I was thinking it'd be a good idea to have a thread of when aftermarket parts are to be avoided. It sucks learning through trial and error. It would be nice to buy Genuine all the time, but often it is cost prohibitive and I'm guessing most of use would rather spend that money elsewhere. This is not meant to trash our vendors (RN, L8, AB) as I buy Genuine parts from them.
The first thing that comes to mind is aftermarket swivel balls. I saw a bunch of pics from Winter Romp where an aftermarket swivel ball cracked. I know of a handful of other people this has happened to. Failure in this manner will leave you completely stranded and it could be very dangerous if the failure is at speed.
Photo by Ed Tatton (stolen from WR Facebook group)
The next one is the clear aftermarket expansion tanks on a D1 (may also be the same ones on 300 Tdi Defenders). The clear ones crack at the seam and will leak the coolant. This happened to my wife's D1. The ones I have seen have not been catastrophic failures. If you still have the old style Genuine one that is black, I would recommend replacing it as they often split but much worse than the clear aftermarket ones. The one to buy is the beige Genuine one. The only bummer about this one is you can't see the coolant level easily without opening the cap.
The last one that I'll add for now is the aftermarket Range Rover Classic 11 blade fan. These can be fitted to Defenders for better cooling, but can also have dire consequences. When these fail they explode taking out everything in their path. I know of 3, including my own. First one was Jason England whose exploding fan took out his radiator, fan shroud, and hood (large dent). Mine and the other one only took out the fan shroud. Mine exploded at 3am in Manhattan right before going over the Williamsburg bridge. I've been running an original used fan out of a RRC for a few years now. The Aftermarket ones last less than a year.
The first thing that comes to mind is aftermarket swivel balls. I saw a bunch of pics from Winter Romp where an aftermarket swivel ball cracked. I know of a handful of other people this has happened to. Failure in this manner will leave you completely stranded and it could be very dangerous if the failure is at speed.

Photo by Ed Tatton (stolen from WR Facebook group)
The next one is the clear aftermarket expansion tanks on a D1 (may also be the same ones on 300 Tdi Defenders). The clear ones crack at the seam and will leak the coolant. This happened to my wife's D1. The ones I have seen have not been catastrophic failures. If you still have the old style Genuine one that is black, I would recommend replacing it as they often split but much worse than the clear aftermarket ones. The one to buy is the beige Genuine one. The only bummer about this one is you can't see the coolant level easily without opening the cap.



The last one that I'll add for now is the aftermarket Range Rover Classic 11 blade fan. These can be fitted to Defenders for better cooling, but can also have dire consequences. When these fail they explode taking out everything in their path. I know of 3, including my own. First one was Jason England whose exploding fan took out his radiator, fan shroud, and hood (large dent). Mine and the other one only took out the fan shroud. Mine exploded at 3am in Manhattan right before going over the Williamsburg bridge. I've been running an original used fan out of a RRC for a few years now. The Aftermarket ones last less than a year.
