Let me start off by my frustration of the Cobalt rear brakes:

The other day my rear brakes started to get rather loud at 35,000 KM. So I got looking around and found this site where people were talking about the casting touching the rotor. So I, take my rear driver side wheel off to check if that is the issue. What did I find; no pad on the inboard and about 7-8 mm of pad on the outboard which is why I thought my pads were good. Was I ever wrong!

After some additional reading I found that GM did not grease the pins. Good chance it was binding and wore the inside and not the outside. Strange considering the fronts are still good and usually you wear fronts first. OK, so I need to do a rear brake job and replace the rotors since it is rather chewed up now.

So I start looking for rotors. What do I find; lots of sites with the wrong size rotors. The rears are 11.5" and not the 10.6" that most sites are listing. Why is it that they are showing the wrong size rotors for this car? Finally did find 62117 rotors that are the correct size (hopefully). Local shops also just had the 10.6" listed.

Why not GM you may ask:

1) I do not reward a company that does not grease brakes out of the factory
2) My front rotors have been machined once already with very low mileage and are starting to warp again.

So I have ordered Hawk HPS pads (Fronts and Rears) and a new set of rotors.

I am taking the vehicle in on Tuesday to the dealership on the far out chance that they warranty them (any bets they don't?). If they do great and I have a second set of brake parts for my vehicle. I thought I better get the parts coming since the brakes seam to need lots of servicing.

I am thinking about ordering new front Rotors (also often wrong at sites). EBC GD7507 which are the correct rotor for the brembo's, I think. Not bad for me in Canada to have them on hand as it typically takes and extra week to get items across the border and waiting for brake parts is not something I like to do.

 

There is a sticky here listing the correct PN for the rotors
Yes..most web sites have the WRONG (SC instead of TC) applicatons for BOTH the pads and brakes. BTW..it's not the lack of lube on the pins that's the primary problem with the rear...it's the PADS! They fall apart and contaminate the pins. You need a DIFFERENT pad material there (as well as new rotors)..I used ceramic.

 

yea hope this doesnt come out in a dickish way but you just found out what we all discoverd a few years ago..

just got some R1 concept rotors and some hawk pads and you wont be sorry, i have had that setup for about 2 years now and i still dont see any wear on my pads yet

 

X2... had mine almost a year no problems. wear is great. Dealer with not install aftermarket parts. do it your self its pretty easy and i think theres a guide on the site

 

I've yet to see greased slide pins on any factory vehicle. GM is not the only one who does not lube factory sliders.

 

Interesting! The mantra here has been that GM neglected to grease them. However, I have posted a pic here of a Volvo caliper (identical to TC rear) being serviced and it was obvious that the pins were NOT LUBED either. I haven't heard of Volvo people having this problem. Mazda3 calpiers are also the same...I wonder if those are greased? The one thing these calipers have in common is that the pins are not completely COVERED by a boot/seal. That made the TC rears exposed to the crap that was thrown off by the pads!
It's my take that it's the PADS that are the root of the problem..BUT...pin contamination resulted in the uneven pad wear. Pads also contaminated the rotor surface causing grooving.

 

Your take that the oem pads are the problem is 100% correct Ron. I first noticed a small groove in the LR rotor at 6000kms. I took everything apart to see what was going on. The pads had shiny chunks of metal about 1mm long embedded. I lubed the pins and brackets, sanded down the pads and put them back together. At 12000kms, it really started scoring the rotors. Took everything down and again, huge chunks of metal embedded in the pads. The mix they use for the friction material was simply too aggressive with it's semi-metallic content. I slapped on new ceramic pads & new rotors at that point. I just took everything apart again the other day to do a service as it was a year since installation. Everything was free, nothing sticking anywhere. Still, the right rear inside pad had more wear than the other 3. Still over 1/2 left with 18000kms on it. Oddly enough, my 06 G5 GT also wore the right rear inside pad faster than the other 3.

 

I went with the Hawk HPS pads and not the ceramic, the writes ups seemed about 50/50 between the two pads. I expect that Tuesday will not go well with the dealer, which is why I ordered all the parts on the anticipation that I will be installing and not paying the dealer cost for the OEM parts that failed in the first place. Read that posting on brake change out the other day, should be no problem for me to do, just need to get the tool back out the piston.

Funny about the wrong listings, I noticed this about two years ago when I had the first round on the front brakes becuase I almost changed out back then, thought by now that they would have it fixed. Was I ever wrong!

 

If your under 390000km they will replace them.
They did my rears twice before 39000kms

I paid for a third at 50000km they sold me lifetime parts lol. So it's there ******* problem now.

Fronts have NEVER been done. But my rotors are starting to warp a little. @54000kms that's pretty reasonable.

 

Yep. Put on ceramic pads and new rotors...smooth and clean after 5K mi.

 

Took the car into the dealership today to have the brakes looked at. Good news is that all the work is warranty because the rear calibers seized. So I get new rotors, pads, and calibers for free.

Why did the calibers seize, I questioned. The “technician” does not know was the answer (note: "Techninian"). Good thing I got more answers from this site than the dealership.