Volkswagen Group Ireland issues warning over dangerous counterfeit brake pads

RedorDead

Vehicle repairers, retailers and consumers are being warned to be extremely vigilant when purchasing car parts following a recent seizure of a quantity of unsafe counterfeit brake pads by An Garda Siochana and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment's Trading Standards Service.

The brake pads, branded as Volkswagen, SEAT, Skoda and Audi were seized at properties in Dublin, Galway, Mayo, Donegal, Belfast and Armagh.

An examination of the brake pads revealed that the potentially dangerous counterfeit parts failed to meet the required braking friction levels. The test concluded that the fakes would not obtain R90 approval - the European legal standard for brake pads.

In elements of the testing the brake pads were found to have 30 percent lower braking efficiency than the Volkswagen genuine part. Under extreme or emergency braking conditions, the body of the pad was found to detach or break away from the backing plate. The implication of this could result in the loss of the vehicle's braking system.

Volkswagen Group Ireland, said, "In the past, counterfeit car parts were mainly non-safety related items such as window wipers and car interior accessories. Now, counterfeit items such as brake pads, brake shoes and steering linkages are available on the market. Vehicles do require maintenance and repairs. The most frequent reason why car repairers and consumers are enticed into buying counterfeit car parts is cost. Genuine parts may cost slightly more, but they guarantee quality and peace of mind. Consumers should use reputable dealers and repairers, and if they are concerned should ask that only Genuine Parts are used."

Volkswagen Group Ireland added: "An Garda Siochana will not hesitate to take enforcement action against those business or individuals found to be involved in selling counterfeit car parts. Anyone selling such items will have their goods seized and face prosecution with the maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a €100,000 fine."

If a retailer, car repairer or consumer has purchased Volkswagen Group branded brake pads that they are concerned about, they can look out for the following tell-tale signs:

•The fake box label indicates that the product is a "Wasserpumpe" and not brake pads. Wasserpumpe is German for water pump
•Printing error on fake box reads Fonnel Q but should read Formel Q
•The backing plate of the fake pads are engraved with "TAXTE" or "TEXTA, whereas the genuine product are engraved with "TEXTAR"
•No fitting instructions included in the box
•Tamper proof box seal missing
•The fake parts do not have a batch code and production date
•The performance of the fake product is significantly lower than the genuine brake pads
Anyone who suspects they have purchased counterfeit brake pads should report the matter to their local authorised dealer and have their vehicle's braking system inspected.

For a full list of authorised dealers please log on to www.volkswagen.ie, www.audi.ie, www.skoda-auto.ie, www.seat.ie.

Taken from completecar.ie

http://www.completecar.ie/news/article/208/Volkswagen-Group-Ireland-issues-warning-over-dangerous-counterfeit-brake-pads

voxpop

RedorDead wrote: »

the body of the pad was found to detach or break away from the backing plate

Jeysus :eek:

Eric Cartman

theres really a lesson in here, whatever about trim pieces or internal bits for your car, when it comes to tyres and the rest of the running gear and engine components of the car its best to buy the authentic thing from a main dealer and not spurious or knockoff parts, they may cost more...but atleast you know everything will work as it should

voxpop

Eric Cartman wrote: »

theres really a lesson in here, whatever about trim pieces or internal bits for your car, when it comes to tyres and the rest of the running gear and engine components of the car its best to buy the authentic thing from a main dealer and not spurious or knockoff parts, they may cost more...but atleast you know everything will work as it should

Ah now, I wouldnt go that far. Plenty of v. good non-dealer parts out there. For example the brake pads - were counterfeit Textar pads, you could get ATE or EBC pads - a bit of research is needed but there are decent after-market stuff out there. Buying from a reputable factors or site is the main thing - rather than some bloke off ebay.

kildare.17hmr

Eric Cartman wrote: »

theres really a lesson in here, whatever about trim pieces or internal bits for your car, when it comes to tyres and the rest of the running gear and engine components of the car its best to buy the authentic thing from a main dealer and not spurious or knockoff parts, they may cost more...but atleast you know everything will work as it should

not always true, there are plenty of dealer out there that sell and fit spurious parts of good quality to cars as they are cheaper than using genuine parts, even more so now when proffits are down down down

Eric Cartman

kildare.17hmr wrote: »

not always true, there are plenty of dealer out there that sell and fit spurious parts to cars as they are cheaper than using genuine parts, even more so now when proffits are down down down

if the spurious parts are TUV certified i dont think there would be a problem but there are some spurious parts out there that are definitley not up to standards, any engine components id definitley be looking for manufacturers own (filters etc..excluded ofcourse)

Gophur

Eric Cartman wrote: »

if the spurious parts are TUV certified i dont think there would be a problem ..............

