Morris Minor Owners Club

I saved up my hard earned pennies and bought two new (metal) chrome rear lamp bases last year (2yr guarantee on the chrome). Both were fitted in April 08.
By November the chrome on one of them was already starting to pit quite a bit. The other one was fine. I contacted the supplier, Bullmotif, and sent it back. I was in touch with them on a regular basis and they returned it to the manufacturer. Eventually after nearly 2 and 1/2 months it was replaced - they were waiting on new stock.

By now the other side had also started to pit. I contacted them and sent it back last week. I got a call today to say they had contacted the manufacturer and he thinks that there is some electrical fault/earthing fault on my car that is making a current pass through the lamp base and is reversing the chroming process. There was some white furring on the inside of the lamp base and the bullet connectors were also had a white deposit on them - indicating that some sort of reaction was taking place. They are going to return it to the manufacturer for inspection - if it's not faulty chrome I wouldn't get a replacement.

Has anyone heard of this happening or is it Bull****?

stick to your rights

they guarentee for 2 years, and it is not fit for the purpose

we have a lot of problem with repro chrome

i was told when my hockey sticks did not survibe one winter, that i should have not left the car outside

Agreed - too much crap out there at the moment and we are being fobbed off. Without complaints nothing will get resolved.....

The standard of replacement parts is getting worse. One of the advantages of running a Minor is the ready supply of spares. If those spares are of rubbish quality that advantage is lost.

It has got so bad that I would rather use good condition second hand parts in some cases. I bought some new wheelnuts last year that stripped if they were tightened up anywhere near the correct torque! That was never the case with the originals.

We must always complain when parts turn out to be subsandard, otherwise we will end up with utter rubbish like the VW scene has. The quality of parts available for Beetles is disgraceful, absolute junk, especially the crome supplies.

I suspect it's Bull$%&£ - but I also suppose it is just possible! Is there a good earth wire fitted to the light - and connected back to a good earth connection elsewhere on the car ?

I am going to check out the earthing at the weekend.

reverse chroming that must be why both my front and rear hinges pitted after about 18 months and only done 150 miles and dry stored inside,Must be a secret electrical connection for the heating element fitted to stop them frosting up in winter

Jollyroger, If they refuse to replace them then contact your trading standards dept and speak to them as the goods are faulty and should be replaced within the 2yr guarantee. I wouldn't have returned them to BM without a replacement pair being sent out to me 1st as if the chrome is faulty I'm pretty sure it's BM problem not yours(within the 2yr guarantee). I am certainly no expert but would be very very surprised if the chroming process could be reversed by a bad electrical connection in less than 2yrs. If this was the case the manufacturer should put in a reminder about connections and probably wouldn't guarantee the lights or insist and auto electrician fitted them. Make my blood boil when the big boys try and pass on inferior quality items then give 1/2 baked reasons for their incompetence. The lights on my car are 40yrs old and have some pitting but nothing too bad. Good Luck and let us know how you get on, Jeff

'Make my blood boil when the big boys try and pass on inferior quality items then give 1/2 baked reasons for their incompetence.'

Unfortunately this is all that the retailers have to offer, and like most parts nowadays they are inferior to the OEM parts. If a warranty is offered , and in this case 2 years is exceptional, then the reason for a claim has to be dealt with before a replacement item is sent out. You would be suprised at what some folk try and get away with, so proceedures are in place to offer a fair resolution.
Must say the explanation given in this instance seems unusual, but then I'm no electrician or metal expert.
Complaining about poor quality is fine, but it would only normally mean that an identical replacement is offered as there is often no alternative. Several traders are taking on the production of their own 'quality' parts but this requires huge investment on their behalf.

I can't see it being 'reverse plating' - that doesn't make sense. But - if there is no separate earth wire and the lights are earthing through the metal body - I can 'just' see there may be some electrolytic effect on the base metal of the light, reacting with the steel of the wing. However - I do think this is also extremely unlikely, but difficult to dis-prove if this is the defence they are offering!

Remember that the metal base is insulated from the wing by a rubber pad. The only metal contact is through the mounting bolts and THE EARTH WIRE. Chrome plating is done in an electrolite (conductive liquid). There is no such thing as reverse plating through air!!

Not heard of this before either where is Niel when you want him as he is the expert on chrome, I will pm him.

hi all i have never heard off this i will ask my boss on monday what he thinks
what i think it is when you you get white furring this is the first sign of problem with the chrome i would of thought these are made of zinc not alloy? when we plate these you must put at leat 12 hours of copper on first .this fills any holes which are in metal believe me when you sand this metal the holes can be very small[ the nickle/ chrome is not good at filling holes ]
when i redid all my parts on marmite a lot of these where zinc [monkey metal ] i striped off these parts back to bare metal some old some new metal zinc i put min 12 hours off copper first 40 mins nickle 6 min chrome i doubt the manufacturer did this but if this is done you should not get any problems marmite has been out side for the last 4 years no problem with my chrome there i rest my case

ok so if neils chrome is so good, can we not ask him to approach his boss and do a deal for the mmoc

I think you will find that the firm Neil works for only do the more expensive end of the market so to speak and I doubt the MMOC would get involved with manufacture of chrome items.

hi funny you say that kevin i spoke to my boss a few months ago about doing rear bumpers etc for the mogeys we are going to look in to it i told him about the crap part at the mo out there the problem we can see is parts are done at a £?? a lot of chrome parts from broad done very cheap but crap not a lot of nickle /chrome on i have seen some off these. when we strip them of nickle comes of in mins i doubt they do not use copper like we do neil

So what cost would we need to pay to buy parts as good as those on Marmite young sir

There is no doubt a good base of copper and nickel is required - with good clean/pickled base steel to start with of course! The lights are of course zinc based ALLOY - and will need careful pre-treatment before the chrome is plated on. Note that the zinc may act as a sacrificial anode when in contact with steel!! If the plated pre layers are not well washed/pickled then this also could be the problem. But if the earth wire from the lamp housings is not connected to a good clean earth - then the current flowing through the lamp body to the fixing bolts (and hence to the car body) may just possibly set up some kind of sacrificial reaction within the zinc alloy - causing it to erupt through the plated surfaces.

I contacted Bullmotif again and they are still waiting on the manufacturer testing the lamp base. I said that I felt it was not fit for purpose, mentioned trading standards, and was told there was nothing they could do until it was returned to them. If it was faulty it would be replaced , if not, returned to me. I also told them I had my car tested by an auto electrician and that they couldn't find any electrical fault. Any suggestions as how to proceed? I sent it to them on the 9 March and am getting thoroughly ****ed.

Go to trading standards. Your contract is with BM, NOT their supplier. They have to honour the guarantee they give, period, full stop, end of story....