Powell Race Parts

iTrader: (3)

Biggest problem with rear brakes once you get through the bad pad material which clumped the sintered metallic particles and made grooves, is not using the brakes hard enough and not maintaining the brakes - sliders, pad backing plate abutments with a good quality silicone hi temp brake lube.

Use'em or lose them. lol

I have had full Brembo LNF cobalt brakes front and LNF slider rears on the car for four years, never had a problem, the rear pads outlast the front pads two to one.

I do maintain the car well. I do NOT drive it in winter .

Z06power

Complaint added as well, hoping the Hawk HPS pads along with slotted rotors will give a little bit longer life. Only gripe I have had with the car.

YelloEye

iTrader: (3)

I changed my rear pads and rotors a few years back with HPS and some blanks from here, still good.

SuperchargedSS

Upgraded to hawk, r1 drilled slotted rotors.... 5000KM of daily driving, they are 100% better than the oem.

Shanedude

I milked my stockers to 125k. But Powell had to help me midway(65kish) and replace the back pads and give everything a good cleaning and lubing. Weird my back one's went out before the front's. I did let it sit in driveway over the 1st winter which I should've got a storage unit. Replaced all rotors and pads @125k with OEM stuff from CED and everything great again currently 135k.

ssyellow

Posting here for future reference. Thanks for some of you for sharing your long-term results!

Natomic

I thought I'd share how I improved my brakes on my 09 SS. I had a soft pedal and excessive inner pad wear so I removed the rear calipers, pumped the brake pedal to fully extend the piston, cracked open the bleader, pressed the piston back in while rotating it clockwise, closed the bleader, reinstalled the calipers then bled the brakes. This must have helped free up the rear caliper pistons cause my pedal feel is much firmer!

NickD

Just wanted to say. I replaced my rear rotors and pads originally at 17k miles and now again st 63k. I took care of them, and lubed the pins. I had mostly even wear and I am happy with the ~45k miles I got out of them given I've done 7 or 8 track days on them, daily drive them and winter driving included. No complaints here. The set of rotors/pads I just replaced were Powerstop pads and centric rotors I picked up from Rockauto.

WickedSRT4

Had extreme uneven wear on my rear pads at 50k. I replaced with ebc dimpled and slotted rotors and ebc red stuff pads. Greased all the proper areas. Now I constantly check the brakes to ensure they're wearing evenly. No complaints as of yet. As for the brembos up front, they eat the rotors up pretty good. Pads are in good shape but noticeable rotor warping and scoring. Those will be replaced with the same setup as the rear soon.

CudaJoe

iTrader: (1)

Its been a while since I posted in this thread. I as well as everyone knows, there will never be a recall however... since replacing my rotors and pads at 23k miles, Ive had even pad wear and 100% properly functioning brakes.

I only maintained and lubed the rear sliding pins once when I changed the brakes out and now im at 85k miles. Probably will be ordering some new rotors and pads off of Rockauto soon.

Oh What I have now is R1Concepts slotted rotors and Hawk semi-ceramics.

cobaltssdude420

Yeah, too bad there is no Canadian site to complain to. I'm sick of those shitty little rear brakes. Compared to the Brembo's on the front, it seems like these were taken from a scrap yard...

Direnight

Mine started making Noises three weeks ago stopped last week don't know why.

YelloEye

iTrader: (3)

Did another set of front pads, think that brings me up to like 3 sets of fronts to the 2 sets of rears so far. Once you've lubed the slides properly everything works just fine.

09ssbeast

I am thinking about upgrading my brakes since i need pads and rotors soon. Was wonder what everyone thinks is the best pad to rotor combo. Ive been looking at a few different options. One option is the Power Stop brake kit for around 350$. The second option was going to be hawk ceramic brake pads with DRT Rotors, however those rotors are really expensive. Any more input would be greatly appreactied

exninja

iTrader: (1)

Asked and answered quite a bit on here. Hard to beat stock rotors and pads for the street.

YelloEye

iTrader: (3)

Stock front rotors and pads for Brembo fronts, I run them at autocross and they work marvelously. Rears I'm R1 Concept rotors and Hawk HPS pads.

Psyt

I've another one for the list. About a month ago I had both rear caliper pistons go bad (leaking fluid) almost at the same time. The rear rotors were also scored from what I assume was the piston failure. Replaced calipers with acdelco and swapped all pads and rotors (front and rear) with ebc slotted rotors and green stuff pads. I drive "vigorously" and even power slide around some corners when no cars are around. I've had absolutely no issues with calipers, rotors or pads as of yet. Also pulled off the rear pads a few days ago to check wear and the all seem to be fairly even and holding up well.

On a side note, regardless of brand I HIGHLY suggest getting slotted if not also cross-drilled rotors (depending on how often you hit the track) even for the rear, as they will greatly extend the life of both your pads and rotors.

umrdyldo

iTrader: (1)

OK DK.

For those that never hit the track and never "power slide" their car, the solid fronts are much better. 55k miles out of front pads and rotors for me.

exninja

iTrader: (1)

Forgive the ignorance, but why would drilled rotors increase the life of pads and rotors? I thought it was just to prevent fade...

umrdyldo

iTrader: (1)

The theory goes that temperatures higher than normal operating temperature cause the pads to wear quicker.

While this is true to a degree....., you won't see it unless you are tracking your car.

blackbird

To bump my last post in this thread from back in 2013, the last time I pulled the Cobalt out earlier this year the rear brakes are finally toast and ready for new pads and rotors.

To recap, just under 20k miles my OEM pads were down to metal and I installed a set of AutoZone's least expensive semi-metallic pads on the heavily grooved rear rotors without lubing the sliders or pistons. I needed to drive the car to an auto-x and wanted to have the dealer check out the brakes. They declined to do anything and I left the cheap pads on the car.

I think I'm right at 90k miles now and they've finally worn down enough that it's time to change. I've had some aftermarket pads and rotors sitting on the shelf so I'll now clean and lube everything up when I install everything. I'd always suspected there might have been a problem from the factory with the pins not lubed correctly or another brake defect but at least on my car the premature wear was just due to the stock pad compound.

krispy

Been a bunch of years; getting ready to sell my 08 SS LNF, just cleaning up some issues: stumbled across a rear caliper issue I didn't have before.

The pins would NOT come out easily when putting on new rear pads / rotors. The inside pad was FUBAR'd but outside wasn't bad like normal but the calipers would not slide. I looked and the bushings were no longer cylindrical; I ordered some replacement ones thinking the rubber had just hardened. I got the old ones out to discover that the inner diameter of the caliper had started to rust badly (Aluminum rust / white powder) which grows out & sandwiches the rubber bushing against the pin and prevents movement.

So if you are getting up there in miles & live in an area with salty roads watch out for this issue as well; there is a replacement bushing kit you can get on amazon for a few bucks. I just cut out the old ones, scrubbed off the rust with a wire brush, greased things up, put them back in. Eventually new calipers would be needed (I actually replaced my driver one due to sticky piston, now E-brake works again) but for a clean now operation it works.