How would you know?

By relying on a stamp?

Eric Cartman

Gophur wrote: »

How would you know?

By relying on a stamp?

stamp, well known manufacturer and buy from a dealer/reseller/garage you trust

dr.fuzzenstein

Eric Cartman wrote: »

if the spurious parts are TUV certified i dont think there would be a problem but there are some spurious parts out there that are definitley not up to standards, any engine components id definitley be looking for manufacturers own (filters etc..excluded ofcourse)

Absolutely, the fake parts sound seriously dodgy, but I'm sure VW will use this opportunity to get in a good bit of scaremongering and tell people that ALL non-genuine parts are lethal, which they're not.
If anything it should put people of genuine parts, you never know whether they where made out of straw and mud in a sweatshop in China and had the VW logo written on them in crayon...

Wibbs

I read an interesting book a while back about various organised crime groups around the world and the counterfeiting they get up to. OK the usual fashion items bags, clothes(some of which were higher quality) etc, but also mechanical parts. Even one crowd in Italy who were caught moving counterfeit aircraft spares :eek:

Apparently since the Chinese economic and manufacturing boom this has really taken off. Its much easier to fake or cream off substandard parts and label them as genuine as so much of the stuff comes from the same factory anyway. You can have one factory making say shock absorbers for five labels. They found car parts, properly bagged and tagged as genuine, even with believable serial numbers etc that when examined more closely were fake. This was in some main dealer stock in Holland IIRC. "Fake" and "authentic" have become looser defintions of late. In one case of a high end fashion house again in Italy, when they had underruns on stock they themselves sold the fake ones to make up the difference.

I would agree that to lessen your chances of getting stung or worse badly injured, only go for proper OEM stuff through trusted sources. Defo not ebay etc. When I say OEM it doesnt always have to be from VW, Mercedes, Ford, Honda etc. You'll often find that the factory that makes the Ford etc part also makes the exact same part as a spurious/OEM part, but the ford part is gonna be more expensive. Google is your friend there. Like kildare.17hmr said main dealers will sometimes use non branded fully approved OEM spec parts and like Eric Cartman says check to see what TUV/EU etc approval it has. Its not an ironclad guarantee as paper wont refuse ink but its damn close to one.

mikewest

Eric Cartman wrote: »

theres really a lesson in here, whatever about trim pieces or internal bits for your car, when it comes to tyres and the rest of the running gear and engine components of the car its best to buy the authentic thing from a main dealer and not spurious or knockoff parts, they may cost more...but atleast you know everything will work as it should

If you read the entire article you would realise that someone not fully aufait with all the correct packaging would buy these parts as authentic manufacturer branded and supplied parts. "Spurious" parts on the other hand do not ever claim to be original manufacturer parts but rather parts 100% compliant with manufacturer specifications, a completely different situation. "Spurious" parts have to be at least as good as origina spec and are sometimes better than that. Fake "manufacturer" branded parts are designed to fool people into thinking that they are buying original parts.

Eric Cartman

mikewest wrote: »

If you read the entire article you would realise that someone not fully aufait with all the correct packaging would buy these parts as authentic manufacturer branded and supplied parts. "Spurious" parts on the other hand do not ever claim to be original manufacturer parts but rather parts 100% compliant with manufacturer specifications, a completely different situation. "Spurious" parts have to be at least as good as origina spec and are sometimes better than that. Fake "manufacturer" branded parts are designed to fool people into thinking that they are buying original parts.

i did read the whole article and the advice i was giving was for people who arent familiar with the packaging, tuv standards etc.. obviously somebody like a mechanic or car enthusiast would be fine with spurious parts as they know what spec and manufacturers theyre looking for, whereas joe a-b car would be best advised to go to a main dealer as even if they found spurious parts at a market or something they wouldnt know if they were up to standards , spurious parts can definitley surpass manufacturers specifications if you pick the correct ones , but theres a lot of spurious manufacturers who fall below it too, even if it says "100% to specification" on the box , printing a box is cheaper than making decent parts afterall

JessieP

In fairness, looks like Volkswagen are doing the right thing - theyve posted this on their website - http://www.volkswagen.ie/ie/en/volkswagen_world/news/volkswagen_group_ireland.html.

Doesn't tell people they have to buy genuine parts, just says to be careful to avoid fake ones. With a young family I personally wouldn't want to risk it.