It occurred to me as I was changing out my headlamp last week that not all Rover parts are created equal and it pays to read the fine print. Does it matter if my headlamp has the little ‘Land Rover’ insignia molded into it? Will anyone pay attention? I don’t think so.

Yes, I bought a headlamp off of ebay, read the auction and received the part. The auction stated that the headlamp met OEM guidelines. Guidelines? There are guidelines for Rovers? I had never heard of such a thing. The closest thing to guidelines I had ever heard of were those stating to keep your oil changed, stay on top of fluid levels and don’t overheat. Not always an easy task but doable.

But back to the headlamp. I received it and the side of the box stated ‘Allmakes’. Hm. I remembered reading and hearing about ‘Allmakes’ but for the life of me couldn’t remember what had been said. Cheap stuff from China? Good replacement part? Send back as soon as received? For Pete sake, it was a headlamp, nothing more. I compared it to the one I had taken off and everything appeared the same except for the logo. The part that states ‘this is the real deal.. an original, the real McCoy, a part for a Rover’. And it bothered me. A lot.

I installed it and took a step back. A match made in heaven, or so I thought. Yin & Yang, headlamp to headlamp they suited each other well. Aside from one thing. One was purported to be a ‘fake’ (gasp!). Or was it? The old phrase ‘if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck’ came to mind. The headlamp fit my Rover well (aside from a small gap next to the body where the lamp seals) and from a distance it appeared to be the real deal. Did it matter to me that it didn’t wear the Rover logo? Why was that little oval so important to me?...

I’m not a superficial person. I don’t follow lifestyle trends (although I do dream of Barbour fashions from time to time) and I can be fairly quirky. I’ve never been one to follow the crowd and I’ve been known to be speak what is on my mind, and often. I’m sure it can be annoying to some – when I’m comfortable I’m quiet and when I’m not, well.. you’ll know it.

So after a few grumbles (as I kicked myself in the *** over buying something that isn’t OEM) I’ve accepted it. It doesn’t have to have the logo on it, I don’t think anyone will get down and inspect each of my headlamps to see if one has a molded Land Rover logo embedded into it, will they?

Does anyone else have this problem? I think the hardest part is perfection. Wanting to be perfect for your Rover and giving it the respect it deserves and needs, and then screwing up and having it play over and over in your mind until you’re ready to hi-tail it over to the junk yard and pull a headlamp off of a discard so that YOU know that your Rover has the best there can be (how was that for a run-on sentence?).

Hm.. or maybe I just need to shut my mind off and go get a lobotomy.

 

My headlamps say Hella on them and they are much better than whatever OEM was on the 110.

If it works who cares

 

Allmakes is OK, Terrafirma are 'Allmakes'. Britparts are sh!te and not any good whatsoever - avoid like the plague. LR are grossly overpriced and probably made anywhere bar the UK - check the boxes when you receive LR parts. The only goodish thing is they are subject to some sort of quality control ......... they tell us

Hella are the DB's and used professionally in road but particularly rally cars .......... but are not cheap . Much stuff from China is OK these days and it's gone through the real cheapo phase as did Japan 40-50 years ago. Remember the days when Japanese goods were cheap cr@p? Now all the asian areas are knocking out cheapo uncontrolled goods of which some are dangerous, particularly household electricals.

If you paid half price or less for the lights that's good. I bought round 7" LHD headlights cheap for the Pajero some years back it transpired they were Crystal with polycarbonate lenses which are v. good.

Ya pays ya dosh and ya takes ya chances and sometimes it works and other times it's sh!te.

 

If you are wanting to drive your rig in the "show and shine" ....then you'll probably want it to be the official Land Rover brand. But if you just want to see when it's dark .... then I guess you should be ok with the brand you have

2 cents

 

Now you've done it! Might as well just have gotten a ford explorer.

 

Wait, they're headlights. Cup and feel them, if it's hard to tell......they're good.

 

"Fake or real"? This is a thread about headlamps?! Sheesh...course it could go the way of "high beams" though, lol...( . )( . )

 

There shouldn't be so many lonely places on a Rover. I think everything should be visited and hotly greeted. Poor headlamps, no one ever pays attention to them - so unassuming, always there and leading the way....

 

yep, only to be noticed when nothing can be noticed. like poor rudolph

 

..and I've heard of Rovers being Rudolph for a night