Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts

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thornhappy -> Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 7:01:21 AM)
Hi folks-- Looks like there are a lot of problems with the increasing number of imported Chinese auto parts. The full story is here, an excerpt is below: "Child restraints that may come apart in an impact. Fuses that could catch fire when overloaded. Tires susceptible to tread separation. Those are some of the dangers American consumers face as Chinese manufacturers increase the number of automotive parts they are sending to the United States, according to consumer and safety advocates. They parallel problems with some other products from China ranging from medicine to pet food to children’s toys. The complexity of today’s cars creates many possibilities for problems with imported parts: tire valves that break and let air escape; replacement window glass that does not meet the standards for tempered glass; high-intensity discharge headlight conversions that don’t meet federal standards. There are so many automotive products coming in from China that American safety officials can’t keep track of them, said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. Mr. Ditlow has been researching recalls of Chinese auto parts in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s records. Those recalls are now posted on the safety center’s Web site." thornhappy

LadyEllen -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 7:10:33 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: thornhappy There are so many automotive products coming in from China that American safety officials can’t keep track of them, said Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety. thornhappy How odd! Every single part that enters the USA is subjected to security examinations in addition to the usual customs procedures (for which they are listed and booked). And yet there are no efforts expended to ensure the parts meet the relevant safety standards. How and why could such an obvious omission at import arise I wonder? And then there's the oddity that quality control doesnt catch this sort of thing when the parts are accepted into US factories, or when the finished assembled product leaves the factories; how could such be missed I wonder? E

thornhappy -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 7:32:02 AM)
QA was one of the issues raised; there's little or none in China, and too many parts coming in to do it at the dock. I'm thinking the defective parts work just past the "infant mortality" stage and would pass a cursory incoming inspection. The guy selling his parts on Ebay didn't bother with incoming QA; the engineer working on the tires complained to the supplier about improper design changes. He may have been overruled at this company (often the bean counters win over the engineers.) I've read of reports where Chinese imports dropped when the high price of fuel raised the cost of the parts to the point where there was no cost advantage over American parts. Even imports from Mexico (from the maquiladoras) got hammered. thornhappy

Termyn8or -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 8:21:05 AM)
Just wait until they start importing components for military equipment from China ! Oh wait, don't they do that already ? T

Maya2001 -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 8:22:27 AM)
UMMM you do realize that many of these auto parts also go to the the big 3 automakers as well???? they are not all just after market parts

Lordandmaster -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 10:07:09 AM)
Ugh, just what I need this morning--more evidence that the world is going to hell.

Termyn8or -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 10:31:19 AM)
True Maya. There is more.They buy quite a few things from Bosch (German) in the way of electromechanical components such as alternators, fuel injectors and a bunch of other things. I think even some of the Chinese automakers buy their fuel injectors from Bosch. Most European ones do as well. The alternator in your car was probably made by Bosch. Bosch also makes alot of the valves, solenoids and sundry for the auto industry world wide. The computer that controls all this may have been made in the US, Ross Perot's company's claim to fame. Although it may be made by Hitachi (Japanese), and probably was if it is a foreign car. Years ago my mechanic shows up with a BROKEN lower A frame from his olady's car "Guess what I've been doing". I looked at the A frame, it was cheap stamped metal. I seriously doubt that such a part was imported. The A frame is very important, but the engineers and bean counters decided that a few ounces of unsprung weight and a few pennies were worth more than people's lives. That is not the fault of the Chinese. That does not absolve the Chanese in any way, but most of the culpability lies with management of the big three. As much as the unions may have sucked them dry, it was not the workers per se who affected the quality of the product. There used to be a saying around here, around me anyway, and I haven't heard it for some time, whatever happened to it ? : If you want something done right, do it yourself. Also, even if the quality is better, why would a trade deficit with Germany be any more desirable than with China ? T

thornhappy -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 10:48:02 AM)
Yep on the suppliers to the big 3. These parts go all over the place. On the A-frame, I can just see people getting beat up on their target spec (similar programs have budgets for weight and performance). Someone must've taken that too far. Bill Cosby once riffed on having an A-frame fall out, but that was after he hit a tree.

popeye1250 -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 11:12:01 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Maya2001 UMMM you do realize that many of these auto parts also go to the the big 3 automakers as well???? they are not all just after market parts True, a few weeks ago they issued a recall on valve stems on tires that were "Made in China" that were cracking and causing tires to go flat. A company in N.C. bought millions of them and imported them and sold them to all the car manufacturers in the U.S.

Termyn8or -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 12:30:10 PM)
Interesting popster, in this case I think it may not have been a design fault, it may have been use of the wrong material. Still no excuse though. The decision to use a polymer/rubber/whatever material for encapsulation with too high a durometer could have been made by bean counters, engineers trying to look good or a foreman somewhere. We'll never know. And the fact is we don't need to know. It only works if EVERYBODY does their job right. That is what I believe. I have dear friends who I would kill for, but I would not give them a job. Success is not cheap. T

Lorr47 -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 1:35:15 PM)
quote: I've read of reports where Chinese imports dropped when the high price of fuel raised the cost of the parts to the point where there was no cost advantage over American parts. Even imports from Mexico (from the maquiladoras) got hammered. A recent news report announced that the costs of transportation (importing tires) and the shoddiness of Chinese tires has made it economically feasible to make them in the US again and that several plants have gone full time making US tires.

DarkSteven -> RE: Safety Concerns with Chinese Auto Parts (12/20/2008 2:06:04 PM)
All right, you've brought out the engineer in me. There are two possibilities: that the parts are plain defective, and that they work at first but fail early. There is no way that defectives could pass any decent QA department. Incoming inspection would verify that the parts do not meet spec, and they would be rejected. The Big Three would never allow that. I could easily believe that Chinese parts could be crap and not last long. This would also violate specs, but for reliability. The tricky part is holding a Chinese company liable for the damage they cause. Suing them would be hard, and collecting damages almost impossible. For the record, China has been a horrible partner as far as this goes. They sold us bolts years ago that were incorrectly marked as hardened, which caused numerous structural failures. They were responsible for the Supercap debacle. And they do not honor intellectual property - decades before they pirated movies, they illegally ripped off Apple's intellectual property and produced fakes like the Pineapple. No President or Congress has yet had the balls to stand up to China.

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