Spencer Ashley T-Piece SERIOUS QUALITY ISSUES

[goldievvc]

In all honesty, I`ve never seen a plastic one fail? I`ve been involved with MGR vehicles for 10 years. If you look at the life of the parts that people are saying have failed, ie failing now on a 2004 model car, the plastic part has still lasted 10 years. You`d like to think a like for like part will last another 10? Unless obviously you can`t get them any longer. Just my 2p

[klarzy]

The best option from a materials point of view would be 316 stainless steel...

Plasic deforms and denatures, alloy and aluminium is prone to electrolitic corrosion and plain steel powdercoated or not is a wate of time...

1mm wall thickness stainless, swaged, cut, welded and tested would come in i imagine at arround 100.00 for a 1 off coming down to say 70 each for 10+.

Not cheap but fit and forget.... some buy not top grade and in my opinion unnecessary EGR bypasses for half as much...

[stevestrat]

Originally Posted by goldievvc

In all honesty, I`ve never seen a plastic one fail? I`ve been involved with MGR vehicles for 10 years. If you look at the life of the parts that people are saying have failed, ie failing now on a 2004 model car, the plastic part has still lasted 10 years. You`d like to think a like for like part will last another 10? Unless obviously you can`t get them any longer. Just my 2p

They are listed on Rimmers (and others) and shown as in stock.

[pab]

Originally Posted by goldievvc

In all honesty, I`ve never seen a plastic one fail? I`ve been involved with MGR vehicles for 10 years. If you look at the life of the parts that people are saying have failed, ie failing now on a 2004 model car, the plastic part has still lasted 10 years. You`d like to think a like for like part will last another 10? Unless obviously you can`t get them any longer. Just my 2p

I've seen many that have failed, just last week I had to bring this to the atension of a owner.

The item fails where the two halves of the moulding are bonded, the top of the item fails and coolant runs down the hose.

Some owners try to over tighten the clips, the piece becomes oval shaped and hoses leak,

[goldievvc]

Maybe the English climate compared to our sunny abode up here.......

[DMGRS]

That's not good.
I'm going to get in touch with the gentleman who makes my EGR Bypasses, and see if he can come up with something.

[pab]

Originally Posted by goldievvc

Maybe the English climate compared to our sunny abode up here.......

Nothing to do with climate.

More to do with high engine temperature and MG Rover and their decision to use plastic parts on cooling systems.

[The Mighty Quinn]

Originally Posted by Yella Fella

There is nothing wrong with fitting an OEM plastic one but I would replace it after a few years as a preventative measure either by another palstic one or an alloy one.

Re the Spencer Ashley alloy T-Piece sent to the OP. Yes, it looks substandard. Im sure lots have been sold by Spencer Ashley and there will be one or two that can have problems but as said earlier, maybe this is down to a bad welder and not a true representation of the company . Maybe its a quality control problem , maybe it was meant for the bin but posted in error, who knows It's all guess work by us but really the company should be in contact with the OP to resolve the problem.

Hi Glenn,
Totally get what you're saying, unfortunately despite numerous attempts to contact them, I've got no replies from the company in question. Guess it could be holidays or something.. however, I just thought it appropriate to highlight on the forum so that others, who may not have that much mechanical knowledge (like myself), can know what to look out for before before fitting a piece that they think will be a "fit & forget" item - especially if it could cause serious problems.
I don't have any desire to run Spencer Ashley into the ground (despite my experience thus far), so maybe it would be appropriate for a mod to amend the title of the thread to "Stainless/Alloy T-piece discussion" or something of the like? I'd have no issue with this.
Don't want the thread to be closed however, as it sounds like some of the members on here might be able to source quality alternatives..
Cheers, Karl.

[stevestrat]

Originally Posted by pab

More to do with high engine temperature and MG Rover and their decision to use plastic parts on cooling systems.

Same as everything else on the cars, the build was budget led rather than quality.

[Pistonbroke666]

I'd like a metal T Piece but quite frankly, my plastic one is mint and in all likelihood must've been replaced recenty.

Who fancies building my metal FMIC pipework... trying to reduce the amount of silicone pipe I need to use...