Were these OEM or OEM-style mounts? If so, what about polyurethane mounts like the ones from Blacklisted Engineering (if you can get them) or Proud Rhino?

 

I drool over those sumo bars when I am looking on their website. I should have gotten the sumo bars rather than my rusted-and-discolored-after-3-months-of--install Terrafirma set.

 

yeah I'm style. I like the blacklisted style vs solid mounts so that'll be my next route of these fail again

 

I got these from Lucky8, I believe they are the G4 style. Unsure if they are Bearmach or not:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LAND-ROVER-...wAAOSw4hdXIYiS

 

Gotcha. I bought the Bearmach STC50026 from Amazon, which appear to be the same product, but different part number. The difference might just be between the 99-02 and 03-04 model years.

Assuming that it's the same, a word of advice: the fastening mechanism is pretty shoddy quality. To install the guard, you drill the four holes (make sure the guards are level when you do so), and then there's a plastic piece that mounts on each of the four attachment points, secured with a nut behind the body. The plastic piece has a bolt thread sticking out of the back, which is where you attach the nut, and it basically just serves as a threaded female receiver for the hex screw that actually attaches the light guard. Hopefully that makes sense - essentially how it's supposed to work is that you permanently attach these mounts onto the body, and then they allow you to attach and remove the headlamp guards using the hex screws (they need to be removed if you need to change a bulb or something).

Here's the problem that I had: I needed to remove the grill to service my AC system. When I went to unscrew the hex screws that mount the guards onto their little attachment points, the screw had corroded (over a span of only about 4 months) and fused with the metal threads in the plastic mounting piece. Turning the hex screw just spun the entire assembly, and I couldn't reach behind to undo the nut because the headlights were still in place. I ended up having to break a bunch of the mounting fasteners in order to actually remove the lamp guards.

I suspect that you can avoid this by adding a bit of anti-seize to the hex screw when you install it - that way, it won't fuse to the threads, and you'll be able to remove it.

In my current situation, I need to figure out how to reattach the guards, since I drilled 8 holes that are now just exposed. I considered using bolts, but the problem is that you don't have access to the back side while the headlight assembly is in place, so the only way it would work is if you were to, like, JB weld a nut on the back of the body so that you could then thread a bolt through it. I'm currently trying to work with Bearmach to get new fasteners, but they're saying that they won't honor their 3 year manufacturer's warranty because I purchased it from Amazon, and they can't sell me just the replacement parts, only an entire new lamp guard kit. Maybe Lucky8 would be able to provide an extra set of the fasteners.

If anyone has any other ideas for how I might be able to proceed, I'd be keenly interested.

TLDR: put antiseize on the hex screws before you attach the light guards and you should be OK.

 

What about getting putting a drywall anchor, molly, in there? Or similar?

Or, jb weld a stainless steel threaded fitting?

 

Thanks for the reply!

I thought about a molly anchor, but I think the main issue is that I haven't seen any made for sheetmetal or such a thin surface, so you wouldn't be able to mimick the functionality of the original fastener. If you were to get a deeper one and have the outer flange sit on top of the headlamp guard, then you wouldn't be able to remove the guard.

A flanged thread insert is essentially what I'd envisioned with affixing a nut to the back of the body permanently, but this is a better idea since it'd be way easier to implement. I'm just having a hard time finding a thread insert that would work - do you have a recommendation for where I could find one?

The lamp guard mounts to both the plastic grill and the aluminum fender, so I'd need to figure out a solution that works for both materials.

 

I recently checked Blacklisted's site. They're going to be making a limited run on their engine mounts sometime this year. Definitely keeps tabs on them and get a set when available.

 

Gwyn Lewis 4x4 charged me £265.19 (~$324.44) for their kit and the polyurethane boots for the tie rod ends I had tacked on. This price also included the cost of shipping via DHL. Got to me in about 4 business days.

 

How about rivets? Easy to drill out without damaging much other than the rivet - when you need to.