I have figured out what is causing it but I don't know how to get around it though. Due to hardware limitations I have to limit the display smoothing level to 1 and override the render smoothing level to 2 on my geometry.
If I use the Maya default of display smooth level 2 and have the "Use preview level for rendering" set, then all works without a hitch.
When I set the display level to 1, have the "Use preview.." unset and the render division level manually set to 2, then it does not take affect.