Porterfield brakes

Hi,

in July last year I bought 2 sets of Porterfield brakeshoes (Fronts SHOE169, Rears SHOE152) online and brought them to Germany.

In March this year I had installed the brake shoes in my 1972 Mustang at a workshop which is a specialist in classic US cars.

On the front axle together with the brake shoes new brake drums, new wheel brake cylinders and brake self-adjuster kits have been installed.

After installation, I had significant problems with the brakes: the brake performance was worse than before with the old glazed brake shoes and during braking the steering rattled. We had to demount the Porterfield brake shoes and replaced them by other make brake shoes. Now the rattling has disappeared and the vehicle brakes normally. When we checked the Porterfield brake shoes we determinded cracks in the surface of the brake shoes.

In May this year I sent my complaint to Porterfield and followed up serveral times but until today I didn't get an answer on my complaint.

What is your experience with Porterfield in case of complaints? Can anyone of you give me the email-contact of a reliable and responsible manager at Porterfield who would take care of my complaint?

Thanks for your help.

Claus

Best regards

Claus Hoffmann

I'm sure others will not agree, but my experience is the cheap brake shoes work the best. They just don't last as long. Never heard of Porterfield........

What compound did you purchase?

Hi,

I bought the R4-S compound for performance street.

Claus

I have never heard of brake shoes causing rattling, pulsing or shaking on the front of a vehicle. Normally that would be caused by an out of round brake drum. Did your mechanic turn the drums when they installed the second set of shoes? It is possible that the drum was not round when it was new, and that may have been the root cause of your vibration.

I've never used porterfield brakes before, I don't know what kind of recourse you will have with them. I'd guess that the second they heard that you had vibration problems they would deny any claim since that could only be caused by another component that was not concentric or round.

Brake linings are a finicky item, a compound can work great on one application and crummy on another. Sometimes you have to be pretty aggressive with bedding in the new friction material. I know it is expensive, but sometimes you need to try out different friction materials to see what is best for you.