Diagnostic Approach on a modern Braking System Issue

This thesis project was born from the collaboration between Politecnico di Torino and the Proactive Quality department of Maserati where I had the opportunity to spend six splendid months, working in close contact with the best engineers and workers. The aim of this thesis was initially focused on the implementation of a telemetry monitoring software in the diagnosis of problems affecting vehicle’s chassis. However, an emerging issue affecting the rear brake mechanism has brought the topic of this dissertation into a specific root cause analysis of the problem by applying a diagnostic approach learnt during this internship. The phenomenon is related to the uneven wear of brake pads, fitted on the rear brake caliper of some company vehicles. Due to its unpredictability, the telemetry monitoring study has played a key role in the diagnosis, helping in the formulation of possible root cause hypothesis for the issue and in the creation of internal expertise by mastering telemetry data analysis on chassis related parameters for reliability purposes. After an initial phase of data collection and analysis of warranty cases to detect the entity of the problem, a benchmarking analysis has been conducted to detect if the technical solution adopted is in line with that of the competitors including a reverse engineering study on the adopted brake system for preliminary sizing. The hypothesis of root cause were collected in an “Ishikawa” diagram and were methodologically analyzed with quality management techniques such as reappear tests, DoE methods, internal audits and supplier’s part traceability. Characterization tests were performed to assess the conformity of calipers’ performances and metrological analysis were conducted to check the geometrical tolerances. In the end, the more relevant contributing factors to uneven wear will be reported and the possible further steps towards the root cause identification and solution proposal will be examined.