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).
Letter discussing premature bearing failure in Bentley cars and the proposed customer service response.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 27a\1\ Scan136 | |
| Date | 24th October 1934 | |
| To: "Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}" WORKS. Private. re: Bentley bearings. Dear "Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}", I am sorry to trouble you again, but after having had B.5 AE dismantled, I wish to inform you that the bearings were found to be in a bad state, lumps of white-metal having removed themselves. In this respect, as you probably already know, the metal seems to have a tendency to crack up just above, or within the region of the oil groove on the other side, which leads one to think that the bearing is susceptible to distortion at this point, if any hammering takes place and there must be some at times, and the distortion at this point of the bearing facilitates the cracking of the white metal. This, however, is not my point. I was about to write to "Sg{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}" to get a definite ruling as to what we should do in respect to our numerous "batting customers" who certainly, if they are not checked or warned, will run out their bearings after what they will consider to be a very short mileage for a Bentley, and as the car is guaranteed for three years, we will then probably have to spend much more money putting the car right, free of charge, than we would if we had authority to check, free of charge to the customer, the bearings after let us say 30,000 kms (18,642 miles). You will realize, I feel certain, that it would be somewhat of a disaster for us to have one of our customers crack up his bearings, as the reputation of the Bentley is such that it does not allow for this sort of thing. Incidentally, we use this as a sales argument, and one of the main reasons for the so-called Sports Cars, i.e. Bugatti, etc. having failed to secure a really good market is also a point on which stress is laid. Prior to writing to "Sg{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}", I would like to know whether or not I can mention having talked to you about the matter. One thing I am quite certain about is that we must have a definite ruling, and should the ruling be that we must charge customers for re-whitemetalling bearings, after such a low mileage as say 18,000 odd miles, not only the reputation of the car will suffer, but sales will be seriously affected. Thank you very much indeed for your most kind reception in London recently. Please convey my very best regards to Mrs. "Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}". I hope to see you out here again very soon, with an "anti-wing-movement" device. Yours | ||