Product Warranties

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Note 17 – Product Warranties

The Company provides product warranties in conjunction with certain product sales. Generally, sales are accompanied by a 1- to 5-year standard warranty. These warranties cover factors such as non-conformance to specifications and defects in material and workmanship.

Estimated standard warranty costs are recorded in the period in which the related product sales occur. The warranty liability recorded at each balance sheet date in other current liabilities reflects the estimated number of months of warranty coverage outstanding for products delivered times the average of historical monthly warranty payments, as well as additional amounts for certain major warranty issues that exceed a normal claims level. We have an ongoing product recall campaign related to automatic slack adjusters manufactured by our Gunite business unit, and recognized a charge of $2.3 million and $0.7 million in 2010 and 2011, respectively, as a component of operating expenses. During 2011, our Gunite business unit experienced a brake drum quality issue and we recognized charges of $2.5 million as a component of operating expenses to contain the issue and protect our customers.

The following table summarizes product warranty activity recorded for year ended December 31, 2011, for the period February 26, 2010 to December 31, 2010, for the period January 1, 2010 to February 26, 2010 and for the year ended December 31, 2009:

	Successor						Predecessor
	Year Ended December 31,			Period from February 26 to December 31,			Period from January 1 to February 26,			Year Ended December 31,
	2011			2010			2010			2009
Balance-beginning of period	$	3,701		$	1,035		$	1,054		$	998
Provision for new warranties		4,047			3,400			90			265
Payments		(5,752	)		(471	)		(109	)		(209	)
Sale of certain assets and liabilities		(1,199	)		(263	)		-			-
Balance-end of period	$	797		$	3,701		$	1,035		$	1,054