The brakes on the 08/09 TC are one of the best designed systems on the car that are not available on any other Cobalt.

A brake job on them is different from a brake job on another cobalt.

The fronts are fairly easy, to replace the pads you simply remove the pins and the bracket, slide out the pads, compress the pistons with your fingers, lube and put the new pads in and reassemble. You don't even have to remove the caliper.

Now the rears are the reason for this post. They are kind of a bitch. First of all they tend to wear out very quickly, which allows the piston to come out very far.

So if your doing your brakes, you are fairly mechanical, so you have an idea how everything works.
1. Take off Wheel

2. locate rear caliper bolts - 18 MM - 25 ft/lbs
* these are the ones that are actually holding the caliper on, not the ones bolted to the axle.

3. Loosen caliper bolts(it will be tough, i used an impact gun and an extension)

4. Remove caliper (it slides back off the rotor)

5. Now since we are down here we may as well do the rotors since they are probably shot too, and that is simple just take them off, and put the new ones in place.

6. Remove the old pads by undoing the retainer on the outside part of the caliper (it pulls off via needle nose pliers) and by simply pulling the other one out.

Now you should have a bare caliper and here is where is gets to be a bitch. You need to compress the piston just like on the fronts to get the new pads in. sounds easy enough right?

7. Since our e-brakes are in the caliper, the piston doesn't just push straight in, it needs to twist and be pushed at the same time. YOU WILL NEED A SPECIAL TOOL FOR THIS!!!!!

You will need *K-D Tools 41540 - Rear Brake Caliper Kit* It is not availabkle at your local auto parts store, and wil most likely have to be ordered off the internet. It can be had for just under 40$ not including shipping.

When you have the tool, (make sure the master cylinder resevior cap is off) attach it to the piston via the attachment, and twist it until the the piston is fully compressed.

8. Now that we have the piston compressed, lube the back of the pads and slide the new pads in and line up the caliper on the rotor.

9. Tighten the caliper bolts to 25 ft/lbs

10. Put wheel on, and do the other side. MAKE SURE THE RESEVIOR CAP IS ON!

Follow the pad bed in procedure, and you have new rear brakes!!!

REMEMBER: before you do your rear brakes you need *K-D Tools 41540 - Rear Brake Caliper Kit* otherwise you will not be able to compress the piston.

 

can this be moved to the how to section????

 

It can be done without the tool, its just a PITA.

 

Hey Tom, take some pics of your rear rotors. I know mine look like someone dragged a fork through soft butter. And im coming over your house sometime so we can do mine too. What rotors and pads did you go with?

 

thats a fairly common design for rear calipers, autozone does have a universal tool to try to spin the piston. i on the hand have a large kit from cornwell

 

GM Rotors bc they are the only people that make them and EBC Redstuff pads.. i am happy with them but i wanna see how long they last

 

is there a fix for the rear brakes 2 prevent the grooves on the rotors and 2 extend the life of the rear breaks? (srry n00b question...yes i am a n00b )

 

Change pads and fabricate a backing plate

 

Does anyone know exactly why the stock pads groove the rotors so badly and if this is still a problem with recent SS/TC builds?

 

Its a combination of the type of pad and road debris building up on pad.

 

U can do it without the tool I do a work all the time

 

I ran into a problem. The rear caliper bolts aren't hex cap screws. They appear to be hex socket screws, the ones that need a 7mm bit sockets (like an allen screw). They are also encapsulated with a small plastic cap. It'd be nice if someone mentioned this so I could buy the tool ahead of time instead of wasting hours with the car sitting up in the air.

 

It'd be nice if you asked about this ahead of time instead of wasting time and blaming others.....

 

I'm not blaming anyone. If you look at the first thread in this How-To, it said "18mm"
It just wasted a good hour of my time.

I'll be writing up a new how-to for 09 SS/TC rear brakes. I also have a good idea of why the rear brakes are wearing out so prematurely.

 

Thats because you do use an 18mm to remove the caliper assembly from the rear axle, you only need the hex key if you want to pull the caliper off the bracket.

Very interested to hear your ideas regarding brake wear.

 

Except if you read closely, the OP said to specifically avoid the anchor plate bolts:

Maybe I read it wrong, but it seems logical that you want to remove the caliper from the anchor plate to swap pads, versus taking the entire plate off.

 

I didnt read it closely. :Lol: I already knew how to replace them.

Make sure you post a link to your brake findings thread

 

very helpful.

 

I just bought a brake piston tool from orielly auto parts for around 15 bucks. If you call your local parts store i'm sure you can get one for about $15. Just thought I would help you guys save a few bucks!!

 

The main reason (in my case at least and quite a few others I've heard) is the lack of lubrication on the caliper slider pins. The caliper is pushed against the rotor on the inside, but prevents the outside to counter the force equally. The same thing applies for the e-brake. Basically, the caliper "sticks" and chews up the inside of the rotor. If caught soon enough, it WILL be covered under warranty. If they try to only replace one side (like they did in my case) tell the service manager about TSB #00 05 22 002L. Within this, it states "Finishes must be the same on both sides to prevent brake pull [. . .]" In short, this means if you replace the one, the other one MUST be identical (also new).

 

Well good luck with that, finishes must be the same" does not mean that rotors have to be replaced in pairs, as a matter of fact GM specifically states to only replace rotors that are out of spec:

Important: Only replace the rotors if they do not meet the Minimum Thickness specification.


And it also okay to cut one side more than the other(ie because of grooves on the back):

Important: Note that equal amounts of material do not have to be removed from both sides on any brake system using a floating caliper.

The key to the brake service is to attempt to get as close to possible the same finish on all affected braking surfaces, this could be through refinish or replacement or a combination of the two (refinish the left rotor and replace the right.)

 

Frank,

I have xtra pads, call me back. $70 hawk ceramic

 

Great citation from TSB# 00-05-002D about the minimum thickness spec. It's great to know there are other people on here who actually read information from outside this forum. I was just "generalizing" to the SS/TC public on here because in most cases the grooves are noticed too late and are too deep to be refinished. There's no possibility of refinishing, so I was indirectly saying not to bother with that option. From what I've read/seen, the grooves don't come gradually, but over the course of only a couple thousand miles and by the time they're noticed, it's beyong repair. In 99% of other cars, a refinishing/replacing combination should be used, but I haven't yet heard of an '08/'09 SS/TC with just one severely grooved rotor and another normal-operating one. Who knows, maybe the '10s are different.

 

I don't think there is a fool proof way of doing it but what I did will definitely help:

Replace the rear pads with some aftermarket ones I chose Hawk HPS pads, they have a slot cut in them to help get some of the dirt/dust and other crap out also lube everything generously with a good synthetic brake lubricant.

 

I've got slotted rears with HPS pads too and have been having good luck so far.