redninja6r

They should have covered it. It is a known issue. I now have two complaints filed with the NHTSA. If enough people do this there may then be a recall. I keep all documentation of repairs, because they obviously can't solve the problem, and I'm not paying for new brakes every 4000 miles for the life of the vehicle after the warranty wears out.

mr_buddha

I just sent my dealership this thread.
I'm hoping they do the right thing and replace the rear pads/rotors.

Stonebriar Chevrolet
9950 Highway 121
Frisco, tx 75035
214-472-6880

metroplex

I noticed my driver's side rear brake dragging more than the passenger side. I suspect the e-brake is adjusted too tight from the factory.

Terminator2

Could be. They had to adjust mine, machine my rotors, and repalce my pads. the E brake woks a ton better now and the grooving does not seem to be so bad now. I suspact the E brake was applying pressure while I was driving because I do 80% hwy driving and I hardly use my brakes compared to some people.

mr_buddha

They're now trying to tell me it's "Normal wear and tear" for the rears to be worn out before the front, and for the rear, inside pads to be metal to metal, while the outside pads on the rears are fine, at 16k miles.


Bela Lantos is who i'm dealing with, and i guess now i'm dealing with the service manager Bill Hall: http://www.stonebriarchevrolet.com/service/staff.aspx

umrdyldo

iTrader: (1)

Show them what is going on in this thread. Talk to GM customer service. Fight like mad.

mr_buddha

I also just sent the service advisor, and the service manager this email:



Hi Bill,
I'm currently dealing with Bela on the issue of my rear brakes and the pre-mature wearing. My years as a side-mechanic have taught me a little bit about cars. Brake jobs have always been one of the easiest things to ever since I’ve started working on cars.
Two things are always constant with brake jobs under normal wear and tear:

1. The fronts, due to controlling/stopping more of the car, will wear down faster than the rear brakes.
2. Brake pad wear will be close to similar on both sides of the rotor.

Neither of those two are present on my car. Also, at 16,7xx miles, even with spirited driving (that i have not been doing), the brakes should not need servicing already. Even if they did, again, the two rules above would still apply.
The only conclusion i can draw is that the wear is NOT normal, and that there is a problem with my car, as well as several others on Cobaltss.net.
Here is a thread showing the abnormal wear and tear:
https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/showthread.php?t=147233

A few people have speculated, and are probably correct, that the premature wear is being caused by the e-brake being too tight, or not releasing correctly. This would make sense when looking over how the wear is occurring:
1. The rear pads have worn down significantly faster than the fronts.
2. The inside pads are metal to metal, while the outside are fine.

That would make complete sense in the scenario I’m dealing with. I asked Bela to present me with another scenario, a logical one that could be considered normal wear and tear, where the wear of the inside pads on the rears would be extremely accelerated over the outside pad, and how the rears would be failing way before the fronts are.
Unfortunately, he could not, and I feel this is because there is no logical explanation where this would fall under normal wear and tear. I've informed my father of this issue, an ex-mechanic and shop owner, and I believe he may be calling in the near future to discuss it with you, or Bela, so that this is resolved in the way it should be.
Thank you for your time,

metroplex

The other theories I have:
lack of lubrication in the caliper slide pins (shoulder bolts)
pad material
lack of center groove in pad (debris channel)
or a combination of these issues with the tight e-brake

The shop should be able to remedy the slide pin lubrication and the tight e-brake.

redninja6r

My shop just called, the rear pads are in so they are getting me in on Thursday. Refresher, this is the second set of inner rear pads in 11,700 and at 8000 the rotors were turned too. I've been driving 8 days since they last checked them and the inner pads were at 3/32 (in less than 4000 miles). In those 8 days they are now getting loud so I'm probably metal/metal but they wanted me to keep driving it until the pads came in. They'll probably have to replace the rotors this time. In addition, they are using the same pads as the last "fix" which obviously didn't fix the problem. I love the car but this is frustrating. Problems occur, but FIX them. I hate this re-occurring issue and then putting your head in the sand and saying "hopefully this time will do it!" Good luck with yours as well.

blackbird

For those looking at replacement parts, I've been checking at the various auto part stores and my local CarQuest is now showing a listing for the rear rotors on the '08+ SS will be available through PBR. They should have specs and info to make sure they are the right ones and be able to order on May 18th. Many of the brake parts they carry through them are OEM manufactured replacements, and considering the low volume of the car, there may not be a lot of different places making them. I'll post more info and part numbers when I can confirm they are the correct ones.

metroplex

Are your driver's side inboard rear pads wearing faster than the passenger side?

My 09 SS/TC e-brake came from the factory adjusted too tightly. My driver's side was dragging a lot and I noticed that this was by design at least on my car. The Haynes says to just look at any one of the levers/stops but the driver's side is the key area to look at. YOur passenger side might be loose enough but the driver's side could still be dragging.

WaRRioR-StaTuS

Im getting the same thing from my dealer, and I am at 11k


BTW I AM CLOSE METAL ON METAL right now and they told me to come back when it gets worse! its loud as hell when just driving and no brakes applied

outtamymind

you guys are getting dick ass service departments. i searched for the bulletin that says not to replace the pads and i searched for half an hour and couldn't find it. as well your front brakes on a regular normally driven car should be replaced about twice before you should need to replace your rears.

