From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Serious issue of 'overoiling' in the New Phantom model and proposing new testing procedures.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 72\1\ scan0045 | |
| Date | 22th September 1925 | |
| 48980 To EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} from BJ. Copy to.... Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} BJ1/H22.9.25. "NEW PHANTOMCodename for PHANTOM I". OVEROILING. On the 18th I wrote to H.{Arthur M. Hanbury - Head Complaints} as follows:- "Please obtain information from Hm{Capt. W. Hallam - Head Repairs}, Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}, EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} and N. and your Inspection Dept. of any complaints you have had concerning 'New PhantomCodename for PHANTOM I' overoiling. Here are two. Please prepare a summary as soon as possible of each case, to enable us to send this to R.{Sir Henry Royce} and W., to indicate how serious the position is. It will soon get about amongst the Trade that we are having this trouble - our competitors readily spread such news - and it will damage our reputation unless we can get over this difficulty. It seems desirable that everyone concerned should realise the number of complaints we are having and the risk to our reputation if the trouble is not cured quickly." The complete lists from the above officials have not yet been received, but we know there are a large number. Some of the most recent are 20-HC, Nelson; 6-MC Capt. Roberts; 54-MC, Sidney; 32-MC, Roxburgh. I have not attempted to trace others. These four come to my mind at the moment. It is evident that our 10,000 miles tests in France are useless in one respect, namely, that they do not show up faults which are only affected by slow running in traffic, etc. Therefore we will ask Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} in future please to arrange for all his long tests to include the equivalent of 1,000 miles running in traffic. This can probably be done in London by the Sales Dept., if necessary. A large number of our cars are used for months on end solely in London traffic. We understand that the Designing and Experimental Depts. have endeavoured by many means to overcome the over-oiling trouble, but you are still having to turn down perhaps 50% of the chassis which you are now testing because these experiments and alterations have not proved satisfactory in entirely eliminating the over-oiling. Before coming to any conclusion as to whether any alteration in design is satisfactory it seems probably necessary to test two or three chassis at random (including the latest improvements) in London traffic for a week, as well as doing some speed work on the open road. We are confident that you will have no difficulty in | ||