The Unfixable Squealing Brakes

[Scouzer]

Other than some small problems with my 2006 Pontiac Pursuit GT coupe, I am overall satisfied with my purchase.

Except for one big problem...

My brakes squeal. It is generally worse in colder weather. As the temperature drops, the squeal escalates from audible to wild banshee death screaming. The squealing generally stops or is rare above plus 5 Celsius.

I've been to two dealers...the local one (morons) once and the one back home four times. Not entirely for the brakes, but the brakes were mentioned on the work order.

The squealing was reproduced only two of these times (somehow...I think they are deaf). The first time they told me I brake too lightly and this is normal, so I should brake hard occasionally to clean the glaze off. This did not work.

Second time I had to take the mechanic with my test drive. He called some GM corporate office where they have a knowledge bank of problems and determined the rear brake pads are likely the culprit. Replaced under warranty. The work order also noted the rear rotors very scuffed and scratched. I'm not sure why this would happen, but when I looked at them they DEFINITELY were very scratched up.

The squealing is still ever present, only slightly reduced at best.

The biggest issue here is it's now SPRING and the temperatures are warming. The squealing will stop soon, but it will be back next winter. However, by then I'll have 40k KM on the car, and it won't be covered by warranty. I spoke to the service manager and she was of absolutely no sympathy or help.

I guess I'm going to call Corporate today. This is ridiculous. Thoughts?

 

[Nohr]

Sounds like you need the rotors turned or replaced in my uninformed opinion.

 

[PingSpike]

My dodge neon's breaks have squealed in the rain and moderate cold since I got the thing. Its a common problem with neons. Just like all the problems that car has.

 

[Golgatha]

http://www.trustmymechanic.com/htmlmessage9.html

 

[DeadByDawn]

They should have turned or replaced the rotors when they put the new pads on. I just went through similar problems with my car.

 

[funboy6942]

Unfortunately Dodge Neons were great for this as well. It is due to a light coating of rust build up on the drums and rotors. Only thing that, may, cure it is to go with after market pads, shoes, drums, and rotors. Other then this anytime you get a light coating of rust, and I assume if the car isn't driven for a few days no matter the weather it makes all kinds of noise as well, it is a design and material flaw in the brake system, and it will squeal at you till the coating is removed and the dust is expelled out of the drums.

Your not not def, but for the dealership there really is not a fix for it as well without redesigning the entire set up and material composite from the ground up, which they will likely due after enough complaints, in future models, unfortunately your pretty much sol, because even as you seen just changing your stuff with stock parts will not "cure" it. You may be better off dealing with it for now till all the parts need to be replaced then replace with after market stuff and then the problem should go away.

 

[Mr Incognito]

My friend has an Isuzu Hombre and whenever any one of our friends cars breaks squeaked we called it the Hombre Brake Syndrome.

 

[hanoverphist]

my old dodge intrepid had the same problem. the first time i thought it was my craptastic repair skillz, but the second time i had a shop do it and they still squealed. they couldnt find any rhyme or reason for it, despite having to give me cash back for it.

 

[huberm]

if the back rotors were all scratched up they should have been turned or replaced....were they?

 

[BooGiMaN]

my sister had a similar problem..int he morning when she left for work..couldnt duplicate it at the dealer..so she video taped it and they took it from there...

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: huberm
if the back rotors were all scratched up they should have been turned or replaced....were they?

Nope.

What I'm told can fix it...is my car has GM Performance Parts brakes available for it. Someone on a Cobalt forum reported after enough complaining the dealer finally installed GMPP rotors and pads all around, which solved the problem. I'm calling corporate tomorrow I think, but I doubt they'll be much help. They were not the last time I had issues requiring corporate.

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: huberm
if the back rotors were all scratched up they should have been turned or replaced....were they?

Nope.

What I'm told can fix it...is my car has GM Performance Parts brakes available for it. Someone on a Cobalt forum reported after enough complaining the dealer finally installed GMPP rotors and pads all around, which solved the problem. I'm calling corporate tomorrow I think, but I doubt they'll be much help. They were not the last time I had issues requiring corporate.

