Hi all,

Hope everyone is well.

I won't go into my latest experience with getting possibly shafted again by an independent specialist as i'm still to depressed, but i will update this thread with details soon.

But i just wanted to triple check with you guys, these lower suspension / control arms in the image aren't OEM LR replacements are they?

They have NAPA NA0622 stamped on them!!!

But the invoice says LR029302P LOWER SUSPENSION ARM & i've been charged just slightly more than the cost on jaguarlandroverclassic.com site for an OEM one.

Just wanted to check that NAPA aren't somehow connected with LR and make parts for them?

Thanks to anyone who replies with advice.

 2012 RRS HSE 5.0 SUPERCHARGED Santorini Black

Napa are not connected with JLR

They do get called Crapa quite frequently though. We dint use them. Make of that what you will

Hey Mikey,

Thanks so much for replying, unreal, i thought this was the case, but didn't want to believe it.

Not sure what to do now. As i feel like i've been completely ripped off.

I'll try and explain very quickly roughly how this came about.

Over the last few months ive noticed sporadic creaking coming from the front suspension on speed bumps and roundabouts. Also been having wear on inner edges of my front tires, took it to a hunter alignment place on way to have it serviced with this indy. And they said they couldn't align with the creaking. So drove on to the ind for the service and mentioned it to them and they said it we can whip out the old arms and replace them in a couple hours if your willing to hang on. I new i should have said no. After a couple of hours they came and got me and said we are struggling to get the old arm off, they said the bolts are seized both sides. I had been researching this job while i was waiting and i had seen that happen to others. So i believed them. So i headed home to return the next day to collect the car.

Then the invoice turned up, they charged me £388 (inc vat) for each arm which is the price of LR parts. But now i know they have used NAPA parts. And then £1200 inc vat for labour as they recon it took them 7 hours to cut off the original bolts. So the whole thing with the service (oil & oil filter, they don't change pollen) came to £2,440, i'm so unbelievably angry.

And on top of this, the suspension still seems to be creaking but not as badly, it also now creaks (or what sound more like twisting rubber) when you heighten the suspension access mode, never did this before.

I don't think i'm ever going to find a honest LR indy specialist. If anyone has any advice on what i can do and if i can ask for some money back for the cost of the arms?

Thanks again to any who replies. 2012 RRS HSE 5.0 SUPERCHARGED Santorini Black

Hi sorry to hear of this issue you've had - I think you have 2 options - confront the garage and ask for a partial refund if they refuse if you paid on a credit card call your credit card company and you can claim back under the consumer credit act as you've paid for a product you haven't received - the lesser quality Napa parts and not JLR parts as you've been billed for and then the garage will soon be in touch, id give them the chance first by calling and following up with an email - give them a time frame to respond like 14 days and if they don't then do the credit card claim back.

Let us know how you get on.

by the way noise sounds more like bushes on the hubs or sway bar to me...

Hey Karl,

Thanks so much for the advice.

Yes i paid on credit card and didn't think of using that to try and re-claim, so thanks for reminding of that option.

I absolutely hate confrontation. But yes will call the garage first thing Monday.

Thanks so much again for advice. 2012 RRS HSE 5.0 SUPERCHARGED Santorini Black

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay on this.

What a saga this turned into. Spoke with garage about the after market front lower control arms. They said there must of been a mistake and that the Napa parts must of accidentally been put into an LR box in the store cupboard.

They offered to replace them FOC and to re-align / do geometry as well for free. So drove back down again, this place is in Croydon so an hour from me.

Sat in there waiting room for about 4 hours while they changed them, they came out said car is sorted and has been test driven and the creaking has gone. Jumped in car soon as i pulled away the creaking was still there.

Turned around came straight back. Went for a test drive with there technician he immediately said its (like you said Karlp606) it was the anti roll bar bushings. So they ordered a pair but i had to drive home again and return two days later, where i had to wait another 2 hours while they replaced those bushings.

They did this FOC as i had argued that they miss-diagnosed the issue and that my control arm bushings were effectively fine and could have lasted for years to come. I tried to argue for money back on the control arms but they said if your ARB bushings had perished the control arm bushings would be worn down to and would have been making noise as well.

Does anyone know if this is correct or could they have lasted a few more years?

They didn't change the metal clamps on the ARB bushings, just the rubber bushings. A few people say you should also change the clamps holding the bushings in, whats your guys opinion on this?

The car no longer creaks.

But I'm now so paranoid of this garage not telling the truth, i'm 99% sure these are now LR correct parts. As they do have the Land rover logo stamped in. And the correct stickers. But when they showed them to me before fitting them they had white plastic covers over the ball joints, which i've not seen on any images of OEM JLR control arms. The only place i've seen them for sale with white covers over the ball joints are sold from GAPC Germax auto parts (pls see first image below of these Germax arms with the white covers) also there are some codes stamped into these control arms, but google doesn't bring anything up when you type these codes in.

Could anyone who's in the trade maybe Disco_Mikey might know by looking at the below images if these are genuine LR arms now?

Thanks again to anyone that replies / helps me to this whole horrible affair to bed hopefully.
















 2012 RRS HSE 5.0 SUPERCHARGED Santorini Black

I've only ever seen LR arms stamped with the logo, and they look the right parts

But they seem to come with black covers...

Not an uncommon story sorry you had issues it is so hard to find a decent spanner monkey. I do think your were well shafted but the ARB bushes were the creak and most likley the tyre wear was worn lower control arms you will never really know and will never prove it.
It may have just needed alignment and for the hunter place to say they wouldn't do it with the creaking is a bit off as well if they had bothered to look they would have been able to see if the lower arms were shot or not.

Thanks for replying Disco_mikey and the for the advice. Yea the arms have the stamps and the stickers. But yes something feels slightly off about them with the white covers. I might try a contact at one of the main dealer repair centres & ask about that.

And thanks for replying as well Lrstaylor and for making me feel slightly better. Yes it was terrible case of rushing to get it all fixed in one go with bad advice starting from the alignment place & then the indy taking advantage on possibly getting me to do the control arms etc. It serves me right for rushing. I should have just done the service and headed home and sprayed each bushing with silicon spray to try and eliminate which ones were creaking and gone from there, but like you said i might of left the control arms and then kept getting tire wear etc. Another leaning curve. The only positive is i know never to return to that indy again.

Thanks again for the help / advice / support. 2012 RRS HSE 5.0 SUPERCHARGED Santorini Black