These are priced at 1/4 the cost of US made rotors - $20 vs. $80. They are for the rear brakes on a Nissan Altima. I've heard quality of Chinese parts has improved significantly in the last few years. Can anyone confirm this?
The main problem is that they never seem to have anything to indicate which Oriental jail they were made in. :)
Last set I looked at, which were fronts, had been lathe finished (brake rotors should always be ground), hadn't been balanced (you can tell by the absence of drillings) and had an unknown brand of bearing cup marked 'Made in China' (which may or may not have been compatible with Timken cones).
I sent them back to the supplier and asked for the proper ones. OTOH I might have been tempted to chance it with rears. :)
-- John H
It's always a crap shoot with them. It will never be as good. It may be good enough to work on the rear without a problem. What bothers me most is the apparent lack of any concern for safety in products coming from China.
Chineese stuff is getting better every day. This is going to be a real problem for us in the United States...
Professor
Agreed, but they put out so much trash of low or varying quality that they are not an immediate contender for much of this business.
I wouldn't buy their rotors.
They are capable of high quality stuff, but they are not historically respected for it, nor will they produce to our needs unless they are tightly controlled.
My working career was in telephony.I saw the transition from U S to Chinese products to the point that there are NO phones made here.By the time people realize the American phones last longer that industry is dead here.The Bell system made money by putting out a phones that last decades.You do not when a repairman is sent out on a repair call.When this is brought up to people they think for awhile and say.......you know you're right I never had trouble with my Western Electric phone.
True enough. My brother still uses the one I paid $10 for in 1970. They were made like iron, but there was not much to them either. I feel like we were ripped off for years by the industry making us pay for repair service warranty on our inside lines and so forth. People were paying a couple bucks a month to rent a $10 phone.
The truest statement made so far is that the Chinese can make high quality equipment when held to a standard.
It requires *CONSTANT* and vigilant Western babysitting, though. Just having them sign a contract isn't nearly good enough. And all the certification/approval testing *must* be Western; if left to their own devices the Chinese simply falsify the results and/or apply counterfeit approval labels.
When Rubbermaid was going bankrupt because of Walmart screwing them the Chinese bought the plant in Ohio and shipped it home.When you see Rubbermaid quality products out of China you will know why.PBS did a program on the failure of Rubbermaid.Some of it was their fault on relying on Walmart for too much of their production.When Walmart told them to lower their price to them they were finished.Newell picked up what was left over and now own the Rubbermaid name.
That's one of the reasons that I still use Western Electric rotary dial phones.
Are you an expert on Chinese Industral Production Planning and Quality Control? What percentage of Chinese Industrial output are you experienced enough with to even begin to believe some of the nonsense you write? And, not everything that China produces is for the Western World. The fact is that the Chinese are fast moving towards being the industrial powerhouse that the U.S. once was and few nations can ever become. Thinking that they are doing this by producing junk/using counterfeit labels, etc, etc, is really not thinking at all...
To answer the original post, I've had a set on my S-10 4x4 on the front for about 6 years, 4 sets of pads & never touched them. They are brake rotors, for cripe sake. There is nothing wrong with trying to save a little here. We've installed hundreds of sets on customers cars with little problems. Buy 'em. I hate when someone asks a question on here & they get 2 answers about their problem & then 7 posts about political crap, rubbermaid & phones. What the fk does that have to do with cars??? They should have a forum for people with short attention spans & vast knowlege of trivia, mabee call it "rec. piss & moan" Good luck.
This is a newsgroup, and people can post and discuss pretty much what they want.
We have had others post previously about poor quality, particularly Chinese, rotors. Many of us have had experience with Chinese 'shit' products.
I would never recommend a Chinese product UNLESS I were sure that it is a quality item and that the quality level is constant.
Maybe you have a source of reliable ones. What company makes the ones you use or supply?
We could take much of this and other similar threads on this group, swap "Japan" for "China", turn the message dates back 50 years and have experience a little deja vu. Westerners were agonizing over cars and other consumer goods supposedly made from beer cans that were turned inside out. The stories were urban legend of course and several large industries rested on their past accomplishments while Japanese companies took over a good chink of business that would have otherwise gone to them.
Fact is China and it's neighbor island Taiwan are capable of and have been producing quality goods for quite a while. Are there some shoddy Chinese goods out there? Sure, but we americans are perfectly capable of producing substandard goods too.
My life and the lives of everyone on the road around me depend in large part on the integrity of my brake system. Chinese rotors? "Saving a little" on brake parts? No way, not on my car, and not on anyone else's car I service.
More like 30 years for Japanese cars.
Actually I saw some childrens toys make out of sheet metal recycled from drinking cans.
My parents had an early 70's Toyota. The automatic transmission failed fairly quickly.
A friend had a Datsun 510 that was a great car.
Te Japanese spent 20+ years improving their quality while many other car manufactures did little to improve (or actually got far worse).
Who knows what will happen with China in the future.
Yes, but that does not mean all Chinese products are shoddy. Caveat Emptor.
I remember some '70 Chrysler products that fit that bill quite nicely.
Things can and do change so we always need to be aware of what is happening currently.
The Germans have had problems: VWs had severe engine problems in the late '60s and '70s. A friend's 1 year old MB has had a variety of problems.
I won't mention the French, Italians, and English.
Actually no they were being imported in the late 1950's and in increasing numbers in the 1960's.
And I owned a 1970 Toyota Corona sedan and 1979 Toyota Corona wagon. Both ran for over 200,000 miles with no problems other than the usual maintenance.
I think that it is almost a given that they will be a major economic, political and military force.
Well, yes, and that was the point I was making. Gladyou agree.
Yes, Chrysler, Ford and GM products went downhill in that period.
Have you looked at your hard drive? My newest was made in China. Scary, but it is working.
Couple guys over in alt.energy.homepower have Chang Fa diesel generators, seem pleased.
Tom WillmonGEnear Mountainair, (mid) New Mexico, USA
Bug free, cheap, on time, works. Pick two.
Newsgroups:
That's grand, but neither a hard drive nor a generator is a life-or-death matter. Brakes are.
Do you know the country of origin for all of the parts and their components that you use in repairs? How about that caliper, remanned transmission or alternator. That would be quite a job keeping tabs on where all those components originated.
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