are the oil,fuel and air filters the same on a turbo diesel lite ace as a town ace,and is there a difference in the engines as mine is a 3.ct and others are 2.ct - (#585) dave, 18 Jul 01

If yours is a jap import, should be the same. I know that UK liteace vans use a different airfilter, though. - (#593) David Miller, 19 Jul 01

I bought a filter from Foreign Autoparts Bristol
(0117 963 1649, they do mail order but don't know the cost) Part no J1312012 NIPPARTS 90915-30001 for £6.98 inc VAT. Already posted before I know but whilst in the queue a gent in front had a Solid Ace oil filter made in the uk Part no T102010SA that he had just taken off his lite ace. The two filters were identical.
Anyone heard of the make? If they are cheap enough I would prefer to support a UK supplier.

- (#3934) clive, 23 Jul 02

Clive,
Solid Auto Parts are the poor man's ADL Blueprint, they do a similar thing to ADL, and get the parts all over the place, box them & part number them as their own & sell them through the likes of Foreign Auto Parts (Just got one of their guys from Bristol come to wrok for us as it happens) unlike ADL, some of their parts are sourced from NON genuine Japanese manufacturers, alot of ADL comes from the OE manufacturers in Japan, big exception is braking parts which come from EU sources, as the speed limit is 100Kmh & roads are shorter (not nice long straight motorways) in Japan, they are a different compound on Japanese vehicles, not really suitable for UK roads, so ADL use EU friction materials. From personal experience I'd stick with ADL. Regards Rob.

- (#3940) Rob Drinkwater, 23 Jul 02

Do you reckon there's knock-off parts being made in Japan, Rob? Can't see there being much difference in quality between various Japanese producers... My local factors supplies Nipparts, Japparts, Solid, ADL, Newbridge (Irish brand), and/or FramJapan, depending on stocks and pricing. In my experience (and I look pretty closely at filters), there isn't much to choose, in fact I'm certain that a number of the brands are coming out of the same plant...

- (#3942) david miller, 23 Jul 02

And I thought I'd found something new. As an aside how do you remove the full filter without spilling oil on the cross members, this was not a problem on my Spacecruiser?

- (#3945) clive, 24 Jul 02

To answer both of the last posts, I can't quite manage to extracte the oil filter without spilling the oil, so I doubt it can be done, just get a big oil catcher underneath to get it, then wipe the cross member down. And David, you are right, many components come out of the same factory and go into many different 'brand' boxes, indeed, the likes of ADL make nothing, they buy in from OE manufacturers & box it up & ship it out. Even Lucas and many others are getting like that, they simply can't afford to make the diverse ranges now available, so they have to buy them in. It's the same in most trades, Draper tools have been going since 1919, but have never made any tools, they buy them in from all over the world, package them in their distinctive packaging & get them into the shops, very successfully. So many part will be the same, but in different boxes, many so called 'pattern' parts are often better than you would get from the dealer, as the vehicle manufacturers pay next to nothing for the components to keep the cost of the car down, and in many cases a decent factor will supply branded original equipment quality parts, so I always recommend going for the big brand names & not the cheap crap.

- (#3970) Rob Drinkwater, 25 Jul 02