Brake Pad Quality Concerns: Nearly Half Of Tested Products Fail, Safety Risks Demand Attention
As a "critical component" ensuring vehicle driving safety, the quality of automotive brake pads is directly related to the lives of drivers and passengers. However, a recent vehicle brake quality inspection result exposed by CCTV has raised concerns across the industry and among consumers - the failure rate of brake pads is as high as 48.4%, involving many well-known automotive brands such as Land Rover, Hyundai, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Volkswagen, with more than 10 batches of products from each brand found to have quality issues.
Four Core Indicators Pose Risks, Substandard Friction Performance Is the Most Dangerous
This inspection focused on verifying four key indicators of brake pads: marking, friction performance, shear strength, and compression strain, and the distribution of unqualified items showed significant differences. Among them, the failure rate of marking was the highest, reaching 77.0%, mainly manifested in the product's failure to clearly mark key information such as the manufacturer, implementation standards, and specifications and models, which made it difficult for consumers to trace the source and protect their rights; the failure rate of friction performance was 35.4%, becoming the most concerned safety risk point.
According to industry experts, friction performance is the core performance indicator of brake pads, which directly determines the braking effect. If the friction performance is not up to standard, during long-term vehicle driving or emergency braking, the brake pads are prone to "thermal recession" due to high temperatures, leading to a significant increase in braking distance, and even serious traffic accidents such as brake failure and loss of speed control. In addition, the failure rate of shear strength was 3.5%; such problems will cause the backplate and friction material of the brake pads to fall off or break when subjected to external impacts (such as driving on bumpy roads or emergency braking), directly resulting in the failure of the braking system; the failure rate of compression strain was 1.3%; although the proportion is the lowest, it will affect the fit between the brake pads and the brake disc, and long-term use will easily aggravate wear, shorten the service life, and increase the probability of abnormal noise.
Regulatory Authorities Order Rectification, Strengthen Follow-Up Testing in the Future
In response to the quality problems exposed in this inspection, the State Administration for Market Regulation has taken immediate action, issuing rectification notices to the manufacturers, automobile companies, and distributors involved in the unqualified products, requiring them to complete the recall of problematic products, inspection of production lines, and technological upgrading within a time limit. At the same time, it is clearly stated that after rectification, a second inspection will be organized; if the products still do not meet the standards, more severe punishment measures such as suspension of production for rectification, fines, and revocation of production qualifications will be imposed in accordance with the law to resolutely prevent unqualified products from entering the market.
"Quality issues of brake pads are no small matter; even a 1% failure rate may lead to a 100% safety accident," a relevant person in charge of the State Administration for Market Regulation emphasized in an interview. In the future, the supervision over the entire chain of brake pad production, sales, and installation will be further strengthened, and the promotion of the establishment of a threefold quality assurance system of "enterprise self-inspection + industry self-discipline + government supervision" will be advanced. At the same time, the product quality traceability platform will be improved to ensure that each batch of brake pads can be "traceable to the source, traceable to the destination, and accountable for responsibilities".
Enterprises Need to Undertake Quality Responsibilities, Consumers Should Be More Cautious When Buying and Using Vehicles
Facing the severe quality situation, brake pad manufacturers and automobile companies are gradually taking response measures. Some enterprises have launched internal quality inspections and upgraded the raw material procurement standards and production testing processes; some automobile companies have announced the launch of free replacement services for models under their brands that are equipped with unqualified brake pads, and promised to select brake pad accessories that meet international standards (such as ECE R90 certification) in the future.
For consumers, they need to strengthen the awareness of "quality first" when buying and using vehicles. When purchasing a car, they can proactively ask the dealer for the third-party test report of the brake pads, and give priority to models equipped with well-known brand brake pads and with no quality complaints recorded in the past year; in daily vehicle use, they need to focus on the abnormal signals of the braking system - such as sharp abnormal noise and vibration during braking, or a soft brake pedal and a significant increase in braking distance. In such cases, they should immediately go to a formal maintenance institution for inspection and replace with qualified brake pads in a timely manner.
Industry insiders pointed out that although the results of this inspection have exposed the quality shortcomings of the brake pad industry, they have also sounded the alarm for the industry's "quality improvement and upgrading". In the future, with the strengthening of supervision and the improvement of consumers' quality awareness, low-quality and low-price brake pad products will gradually be eliminated by the market, and enterprises with core technologies and strict quality control will occupy a dominant position, promoting the industry to develop in the direction of "safety, reliability, and high standards".
