Went to the dealership today. Had my rear brakes inspected and tire pressure sensor replaced. Now i get a different tire pressure sensor indication on the way home which makes me beleive they didn't actually replace it they just rotated the tires and the problem. also they said the brakes were bad... they are gonna replace the rear pads under warranty but i have to pay for labour and the rotors being turned.. i have 31,000km on the car and if the pads went prematurely and scored the crap out of my rotors im not paying for them to replace them. They said it had to be done before 39,000 or they wouldn't cover the pads. I called a different dealership and am waiting to hear back from their service manager about this. They said normally a brake service is done every 20k but i followed my maintenance schedule as per their calls so if their "maintenance 2" package i got 3 months ago didn't indicate that i needed or should get a brake service then i didn't. so we'll see what happens but the lady at the other dealership seemed to agree... if the pads are being covered under warranty then why isn't the labour? seems silly. i'll keep yas updated.

 

Brakes are rearely covered under any warranty for any manufacturer. You should consider yourself lucky and stop complaining. For some reason a lot of people on this site feel they are entitled to free parts and service for their vehicles.

New Honda Accords are coming in needing all new rear brakes at 15,000 miles. Not covered.

Its a wear and tear item, and you are driving a high performance sporty car. There is no reason the manufacturer should have to pay to replace something you wore out.

 

^ That, brake linings wear differently by every driver. So if they are going to replace them for free then just accept their terms and get it over with

 

^^^^^^^ idotic answers.. Funny that the high performance brakes up front that do majority of the stopping power are perfectly fine and not scored at all and yet my back brakes are fubarred. Sounds like honda is ripping off their customers because they charge $109 per rotor on my 90 accord because the cheaper $40 aftermarket rotors " dont last" and yet they're coming in at 15k needing replacement? Only an idiot would allow themselves to be taken for more money after paying more
money to have a new car with a warranty.. So the brake pads wear prematurely becaise they are considered
defective by GM and they cover them under warranty until 39k but they will charge me labour to replace their defective parts? Lol please...you're a sucker.

 

Excuse me? I can answer this.

One, majority of cobalt ss/tcs from the factory never received the caliper slide lube. Two the caliber slide inserts are nylon not bronze or brass. Three, there is NO SPLASH SHIELD on the rear brakes, For this reason and the other two the inside of the pads chew very very quickly due in part to improper pressure application during braking, crooked sliders and dust, dirt, debris and generalized road grim the rear of your car is exposed to nonstop.

Also I noted there was no ability to seal the caliper slide pin from road grim, I installed closed cell foam rubber (EPDM rubber gasket) washers between slide pin and caliper to seal the space. Additionally I wash out my brakes every week at the self serve car wash. Plop in a dollar, go to town with the undercarriage, wheels and brakes, go home and handwash the rest, thats how I do it.

And finally, I did find some casting slag on my caliper mount on the passenger side, it was insignificant but appeared it barely made contact with the inside rotor surface, I ground it off. There is nothing wrong with factory pads, I beat mine to death and they lasted 5 times as long as HPS (I roadcourse race before you interject).

So to recap. On almost ALL cars with 4 wheel disc (cars not trucks) the rear pads will wear at the same rate or faster than front pads. It is because of road debris exposure, heat, caliper slide pins (generally not as well toleranced as front brakes) and poor maint.

You can find yourself an older model FWD oldsmobile or buick with rear discs and retrofit the brake shields onto your balt, it will work they are similarly sized, but if your not a fabricator it isn't worth the money to do. Certainly check and regrease your caliper slide pins yourself after every oil change you can do it while your doing your tire rotation, it takes ten minutes to check both sides and thats being generous. Also only use high temp ceramic brake parts lube made by permatex. It comes in a purple labeled bottle.

