Hello all,

With winter coming and another trip to the Alps looming I thought I would run some smaller wheels. So today I changed from the 23 inch ones in the first picture to the 21 inch ones in the second - which are the wheels Land Rover are running on the EVs they are testing in the Middle East.

I checked you can specify these wheels on my L460 LWB 7 seat and you can (you can even go an inch smaller).

When the changeover was being done we quickly found that although the smaller wheels went on fine they didn't rotate freely thanks to a small block - see picture. It was not serving an obvious purpose and was held on by one screw so we removed them from the two front wheel areas and the 21 inch wheels now run freely. Driving home, aside from a smoother ride, I couldn't detect any other differences.

All the mechanics at the garage (not LR) looked at the part and none of them or me could figure out what it does. The parts are marked BB. Do you have any ideas?

Click image to enlarge

It’s a mud scraper.

Mud scraper available in several sizes depending on the wheel size- you may need the shorter option if fitting 21” rims  "UNDERSTEER" ----is when you hit the fence with the front of the car.
"OVERSTEER" ------is when you hit the fence with the rear of the car.
"HORSEPOWER" ----is how fast you hit the fence.
"TORQUE" -----------is how far you take the fence with you.

Thanks so much for your replies! I have ordered the part in the smaller size to go with the smaller wheels. Again, many thanks.