Thanks to Renault’s crappy … no, non-existent spare parts supply, I was forced to order brake calipers from Aliexpress four years ago. In my previous article about the Chinese calipers, I expressed my concerns about their quality and the associated risks. Now I can say that my fears have been confirmed in the most unpleasant way imaginable.
At the beginning of April, one day after my birthday, one of the brake callipers actually broke – the one that I ascribed a „completely different quality“ to. I was lucky in misfortune. It was at a roundabout when an Audi Trulla took my right of way without warning. I had to brake hard and then it happened: it felt as if the brake pedal had simply broken off.
Strangely enough, I could still feel a little bit of braking effect. Luckily, I had set the recuperation (Reku) to a higher setting. I also didn’t have a second to think about the handbrake. At 80 downhill on the country road I was travelling on shortly afterwards, I would have hit a wall in the next village.
Typical of Audi drivers, the aunt simply took off. However, a couple in a VW bus stopped and said that they had seen everything. That was really nice. Nowadays, nobody cares about other people any more.
It was only after I’d come to a halt that the brake piston fell out. I didn’t find the broken part of the brake piston on the road, nor the brake pads, but when I went looking for it, I found the brake pad spring of all things. It usually likes to disappear.
I later learnt that this is already the third case in the Twizy forum – it’s always the left brake calliper that breaks.
What this experience means for me
The whole thing was a massive shock and showed me once again how important it is not to compromise on safety-relevant parts. But … thanks to Renault, you can’t buy new brake callipers and I’d be willing to bet that remanufactured parts are missing the outer seat for the brake piston’s rubber seals. They are always the first to rot away.
The pictures in the gallery show the extent of the damage and are emphatic proof that my concerns were justified. If you have installed these calipers, please take this story as an urgent appeal to check your brakes.
And now?
The MOT would have been due in April. Since then, the Twizy has been parked in the driveway. If anyone knows a source for two original brake callipers, please post them in the comments. What? Hahaha! No, there are no brake calipers at Autodoc and all the other search engine spammers, but you only realise that when you want to buy them from them.