Ask for a GM Master Mechanic to be sent in. They are walking guru's with part numbers fused in their memory. Trust me, most of these I met are pretty damn smart. They will instruct the dealer service center to do it right. At the least, they will place a call to the service manager if not show up in person.
These guys are paid to put out potential warranty fires that can escalate by you bringing the car in multiple times. They want what you want.

 

[huberm]

Originally posted by: Scouzer

Originally posted by: huberm
if the back rotors were all scratched up they should have been turned or replaced....were they?

Nope.

What I'm told can fix it...is my car has GM Performance Parts brakes available for it. Someone on a Cobalt forum reported after enough complaining the dealer finally installed GMPP rotors and pads all around, which solved the problem. I'm calling corporate tomorrow I think, but I doubt they'll be much help. They were not the last time I had issues requiring corporate.

well if the rotors are warped that would definitely cause the problem

 

[compuwiz1]

If the pads and rotors are good, there is really not much you can do, other than some silicone, between the backplates of the pad, and where it contacts the caliper. That will take care of one area of potential movement, which can make noise.

 

[iamwiz82]

Personally, I would keep the dealer as far out of my car as possible and just purchase high quality aftermarket brake pads. I am not sure who makes them for Pursuits/G5s yet, but try Hawk or EBC.

 

[pontifex]

my 2004 saturns's brakes squeal sometimes too.
the 1st time i took it to a garage, they replaced either the front or back brakes because they were going bad. solved the problem for about 2 weeks and started again. took it abck and they can't find anything wrong with it.

 

[freakflag]

Make them put Brembos on it.

 

[Scouzer]

I called corporate on Thursday. She said she'd research it and get back to me. She assured me there would be an exception placed on my file allowing for continued coverage of my brakes.

 

[chusteczka]

Originally posted by: Scouzer
I called corporate on Thursday. She said she'd research it and get back to me. She assured me there would be an exception placed on my file allowing for continued coverage of my brakes.

That sounds helpful. Hopefully you have this person's name, time of call, and other identifying information such as ID number or phone extension. This way, if what you expect has not taken place, you can refer to the call when you were told that you would be helped.

 

[Mrfrog840]

see how many times you can go from 100mph-0mph in a day...


wear those suckers down and try to get uneven break wear for warranty swap FTW!

 

[BUTCH1]

Originally posted by: funboy42
Unfortunately Dodge Neons were great for this as well. It is due to a light coating of rust build up on the drums and rotors. Only thing that, may, cure it is to go with after market pads, shoes, drums, and rotors. Other then this anytime you get a light coating of rust, and I assume if the car isn't driven for a few days no matter the weather it makes all kinds of noise as well, it is a design and material flaw in the brake system, and it will squeal at you till the coating is removed and the dust is expelled out of the drums.

Your not not def, but for the dealership there really is not a fix for it as well without redesigning the entire set up and material composite from the ground up, which they will likely due after enough complaints, in future models, unfortunately your pretty much sol, because even as you seen just changing your stuff with stock parts will not "cure" it. You may be better off dealing with it for now till all the parts need to be replaced then replace with after market stuff and then the problem should go away.

Most cars have cast iron rotors and they all develop the light coat of rust if the rotor gets
wet and sits for awhile. Should not be a problem as normal driving will slough off the
rust quickly.

 

[funboy6942]

Originally posted by: BUTCH1

Originally posted by: funboy42
Unfortunately Dodge Neons were great for this as well. It is due to a light coating of rust build up on the drums and rotors. Only thing that, may, cure it is to go with after market pads, shoes, drums, and rotors. Other then this anytime you get a light coating of rust, and I assume if the car isn't driven for a few days no matter the weather it makes all kinds of noise as well, it is a design and material flaw in the brake system, and it will squeal at you till the coating is removed and the dust is expelled out of the drums.

