Club 80-90 Forums

its been reported on a FB page that a small batch of water jacket seals has split and the seal quality is under suspicion.
somebody will post up pics soon but if you have a set please check them and don't use if in doubt.

I thought that Elring were one of the better ones. Must admit that I have always used them and had no problems in the past. Maybe there are some counterfeit ones getting in the supply.

It seems they have confirmed theg are genuine
looks like a batch problem which probably means they changed factory/ country if you know what I mean

I wouldn't like to be having new ones fail on your engines, its bad enough on a diseasel.

Yes it looks like a QA problem, the latest offerings are distinctly rough textured, crude de-flashing and can show signs of porosity or bubbles in the rubber. Nothing like the original ones that are smooth and pliable with no flash at all.
BW are aware of the problem and are forwarding info to Elring; Reinz gasket kits are under scrutiny (it is possible that they have had the same supplier for the water jacket seal but this remains to be seen)
Certainly the Elring ones look to have been re-tooled and bear witness to this.
Pic to follow

Seals from recent Elring kit on left, older on right. Not that the older kit has one made by Bruss, the other is unmarked.
Seal on far right is typical best quality.
The Bruss one is a bit rough and spongey too.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the pics Ian

itchyfeet wrote:It seems they have confirmed theg are genuine
looks like a batch problem which probably means they changed factory/ country if you know what I mean

It's quite amazing. I have a friend who works in this kind of sector. He says a lot of the companies, which relocate production lines. There is rarely anyone from the company which relocated, ever turn up for months to oversee things!

nesty wrote:

itchyfeet wrote:It seems they have confirmed theg are genuine
looks like a batch problem which probably means they changed factory/ country if you know what I mean

It's quite amazing. I have a friend who works in this kind of sector. He says a lot of the companies, which relocate production lines. There is rarely anyone from the company which relocated, ever turn up for months to oversee things!

I'm told they call us long/big noses and they promise the moon on a stick but as soon as you leave they do.what they want.

I wonder what the demand for WBX gasket sets is? Probably a declining income for the original supplier to Elring that becomes unprofitable, so supply ends. Next stage find an economical source; European manufacturers aren't interested because of the lack of volume plus the unit cost is too high for Elring if they were interested.

So, Elring go to the Far ..... and ain't really bothered about any quality control because look at what their selling.

Oldie, I doubt they're counterfeit, why bother tooling up and making a few seals for a few pence?

silverbullet wrote:Seals from recent Elring kit on left, older on right. Not that the older kit has one made by Bruss, the other is unmarked.
Seal on far right is typical best quality.
The Bruss one is a bit rough and spongey too.

Interesting. I've got two gasket sets here, as I bought a Reinz one first for my DJ build, and then was pointed to a good deal on an Elring kit and I figured I'd need a second one for when I reseal my DG.



Both kits are a couple of years old (because I've been hopelessly slow building my DJ). In my photo, the Reinz seal is on the right, and seems to have a thin clean join and a shinier surface. The Elring seal is on the left, and the flashing seems more pronounced, and the rubber is slightly less shiny. I can't really tell any difference in the 'feel' of the rubber though.

My Elring seal doesn't look as rough as the leftmost pair in Ian's photo. I'd guess that the Elring batch problem occurred after Spring 2015.

this isn't the first time this has happened, about 12 years ago there were some in circulation with a flaw in on the corner and they were in both brands of kits and the separate gasket sold by both companies and several after market boxers I had three failures in short succession solved by using a genuine one, rubber ain't what it used to be, ball joint boots, cv boots they are all pi$$ poor now compared to the 80s when Avon made the wbx hoses and Lemforder was a quality brand not some shonkey make it cheap and sell it again and again and again brand

That's quite a messy splitline on the left hand gaskets. Says a lot for the quality of the tooling......and makes you question the quality of the materials used.

We design plastic mouldings at work and have dealt with some exceptional quality toolmakers in China.......and unfortunately some exceptionally bad ones too (we don't always get to chose who we work with!). Tools cut and shut when errors have been made, welded up bits re-cut, bits of tooling looking like they've been fettled by hand. All of which gets reflected in the moulded part.

sherlylock wrote:That's quite a messy splitline on the left hand gaskets. Says a lot for the quality of the tooling......and makes you question the quality of the materials used.

We design plastic mouldings at work and have dealt with some exceptional quality toolmakers in China.......and unfortunately some exceptionally bad ones too (we don't always get to chose who we work with!). Tools cut and shut when errors have been made, welded up bits re-cut, bits of tooling looking like they've been fettled by hand. All of which gets reflected in the moulded part.

Checked yours yet!?

itchyfeet wrote:

sherlylock wrote:That's quite a messy splitline on the left hand gaskets. Says a lot for the quality of the tooling......and makes you question the quality of the materials used.

We design plastic mouldings at work and have dealt with some exceptional quality toolmakers in China.......and unfortunately some exceptionally bad ones too (we don't always get to chose who we work with!). Tools cut and shut when errors have been made, welded up bits re-cut, bits of tooling looking like they've been fettled by hand. All of which gets reflected in the moulded part.

Checked yours yet!?

Yup - it's a Victor Reinz kit.

Looks good though - nice neat split line, no flashing.

As to whether it seals up OK and doesn't split - who knows. (I bought it about 18months ago......such is the blistering pace of my engine rebuild).