Wilwood brake quality/issues

I've read a few articles and posts lately about people not recommending Wilwood for their brake setups. What are the issues that people seem to have with them? Poor quality? I put a 11.75" front brake setup on my car with the wilwood calipers and they seem to be okay. I thought they were considered a good brand to buy when I purchased my setup.

My single complaint is pad knockback, though I am not certain this is a Wilwood specific issue.

Otherwise, mine work great, coming up on 5,000mi.

I have issues with one caliper always locking up. Haven’t figured out why.

No complaints here with my custom Wilwood setup!

Not to hijack, but is that the 6 piston Dynalite and the 12.1" rotor?

If so, are you running 15's for wheels? I'd like to get that setup into a cop wheel, but on the horizon and I haven't measured to see if it will work yet. I'd like to be able to swap to 13 or 14 rotors with new brackets when I'm forced by tire selection (or if my talent quits running out and I need bigger brakes) to go to a bigger wheel.

I'm digging your safety wire job. Takes me back to my A&P days.

I'm impressed with your noted torque sequence.

My setup is 13"×1.25" rotors and I made mounts to hold the grand national III 6 piston calipers on '73 a-body spindles (rears are 4 piston forged superlites). Im running 18" Enkei wheels also...not sure if these would squeeze on any smaller of a wheel.

I'm going to say "doubtful" on fitting inside smaller wheels.

Thanks for the info!

Wilwood is just kind of cheesy quality. Pipe plug fittings rather than banjo bolts, caliper flex due to lightweight design, no dust seals on the pistons, etc. Basically cheap hot rod parts rather than OEM quality parts. I rank Wilwood about the same as PRW or Eagle. Not quite the same as a Jesel or T&D or Callies.

Well I know AP Racing calipers among others dont use dust seals either, dust seals are for OEM street vehicle calipers and have no place on a car that sees any amount of track time! Sure Wilwood are no AP or PFC, but depending on the caliper The wilwoods are superior to OEM. These GN III calipers I have are/were one of wilwoods best they had at the time, and I held them next to a set of C7 Corvette Brembo calipers I had and were substantially lighter and stiffer. The pipe fittings are no deal breaker, mine dont leak so whats the issue you have with them Andy?

It seems to me that he made it clear.

Wow, just wow....

To me he just gave his opinion with no facts or real reasoning to go with it.

Back up the claim before knocking a product!

Wilwood uses stainless (and thermlock is available) for their pistons, offers hard anodizing coatings (stand up better to track use than powdercoating), they actually do have a few calipers they offer with and without dust seals (dont want or need them on a tracked vehicle tho), light weight and stiff. NPT fittings may not be as nice as banjo, but done correct they dont leak and serve the job just fine...not a deal breaker to me and who sees them anyways?!

I would like to see some modeling to prove they are not stiff or ar just a cheap hotrod part...cuz they seem to do a very good job producing a very capable caliper that improves over any OEM caliper cept for maybe a select few very high end cars!

Like I said sure they are no AP or PFC, but for their price point they pack alot of what the top brands offer for options and will stand up to track abuse.

Prove me wrong with hard facts not opinions. Ive run them and been nothing but satisfied.

Do you also get mad if the other girls don't tell you that you are pretty?
Andy has his opinions....If you disagree, so what? You made your case, he made his. Why dwell on it ?

I agree, Andy is a pretty reputable source of information around here.

I haven't personally seen the flexing issue, and it would be somewhat challenging to actually measure caliper deflection without a brake dyno, but it isn't the first time I have read that type of comment regarding Wilwood calipers.

Their calipers seem to work fine for my application, I do wish I could rig my calipers up to float someway. It'd resolve my pad knockback issue.

Let it be known that I have nothing against Andy, and im hardly mad about his comments...I just wanted to know how/what he was basing/quantifying his comments on. Has he personally run wilwood components? If so what were they and how long ago? What were the problems he had that make him call them "cheesy" and cheap hotrod parts, how does he know the calipers were flexing?!

Without some kind of first hand use/experience/testing, I don't like when someone bashes a product. Andy does have alot of knowledge and helps the community with his parts etc...so when he bashes something some people will be biased towards things beacuse he said so. Someone with his background and position should spill the beans on what they know or have discovered and not be so quick to knock something, and if he has run "xxxx" caliper or hub or whatever and this happened then kool, let us all know so we can be aware and avoid or use that info when making our own decisions.

Thats all, not picking any fights here, just asking questions folks!

Fair enough questions.

My front Wilwood kit is over 15 years old, only replacements have been pads and rotors. I just recently added them to the rear and the kit fit well and works good.

I think they are a good product for the money.