Counterfeit Brembo caliper

seattle##gs said:

And how could anyone ever check a big end bearing for quality? All we can do is buy from a reputable place and hope for the best.

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The "reputable place(s)" need to be held accountable.

We knock Chinese bearings, but then use the Chinese sprag in the MK3, 5 years and still going strong.

Madnorton said:

We knock Chinese bearings, but then use the Chinese sprag in the MK3, 5 years and still going strong.

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Obviously China ,and India for that matter, can make good stuff. They both have succcessful space programmes for a start.

But unfortunately some of their industries are also pretty dodgy.

It's ALL greed fueled.

When 16 tiers of distribution demand 100% markup, then to sell at a price the market will accept.
There is nothing left for the manufacturing.
So, the salesmen go in search of getting things made for peanuts.
And, in general, we have been conditioned to accept poor quality.
Most hobbyists don't know good from bad parts.
When bad parts are identified, the seller will staunchly defend them, based on subjective terms. When shown FACTS, they don't understand what they're looking at, so they still argue.


As for the counterfeit problem, this because the Captains of industry have enlisted the very low cost production in any place on earth that had cheap labor.
Those captains created the climate for the counterfeiting.

I had a volvo for 5 years. All made in China. Never put a foot wrong. Dull, but completely reliable. A month ago I replaced it with a Solihull built Land Rover product. I have had 3 warranty claims and a recall, one of them can't be looked at until the end of July. Mostly daft stuff, but sapping confidence.

Worked in a power station all my working career. If the word 'China' appeared in the paperwork/certification that accompanied any pressure parts (steam valves, pipework etc) that were supplied to us it, was rejected out of hand. I put the willies up the management when i pointed out to them that a lot of the nuts and bolts we had in stores (that we used to bolt said pressure parts together) were made in P.R.O.C. Somehow that had slipped past them.... The best quality bolts were the ones made in Bolton by the company that Fred Dibbnah used. Years ago Nasa had a big problem with counterfeit fasteners, one of the results of going for the lowest bid

The unique issue with China is if you set up a factory in China to make your parts you can never own more than 49% of the legal company that owns the Factory in China. So you have to have 51% Chinese investment and that comes with strings attached, ie the senior shareholder will want his men on the board and even if they are just there for show they will be in control behind the scenes.

So you set up a day shift and nightshift, but there will be a weekend shift added that you don't know about making your parts for sale off the books.

Or your tooling will be loaned out over the weekend to the factory next door.

Or your drawings will be copied and end in in the factory next door.

And its always the factory next door as all the makers of the same products setup their premises in the same area.

Brembo suffer from all of this and have a scale of pirate parts in 3 categories.

They still fail to mention the ones made in their own factories on the weekend shift .

Its a pact with the Devil you can never win.

IMO, the "issue" with made in China products is that suppliers select the cheapest products they can find. The Chinese, like pretty much everybody else, can (and do) make excellent quality parts/components/etc but that level of quality is more expensive and suppliers can make more money by buying/selling lesser quality stuff.

marinatlas said:

https://www.brembo.com/en/company/news/brembo-brakes-guide-to-recognizing-fakes

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The caliper I received is machined rather than cast.

The other thing to remember was the joke that was Japan in the 50s and 60s - now how do we look at them? Also, even FAG and Timken are rarely completely (or at all) made in their home countries today.