Chinese manufacturing

[Suff]

As a trained mechanic I've been looking after my older vehicles for decades now. I don't touch Mrs S' car much but I do replace both brake pads and brake disks as the cost is simply crazy. I can get a set of discs and pads for the entire car and fit them for £100. Getting the front discs and pads done in the garage is nearer £500.

So, anyway, I'm quite used to buying fairly cheap but reasonable quality Chinese knock off goods and fitting them to my vehicles.

That is until I bought a set of replacement front wheel bearings for my bike two years ago. Fully non maintenance, sealed, pre greased, fit and go.

Today, after suffering quite dangerous movement of my front wheel, whilst riding, for the last 4 months, I replaced the bearings.

Checking the bearings, one is like a coffee grinder when it turns and the other one just feels "loose". It's not something I can describe well, there is no moving or clicking or clunking, it just doesn't feel right.

Two years! The old one's had done 23 years.

I'm a bit disgruntled really. If it had lasted 5 years I would have said "Chinese junk" and replaced it with more Chinese junk. But these have been going really bad for at least 6 months now and that means they only really lasted a year or so before starting to break down.

The cost was around £5 for two. Kawasaki genuine is £16.25 each and about £8 delivery. I've put in some more cheap Chinese junk but I'll be watching them very carefully. There were signs I now know to look for. Not least the rhythmic humming noise from the front which you could hear when the engine was not too loud...

Ah well. More care to be taken when buying other Chinese vehicle parts...

[Workingman]

Another mechanically trained bod, here, who used to do his own servicing on the driveway before chancing an MOT.

However, when I came out of the RAF my BIL had a garage - sales and servicing - so I went to work for him for a bit of pocket money. I will never forget his first bit of advice: "Do net get Mr Spurious parts, they are not worth it. Either get the manufacturer's own or ones from a well known maker of replacements." It served me well.

The 'coffee grinder' bearing sounds like one that has been case hardened and it failed. The sloppy one could be anything. I never did like no-service sealed bearings. A lot of bearings we used had removable side plates so that they could be internally checked, washed and re-packed. Still, even a cheap bearing should last more than 18 months.

[Suff]

It certainly should have lasted more than 18 months. 5 Yeats I'd have been happy with.

With the issues I've had getting stuff here in Belgium (in the summer 3 weeks became 9 weeks), it was 2 months before I got the bike back on the road after the carb failure.

That last journey back here, last Sunday, was not a good one. I'm doing 80-90mhp and the front wheel is tracking every rut and line on the road. What should have been a relatively calm and quick run was a tad stressful.

Then again I worked with an engineer who worked for a company making wheel bearings for the Mini Metro when it first came out. UK manufacturing company, management refused to upgrade the lathes they were using even for such a large contract.

The rejection rate was 45% before it got out of the factory. You can imagine what got through!

[Kaz]

That's not good Suff! Things should last longer than that!

[Suff]

They should.

One of the other problems is that from time to time I'll ride 600 or 1,000 miles return over a weekend. I'll be riding fast (100mph in France) and if there is the slightest problem I'll give it a year of wear in that one run. So where a poor bearing might last 5 years in round town where it gets a chance to cool down and heat up again, when I'm riding 500 miles home from Brussels on a Friday evening, it's going to wear.

We'll see how it goes. I'm now super sensitive to any problems. I had the bike out on the R0 tonight and it was handling beautifully but the front wheel needs to be balanced as it is way out of balance which throws things about at low speeds. I'll get that done this week as I'm riding to Lille on Friday.

[Kaz]

I hope you have a problem-free trip!

[pederito1]

I served a five year apprenticeship in mechanical engineering and always did my own servicing of cars using pattern spared. Present car is too complicated though
and requires specialist equipment to do almost anything to it. So I had to pay an enormous amount to have the cam belt replaced with a genuine spare from Germany. Incidentally Suff however did you get through a MOT with bearings like that?

[Workingman]

I served a five year apprenticeship in mechanical engineering and always did my own servicing of cars using pattern spared. Present car is too complicated though and requires specialist equipment to do almost anything to it.

That is why I now have a manufacturer's service contract on monthly payments. Genuine spares and they come with guarantees and the service bays have all the right tools and trained technicians.

A friend also has a Nissan and she takes it to a local garage. It costs almost as much for her car's servicing and MOT.