 

good to know but for those of us who pay through the nose to not have to worry about and have the dealership do our regular maintenance for us this is something they should take care of and be able to spot before its too
late and your rear pads are almost completely worn away at 30,000km. I didnt pay for the GM maintenance 2 $140 package when i took the car out of storage to have my car inspected front to back only to find out my brakes are shot in the rear because they didnt spot the problem. And if they failed prematurely and are
COVERED under warranty according to the dealer.. Then why am i being charged for the labour if it is WARRANTY due to a factory fuckup like slide pins being exposed to elements/improperly greased and not being properly looked after during paid service intervals.

 

Just remember that isn't a total cause it's only part of the problem. The only reason these cars do not have splash shields is for asthetics. They SHOULD for engineering reasons and I suspect there was a last minute change to eliminate them. You are probably reducing your brake pad life by 40 percent when your absent splash shields, and another 40 percent by not lubing the slide pins. I bought factory pads again this last time, glad I did the HPS pads IMHO and it's only my own opinion are not worth the metal they are made with, they don't perform as well as factory pads, they don't last as long and they produce just as much dust.

Be glad it was covered, and oh yea, SALT is a major factor in wear when you do not have splash shields it will DESTROY your pads in short order.

 

This is all great advice. However, you were one of the lucky ones with your pads. There are pics in a few threads here that show set of rear pads with tons of material left but have large metallic chunks embedded in the pad material that cause the rotor scoring.

I disassembled my rear brakes shortly after I got the car and lubed them properly. I did that to prevent the dreaded inside pad wear like you describe because it happened with my G5 GT's rear disc brakes at 31,000kms. The lube did nothing to prevent the scoring from the hard chunks of metal. At 6,000kms, my right rear rotor was already scored. I took the pads off again to see what the hell was going on and that when I found the problems with the pads. I sanded them down a bit to get past the chunks and put them back on. By 10,000kms, my left rear rotor was scored worse than the right side and sounded like a bad wheel bearing. I got ceramic pads & a new set of rotors from our supplier and threw them on. 7,000kms later, they are still perfect inside and out.

For those blaming the Cobalt Daddy for abuse, you simply don't know if this is abuse or defective pads. No dealer is going to cover a worn out set of pads because if GM asks to see them, they're in trouble. If the pads are indeed defective in the manner which I spoke of above then they have no worries.

 

i don't drive it in the winter i store it... most of my driving is highway and i don't do alot of stopping .. i don't do hard braking unless it's an emergency ... believe me if i was abusing my pads i'd have no problems owning up to it.

there are plenty of threads to support the same claims i have... thanks for the advice though greywolf!! looks like i may just have to take matters into my own hands

UPDATE : The other dealership i contacted called me back and is replacing my rear pads and turning the rotors free of charge. This is not only due to the unusual wearing but the fact that this wearing was never brought to anyones attention during routine maintenance checks to warrant a brake service. Finally someone recognizes this as a problem. This dealership also said they will be sure to remind me of brake service intervals to prevent this from happening again and be sure to inspect it routinely for wear.

 

No, I work in the industry and I see idiot customers all the time who want everything replaced for free because God forbid a wear-and-tear item should wear out under warranty.

The rear brakes wear out more quickly in many cases because newer brake systems are rear-biased (to better assist the fronts under hard braking) and the rear pads are smaller and often thinner.

I could take a brand new car out and run a set of pads down to nothing in one track event. Does that mean the manufacturer should pay to have new brake linings and friction surfaces installed?? Only an idiot would try to blame the manufacturer for a parts that are supposed to wear out from normal use.

 

ya buddy ok then you explain to me why the dealership agrees that this is not normal wear and is replacing it all under warranty again most of my driving is highway so i don't use the brakes that much... nor do i use them hard... i also store my car for the winter for 5 months of the year... so ya when the car is barely even a year old and the rear pads are almost gone and are chewing teh rotors up... there is a problem... since my gf's 2010 kia forte rear discs are still perfect with the same mileage and same driving conditions... and she DOES drive it in the winter i'm not the first and definately won't be the last person to have their rear discs replaced under warranty. If these brakes are properly proportioned as you say they are then also explain to me why my front brakes still look brand new with no scoring and plenty of pad left... i agree alot of people expect alot of wearable items replaced but this is far from normal wear. i've already had two dealerships verify this...