Powerstop rotor failure

[NavsENG]

Just wondering if anyone else has had any issues with power stop rotors ? I had one catastrophically fail on me on the road course. I'm pretty unhappy with both American muscle and powerstop. All I wanted was a refund for this "track day" brake kit. American muscle said , sorry it's over 30 days and the factory warranty takes over. Which is a replacement only.

Powerstop seemed interested at first to "help" , but they never offered me a refund. When I asked for my money back , nothing. Have not heard from them since . They also wanted the rotor back for testing . I gave them the lot number off the rotor and spoke with them for quite a while ..

I just cannot believe no one is willing to go a little above and beyond to help on a freak situation like this. Unfortunately this just puts a bad taste in my mouth with both companies and I will never do business with either again.

I was so lucky this happened in a controllable spot , I was braking from about 120 mph into a ~40 mph corner side by side with a gt350. Thankfully I was on the outside and able to safely get off track. Had this been in 4 more corners , I would have slammed into the tire wall or another car.

This is just a heads up for those using their brakes hard. Just take an extra look at things. I would recommend either ford rotors or ideally 2 piece rotors if you are on the track with heavy use.

 

[Freedom]

glad youre safe.

 

[NavsENG]

glad youre safe.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

 

[ice445]

Looks like a lot of impurities in that casting, so just bad quality chinese iron + heat, and the caliper levered the outer block right off the center. Glad you didn't lose your car over it.

 

[Jmesl8er]

Looks like porosity. We'd get a lot of castings from China like that at out machine shop. Sucks

 

[Rapid Red]

Hate to repeat what you now know, knock offs are not up to the job. That's really a bad part failure.

Very glad you took the trouble to post that picture (worth a thousand words) ...........

My I personally say thank you !

Pep

 

[BimmerDriver]

Wow, that's horrible. I've seen rotors crack in the friction surface, but that's something you can spot well before the entire thing fails (assuming of course that you bother to look between sessions or even events).

Glad you are OK. I'll bet when you bought them, you had no indication at all that you were buying crap made in China, am I right?

 

[NoVaGT]

I've always assumed Powerstop sold budget-conscious braking products. Stuff that looks good, but isn't meant for anything more than the street.

They've got a package that they market as being ready for real track use?

I did not know that.

 

[Freedom]

blast them on social media, that usually causes action

Twitter: https://twitter.com/powerstopbrakes?lang=en
Car forums/sites like Jalopnik may help you as well.

 

[NavsENG]

I've always assumed Powerstop sold budget-conscious braking products. Stuff that looks good, but isn't meant for anything more than the street.

They've got a package that they market as being ready for real track use?

I did not know that.

This is what I bought. Reason being, my car is a regular GT. I got brembo calipers and needed the rotors and pads. I was gearing up for a track day , so this just seemed fitting.

This is my daily driver. I didn't think I needed to spend a grand on rotors and pads but apparently I was wrong. I have a track car I am building , I just was looking for some extra seat time. And the s550 is an amazing car .. done a few things to it and on r888 rubber the car was going pretty good.

 

[Genxer]

Thanks for sharing with us, that is a safety issue. I will def do research before buying aftermarket rotors again. I've bought them for street use on other cars and never had an issue.

 

[S550_GTCS]

Damn..that's really bad. Even says on their website

Recommended For
HPDE & Weekend Track Days

I was looking into these and so glad this was posted. Hope you get a full refund for that.

 

[NavsENG]

Thanks for sharing with us, that is a safety issue. I will def do research before buying aftermarket rotors again. I've bought them for street use on other cars and never had an issue.

I just want to raise awareness about it. Would hate to see it happen to someone else and have things end up worse. If anyone is familiar with Sonoma, it was basically at the end of the drag strip (turn 7) I was able to just steer around the K wall at the end of the track and I had plenty of run off room. Just dumb luck to be honest..

Damn..that's really bad. Even says on their website

Recommended For
HPDE & Weekend Track Days

I was looking into these and so glad this was posted. Hope you get a full refund for that.

I definitely would not recommend.. I am not sure I will ever track on a 1 piece rotor again after this. Rears would be fine , but I would probably go to a 2 piece if you are driving the car hard..

Replacement ford rotors were ~125$ which is what I put on after this. Luckily I was able to get over to Ford and get a rotor and drive my car home.. Missed my last session and a half , but what can you do.

I doubt I will get a refund. I was hoping American Muscle would cover it since I bought through them, and they could deal with powerstop.. But nope .. That is ok, there are plenty other companies out there that actually care about customer service and will go above and beyond to help people out. Powerstop and American Muscle are not those companies in my experience.

 

[WildHorse]

Looks like porosity. We'd get a lot of castings from China like that at out machine shop. Sucks

Yeah the grain structure is horrifying. Heavy stock rotors for the win !! Everytime !!

 

[TheSnowmanMafia]

PowerStop to me has always seemed like knock off Stop Tech.

Just buy Centric slotted/blank rotors with the black hats. They are 100% identical to StopTech as Centric owns and manufactures StopTech products. The part numbers are even the same. I've ran and tracked Centric rotors on every one of my cars and they've never been anything but great.