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In the minds of most consumers, the quality of imported cars, imported parts, and luxury cars is definitely better than that of domestically produced products. In the official promotion of imported and luxury cars, there are also phrases such as "high-quality", "luxurious", and "excellent quality". However, recently, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China launched its first surprise supervision and spot check on imported brake pads, which dealt a severe blow to these imported and luxury cars. The spot check results released by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China showed that the overall unqualified detection rate of imported brake pads reached 48.4%, including nearly half of mainstream luxury cars. Imported cars and luxury cars can even fail to meet a critical component related to car safety, which is truly exhausting for consumers.
The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine conducted a surprise inspection: Nearly half of the brake pads were found to be unqualified
As soon as the National Quality Inspection Bureau takes action, it knows if there is one. This time, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has expanded the scope of quality supervision and spot checks on brake pad products for the first time from domestic products to imported products, covering the main circulation areas of goods such as the domestic market, cross-border e-commerce, and import product distribution centers. It involves more than 60 brands and 18 countries or regions of origin, with relatively more imports from Japan, Germany, South Korea, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Spot checks found that the overall unqualified detection rate of imported brake pads reached 48.4%, accounting for almost half. Among them, 71 batches were randomly inspected from the port, and 8 batches were found to be unqualified; 388 batches were randomly inspected in the circulation field, and 211 batches were found to be unqualified; 8 batches were randomly inspected on e-commerce platforms, and 7 batches were found to be unqualified after testing.
In the list of unqualified products released by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine, multiple well-known brand products are "listed", including more than 10 batches of products with nominal brands of Land Rover, Hyundai, Toyota, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Volkswagen, TEXTAR, Kia, Volvo, and BMW that have been randomly inspected as unqualified. Of course, what surprised consumers was that both mainstream and luxury brands were "dishonest" in these core safety related components. The major luxury brands BBA (Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Audi), Land Rover, and Volvo have all been included in the list of substandard products, and mainstream brands such as Volkswagen and Kia have also been blacklisted, with more than 10 batches of products being randomly inspected for substandard products.
Tested by: Unqualified products can easily pose safety hazards for driving
This is the first time that the National Quality Supervision Bureau has randomly inspected the quality of imported brake pads, which to some extent indicates that the country has begun to attach importance to the product quality of automotive components. Experts from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine stated that the so-called brake pads, also known as "brake linings for automobiles," are composed of a layer of steel plate (backing plate) and a layer of friction material. They are one of the most critical components in the automotive braking system, and the quality of the brake pads directly affects driving safety. It is understood that the supervision and random inspection of imported brake pads is based on the current national mandatory standard GB 5763-2008 "Automotive Brake Linings" in China for testing. The brake inspection items include: appearance quality, dimensional tolerance, friction performance, shear strength, impact strength, thermal expansion rate, compression strain, packaging marking, etc., while the unqualified items specifically include: marking (174 batches, accounting for 77.0%), friction performance (80 batches, accounting for 35.4%), shear strength (8 batches, accounting for 3.5%), and compression strain (3 batches, accounting for 1.3%).
Three major issues with unqualified brake pads
Unqualified logos can easily mislead consumers into purchasing
In the simplest logo test, 16 brands failed to meet the standards, including Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes Benz, Land Rover, Volvo, Volkswagen, Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, and other brands.
The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine stated that the logo is the most important source of basic information for consumers to judge a car. According to Chinese standards, whether it is a domestically produced or imported product, at least two pieces of information should be printed on the packaging: one is the specified friction coefficient, and the other is the current national standard number. Most consumers are not professionals. If the brake pad information is incomplete or the identification is unclear, it is easy for consumers to misjudge and fail to purchase brake pads correctly, causing driving safety hazards.
The shear strength value is unqualified, and the brake pads are "scrapped"
In the shear strength test, 8 brands of Toyota, Hyundai, Audi, BMW, Land Rover, Mercedes Benz, Subaru, and Qinmington products failed.
The inspector explained that the brake pads are composed of two parts: the back plate and friction material. During driving, the car inevitably encounters sudden braking or external force impact. If the back plate and friction material cannot withstand the impact and detach or break, the brake pads are useless and will inevitably bring safety hazards.
Vehicles with poor friction performance are prone to losing control
In the friction performance test, a total of 21 brands of products were found to be unqualified, including well-known brands such as Mercedes Benz, Audi, Toyota, Lexus, Hyundai, BMW, Land Rover, Cadillac, Ford, Jeep, Honda, Infiniti, Nissan, etc. Inspectors stated that friction performance is the most important core part of brake pads. When braking, if the friction performance fails to meet the requirements, the vehicle is prone to losing control and ultimately causing irreversible tragedy. During the inspection, it was found that many brake pads have a sudden decrease in friction coefficient or even lower than national standards when the temperature reaches 300 degrees or above.
General Administration of Quality Inspection:
Key spot checks will be conducted again, and those who fail will be severely punished
Liu Shiyuan, Deputy Director of the Inspection Department of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China, stated that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China has conducted interviews with some prominent enterprises and distributors. In response to a manufacturer's suggestion that brake pads are not qualified as individual products and ultimately meet the requirements on the entire vehicle, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine requires relevant importers and 4S stores to effectively ensure the quality of brake pads and vehicle products, and protect the safety of consumers. It is reported that before the release of the sampling results, the entry-exit inspection and quarantine department had officially informed the relevant dealers of the testing report and sampling results. Industry insiders believe that the quality issue with imported brake pads during this inspection is prominent, mainly due to the insufficient attention paid by relevant enterprises and dealers to China's relevant national standards. The reporter learned that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has once again organized key supervision and spot checks on the quality of imported brake pad products. Subsequently, the results of the spot checks will be announced. For products that fail the spot checks, strict punishment measures will be taken in accordance with relevant regulations.
TIPS
Consumption guidelines:
Mr. Fang, a local maintenance expert on how to distinguish the authenticity of brake pads, stated that the general replacement cycle for front brake pads is 30000 kilometers, and the replacement cycle for rear brake pads is 60000 kilometers. However, due to the different frequency of each driver stepping on the brakes, cars over 3 years old need to check the condition of the brake pads every time they are serviced. If you purchase brake pads yourself, you should pay attention to the following three points: first, look at the packaging. The formal packaging has a license number, specified friction coefficient, and implementation standards, while counterfeit and shoddy products have rudimentary packaging and incomplete information. Secondly, by observing the appearance of brake pads, it can be observed that inferior brake pads have lower production costs and are prone to the appearance of red substances, such as rust. However, high-quality brake pads are made of exquisite materials and have excellent workmanship. Finally, check the friction coefficient of the brake pads. Usually, the manufacturing of brake pads follows SAE standards and selects an FF rated coefficient. The friction rated coefficient of a family sedan is approximately 0.35-0.45.