WaRRioR-StaTuS

haha yeah, and i am pretty sure the service departments think we all dont know that! my fronts are smooth and look good, my rears play music when i run my nails up and down! lol

mr_buddha

Read the letter i typed up, it's about 3-5 posts up from this one.


They're replacing it now all under warranty, but get this. . . .
1. The rotor had to be ordered from Canada.
2. Brake pads on back order. I'm in a ******* chevy uplander as a rental for god knows how long. ;(

metroplex

GM is probably thinking, "wow, those rear pads are selling like hotcakes!"

redninja6r

lol^^^ it took a week each time for my pads to come in.

MilfieCobaltSS

Ok......I don't really come on here much but due to some recent issues I have been having and reading other posts that you guys/gals are leaving, I thought I would write one.
I loved the car until I had to put 4 new tires on it after just 19,000 miles. I actually called GM and the tire manufacturer and was told that it was normal for them to be replaced with that kind of mileage. My next issue is that I just had an oil change in January 09 and they rotated my tires, but failed to tell me that I needed brakes at that time. About two weeks later I was told that I did need them after they started making noise and I took them to be checked. I just had them done and it was not cheap! Luckily, I only needed front rotors. So I am just so frustrated! I see that these things are happening to everyone on here, so that eases my frustration slightly. BTW, my car only has 29,000 miles on it today. Anyone wanna wallow with me and share their feelings??

blackbird

You bought a car with ultra high performance summer-only tires. Even with rotation, if you have some fun with the go pedal and throw it around some turns that type of mileage is normal. They could have installed even more aggressive tires on the car, but then you might have only got 10-12k miles out of a set. It's the price you pay for this much performance. Same thing if you bought a BMW M3, 'vette, or Porsche. If you want to extract the most performance you have to be willing to pay for the expendable service items like brakes and tires.

With that said, some of the premature rear brake wear is something GM should address. Whether it be a caliber issue, parking brake, or just too aggressive set of rear pads that are sized too small. What I can tell you is that if they do offer to "fix" them and it turns out it was just too aggressive a pad for the street, they're going to substitute lesser pads more inline with a street-only application, and that may decrease the track and sporting capability of the car.

I can understand your frustration at having to spend money on a fairly new car, but I will not complain about their performance choices. If you want to commute in the new SS Turbo it is going to cost you and you may be missing out and not using the car to it's fullest. What you can do when replacement time comes around is install an all-season tire and normal street pads. That may lengthen the service intervals but it will be up to you to determine if that's going to cripple the cars performance or be acceptable to you.

Motorway Justice

Yay for Blackbird sticking up for the Cobalt!

We're kind of going off topic with tire wear, but I personally installed Kumho Ecsta ASXs as a CHEAP winter alternative to the Continentals (which were pretty much dangerous in the winter). The UTQG for that tire is 420, and with 100 miles of road course use and roughly 9,000 miles of use with occasional spirited driving, I've already chewed up a good 2/32" to 3/32" with rotations and properly inflated tires. I've now mounted the summer tires back on, which are still basically at 7/32" to 8/32" of tread depth.

But back to what blackbird said, if you're really looking to extend the life of a wear item whether it be brakes of tires, then you're going to make a compromise. It's really a balance between tread life vs exceptionally good grip in the bends. If you're not one to tackle corners at high lateral g's, then definitely consider a grand touring tire, as opposed to a low UTQG 210 summer max performance tire.

It's the same thing with the brakes. These pad + rotor combinations may not be benchmark braking brakes in terms of stopping distance, the brake system causes quite a stir in our community, but the system is designed to stand up to insanely high temperatures while keeping up good its good stopping power.

http://www.aa1car.com/library/2003/bf10312.htm
"If stopping a 4,000 lb. vehicle from 60 mph in roughly 150 feet requires 600 horsepower of force, it is the equivalent of 25,440 BTUs of heat, which is enough heat to raise 15 gallons of water from zero degrees to boiling! No wonder the brakes get so hot."

mr_buddha

The brake wear is premature, and horribly uneven between outer and inner pads.

The rotor scoring is also an indication that something is wrong.

If you aren't experiencing the problem, or haven't had first hand experience with someone who is, your input is both worthless, and wasted in this thread.

Motorway Justice

... I have more wear on my inner pads than my outer pads, and the rear rotors are cosmetically scored. They're well within tolerance as indicated by the service manual and they continue to perform as they should on the track, lap after lap.

If my input is so worthless, then skip over it and move on... guy.

mr_buddha

As you've probably also noticed, it's not occuring on every car, just like every lnf isn't having map sensor issues.

Quit posting your bs about how well your car is doing, and let those who are having problems work towards solutions.

My inner pad was metal to metal, while the outer pad looks like it had barely been used.

The fronts (which do the majority of the braking), also looked absolutely fine upon inspection.

I have no been tracking my car, and i have not been racing it. Are you telling me that it's normal for me at 16k miles to be metal to metal on the inside or my rear brakes, or for some people UNDER 10k miles who are also not tracking their cars to have the same issues?

Again, drag your crap to another thread about how well you're doing, and let us, the ones who are having problems, continue to communicate towards a resolution, *******.

redninja6r

My case, second set of rear pads in 11,700 miles. Rotors turned once. I do not track the car. The outter rear pads are pristine, and the fronts are fine. I just want it remedied. that being said, i love the car.

metroplex

Is your driver's side in-board rear pad wearing faster than the passenger side in-board rear pad?