rover. Ran when parked!"

 

Yep, 100%.

I think my overall mistake is trusting that some of these more enthusiast parts retailers, like L8 (as opposed to a generic auto retailer like RockAuto), are sort of vetting parts on our behalf.

 

FCP Euro has an extensive selection of LR parts and offers lifetime replacement on anything they sell. That doesn't mean inferior parts don't matter, and they're not always cheaper there either, but it's certainly an option to consider when putting together a shopping cart. I myself haven't ever called them out on the guarantee, despite buying BMW parts from them for 10+ years but I have plenty of friends who have. They'll take back anything from clutches to brakepads to bushings, etc. Hard to make an argument against that, and perhaps the stuff they don't stock is due to the fact that they can't find something with half-decent quality out there.

 

That's actually addressing my second biggest frustration with Lucky8 (first being selling this garbage in the first place), which is their returns policy. I installed these 13 months ago, and because it's one month beyond their 12 month "warranty" they won't help out. Like... they lasted 12 months and rotted away while basically just sitting in the driveway all last year.

 

There are people on Audi forums that return used oil and oil filter in the original jugs and boxes after an oil change. They will "warranty" the oil and used filter and ship out new gallon jugs and filter in return. Not kidding.