Okay, this is hard to admit but here goes:
...all four of the small trailing-arm to chassis bushes on my '03 D2 TD5 were feathering slightly, but ride was good with no issues apart from a 'clunk' coming from just behind the driver's seat when hitting anything pot-holey at slow speed.
I thought 'I know, they're 17yrs old, I'll refresh all the trailling arm bushes'
Bought full set of bushes from a reputable supplier: 4 x RBX101680 (front) and 4 x ANR6947 (rear), 4 x RBX101730 (arm to chassis) and 2 x RBX101340 (Panhard Rod) plus full set of new nuts and bolts [ironically, I really like this Disco and want it to be 'right'] ...let's just say not the very cheapest, but cheap.

Yep, you guessed it...picked the car up Friday and straight away...'Death Wobble' on braking from anything above 45mph, plus a very juddery general driving 'feel'.

So, please be kind here...believe me, I already know I've been an idiot and wasted my money and will need to redo the whole thing with OEM...but if these things are so unfit for purpose that they make the car instantly unsafe...how can these bushes be sold?

OR...is this level of dangerousness unusual and I should be thinking it's an installation issue?

If the former, has anyone challenged a supplier on this or is it always 'put down to experience'?
Thanks

Sounds very much like installation issue to me, even the cheapest of bushes should have some sort of life span before going wrong.

Sounds like something wrong, rather than the parts. Surely finding the fault is more important than wanting to lay blame. Especially when you have no actual evidence other than coincidental timescales.

Thanks both ..perhaps do I need to be a little less hard on myself.

I've been on the blower to a local Inde and LR dealership this morning and both are suggesting that the new parts may be exaggerating what was previously an underlying issue that was hidden by the 17yr old slack in the old rubber. This did make me think of the slight feathering that I mentioned on the old arm-to-chassis bushes.

I've got her booked in for diagnostics later this week and will keep you posted.

Sounds like an issue with the steering / suspension geometry. Most likely the new bushes would have moved the axle, changing the toe and inclination angles and now the system is slightly off balance. This can even happen when worn tyres are not installed in the original position. Maybe you should first try rotating tyres + wheel alignment and see if there's a difference. BTW, did the "clunk" go away ?

@NPG ...I think what I've learned from this is that perhaps the whole Covid thing has stressed me out in ways I hadn't recognised. Of course the tracking being out (and the garage not having done sufficient checks to minimise that risk) makes complete sense now, but no...I jumped straight to catastrophe!
That's a lesson for me.

...and No, the bl**dy clunk still hasn't even gone away! I'm now thinking...another look at the Watts Link bushes perhaps? [But without the handbag throwing and drama ]

HasisD said:

@NPG ...and No, the bl**dy clunk still hasn't even gone away! I'm now thinking...another look at the Watts Link bushes perhaps? [But without the handbag throwing and drama ]

Click to expand...

Most probably but this is easy to test. Just grab the vehicle from the rear wheel arch and rock it sideways - if the Watts linkage is the problem, you will be able to hear the clunk for sure. And statistically, using non-genuine bushes here is a guarantee for failure in less than a year :-(

Head's in my hands now. Just spoken to the Land Rover trained Inde I've taken it to. He's replaced a slack wheel bearing (which had got through MoT last week...so it wasn't that bad), but that's made no difference to the wobble. This is increasingly looking like I'm going to have to bite the bullet and put OEM bushes back in...it's all we can think of. No wobble last week...new bushes and wobble...with nothing else obvious.

Please learn from my increasingly apparent mistake...only buy Land Rover OEM bushes!!!