Your not not def, but for the dealership there really is not a fix for it as well without redesigning the entire set up and material composite from the ground up, which they will likely due after enough complaints, in future models, unfortunately your pretty much sol, because even as you seen just changing your stuff with stock parts will not "cure" it. You may be better off dealing with it for now till all the parts need to be replaced then replace with after market stuff and then the problem should go away.

Most cars have cast iron rotors and they all develop the light coat of rust if the rotor gets
wet and sits for awhile. Should not be a problem as normal driving will slough off the
rust quickly.

Right, after using them a few times the noise does go away, but for some cars they are really bad, because like the dodge neon, they squeal and grind the next day no matter what the weather conditions may be outside, and then depending on how the weather conditions are, say it rained the night before, it will be worse then most days.

It is a design flaw and a composition of the metals themselves that make this noise and why some cars make the noise and some dont, and then some manufactures will take care of the problem before it goes into production, and some that will not and let the dealerships deal with pissed off people all the time making their lives hell, because people take it out on the dealerships, and the people working there, as if they hand built their car, and its their fault their car is a POS. They can only do so much, it the parts are crap tto begine with, putting new crap parts on will not take care of it, and because it is a new car they cannot go putting aftermarket parts on it for it will void the warranty, or if it causes a accident, will cause all kinds of hell, so dealership hands are tied till the customer bitches enough at them and finnaly call main office, which should be the first call anyways since they are the one who really built their POS car.

OP if you car is that bad, bring it in to the dealership three times, documented, for the brakes squealing, showing that the problem is still there, and then have the car bought back going through the lemon law.

 

[BUTCH1]

They should have turned the rotors while they were replacing the pads, that's just lazy
not to. Like Funboy42 said, threaten them with a lemon law return if they won't fix it
properly.

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: funboy42

Originally posted by: BUTCH1

Originally posted by: funboy42
Unfortunately Dodge Neons were great for this as well. It is due to a light coating of rust build up on the drums and rotors. Only thing that, may, cure it is to go with after market pads, shoes, drums, and rotors. Other then this anytime you get a light coating of rust, and I assume if the car isn't driven for a few days no matter the weather it makes all kinds of noise as well, it is a design and material flaw in the brake system, and it will squeal at you till the coating is removed and the dust is expelled out of the drums.

Your not not def, but for the dealership there really is not a fix for it as well without redesigning the entire set up and material composite from the ground up, which they will likely due after enough complaints, in future models, unfortunately your pretty much sol, because even as you seen just changing your stuff with stock parts will not "cure" it. You may be better off dealing with it for now till all the parts need to be replaced then replace with after market stuff and then the problem should go away.

Most cars have cast iron rotors and they all develop the light coat of rust if the rotor gets
wet and sits for awhile. Should not be a problem as normal driving will slough off the
rust quickly.

Right, after using them a few times the noise does go away, but for some cars they are really bad, because like the dodge neon, they squeal and grind the next day no matter what the weather conditions may be outside, and then depending on how the weather conditions are, say it rained the night before, it will be worse then most days.

It is a design flaw and a composition of the metals themselves that make this noise and why some cars make the noise and some dont, and then some manufactures will take care of the problem before it goes into production, and some that will not and let the dealerships deal with pissed off people all the time making their lives hell, because people take it out on the dealerships, and the people working there, as if they hand built their car, and its their fault their car is a POS. They can only do so much, it the parts are crap tto begine with, putting new crap parts on will not take care of it, and because it is a new car they cannot go putting aftermarket parts on it for it will void the warranty, or if it causes a accident, will cause all kinds of hell, so dealership hands are tied till the customer bitches enough at them and finnaly call main office, which should be the first call anyways since they are the one who really built their POS car.

OP if you car is that bad, bring it in to the dealership three times, documented, for the brakes squealing, showing that the problem is still there, and then have the car bought back going through the lemon law.

There are no lemon return laws in Canada.

 

[jtvang125]

Time for a brake upgrade. 13" oversized slotted and crossed drilled rotors, 8 pison calipers and high performance brake pads.