Brake Disc Caliper Problems of Chevrolet Cobalt - part 1

I was driving the other day and noticed that one of my back brakes was sticking and so I took a look at it and fluid level was fine and there was no air in the brake line. I feel the cause of this is bad calipers and some others I have talked had the same issue.

See all problems of the 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt 🔎.

Fuel line rusts through causing fuel to leak out next to exhaust pipe. Happens to evap line as well. Poor design in the heat shielding traps moisture which rusts through the line. Fuel leaks out when the car is running, parked, moving or not. Rear brake caliper sticks out from using the parking brake and pad sticks to rotor causing excessive wear.

Rear brake caliper piston dragging causing excessive inner pad wear. Rear brakes freeze up. Damaged rear rotors. Inadequate brake pedal operation.

1. Brakes wear uneven in the front. Rotors,pads,and calipers were replaced. Difficulty with bleeding brakes. 1 year later with 11,000 more miles on car the pad was worn and grinding rotor. Replaced both front rotors,caliper again. 2 techs had an extremely hard time bleeding the brakes for the peddle to rise. Car stopped but peddle went to floor. They worked on bleeding the brakes for 2 hours. They repeated the procedure 6 times. Bleed every wheel and pumped brakes over and over again. Could not get peddle up. This happened with the other brake job as well. Could not let my daughter drive the car. Took car home and the next day was on the way to another dealer when the brake peddle came up. 2. Daughter was in an accident before second brake job and hit a pick up truck in rear as stopping no one was injured and air bag did not deploy. 3. Have friend with 2005 Cobalt where her brakes completely locked up. Had to get vehicle towed and brakes replaced.

See all problems of the 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt 🔎.

While driving to work, steering wheel had been shaking (55mph). Getting off the belt line, traffic came to a sudden stop. I braked, but the car continued to shake and didn't brake. Had to pull to the side to avoid hitting the car in front of me. Car would not accelerate when traffic started up, and I had to turn the ignition off and restart. Car shook badly for a few seconds, then seemed fine. A few days later, driving into my parking lot (10mph) the car's brakes locked up for no reason and I barely got it into a parking space. Took it in to the dealership the car was purchased at and was told the rotors, brakes, and calipers would need to be replaced. Had another mechanic look at it and had the brakes and rotors replaced. Car drove fine. Six weeks later, driving on the highway (60 mph), slowed down to turn onto another road, and brakes were out. Had another mechanic look at the car, brakes and rotors are worn down again, as well as calipers and brake line. Road conditions were clear at the time of each incident.

Caliper leaking.

See all problems of the 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt 🔎.

Shortly after buying this car, the parking brake stopped working completely. The rear calipers have locked up and do not do anything when the handle is pulled up. This is a terrible design which causes, at best an inconvenient, and at worst, possibly dangerous situation as, for a car equipped with a manual transmission, there is no park to put the car in so I have to block the wheels when parking until I can get this problem fixed. The gm dealer said this is a common problem but there is no permanent fix. How can so many people have this problem but nothing is being done about it? what if I had parked on a hill and my car rolled down into another vehicle or a pedestrian?.

The rear brake caliper seized and caused me to lose all rear brakes. The rear brake pads will wear down to bare metal on the inside so no wear bar notifies the driver you have an issue till you no longer have rear brakes. This could cause an accident!.

The vehicle has a recurring problem with the parking brake. The rear brake calipers lock up causing the parking brake to malfunction. The vehicle rolls away if not left in gear. The vehicle has experienced this problem three times over the past 15,000 miles.

I had to get my rear brakes completely changed out at around 45000 miles as well as my e-brake assembly. Apparently Cobalt rear brakes are known to wear extremely quickly, please recall everything that was replaced: rotors calipers pads e-brake assembly brake lines.

I have a 2009 chevy Cobalt ss and my rear brakes have failed- at 15000 I brought the car to the dealership and they said its still within factory spec- at 26000 my rear brakes are completely shot and worn down to the metal and I had to replace my calipers as they were sticking- currently in the shop to get fixed, will see if this happens again.

The rear brakes failed on my vehicle. After taking it to a mechanic for inspection the rear brake calipers did not have lubrication on the sliding pins which resulted in the rotors failing and the brake pads being destroyed. My rear breaks no longer work. After researching online this is a defect on all 2008-2009 chevy Cobalt ss models.

Full rear break replacement at 17k. Warranty only covered caliper replacement.

I purchased my 2009 chevy Cobalt ss/tc in early June of 2010. It was a gm certified used car. When I inspected the car before purchasing I noticed that the brakes were heavily worn and I let the salesmen know about it. He told me that there was almost 70% left on the pads and everything checked out fine . So I did the dumbest thing I could do and took his word for it. After about 5 months and 4000 miles later my rear brakes start making a scraping noise while in reverse and while light braking around corners mostly out of the passenger side. . I took it in for maintenance expecting some kind of manufacturer defect but instead I'm accused of bad driving and letting my e-brake drag. The issue was that the rear calipers were sticking and not retracting properly and the pistons inside were bent causing uneven pad wear. Both sides moisture boots on the pistons looked like they were pinched and broken during the factory installation. So now here I am with a bill for almost $1000 dollars for rear pads, rotors and calipers and on a car that is just over 2 years old with almost 2 years on a factory bumper to bumper warranty. I'm sorry but the calipers to me are a mechanical defected part and should be covered under warranty.

Left front brake grabs and won't let go, causes pull to left. . Replaced brake hose, and caliper, still does it, believe it will kill my family yet. . It does it for few miles, quits, then repeats at any given time. .

See all problems of the 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt 🔎.

2009 Chevrolet Cobalt ss, rear brake disc heavy scored , grooved,cupped especially inside of discs. 13,000 miles on car and dealer said tough luck not covered under warranty and they haven't heard about it before. That's a flat out lie, I also have an official complaint logged with gm, they called me back with a reference number and said they would look into it but have not heard back in over a week now. There is a major safety issue going on here and they do know about it. Either the metal of disc is incorrect or pads are not compatible or defective calipers- hydraulic system.

Bought my 09 Cobalt ss tc sedan with 3500 miles on it. Rear rotors already had grooves at that mileage. My car is at 8700 miles now with both rear brake calipers having to be replaced along with deeper grooves in rear rotors and squeaking from the rear brakes. The failing rear brakes caused my emergency brake to fail. The emergency brake failed while on a hill and I walk outside to find my car under my girlfriends truck! (e-brake engaged and in reverse) this was fixed with the calipers being replaced, I still need to have my rotors worked as they are already to this point. I was fortunate to be parked on a not so steep of a hill, couldn't imagine someone in the same situation living in a hilly region. (lawsuit waiting to happen).

Rear brake pads worn out after 20k mile and rotor are groved and you can hear the brake pads rubbing metal on metal. Also the rear calipers aren't releasing the rear rotors correctly due to caliper slide pins not being lubricated from the factory. Front brake pads and rotor are wearing normally. I dropped my car off at my local Chevrolet dealership for the brakes to be fixed under warranty. I was told if it was a caliper issue then it would be covered underwarranty.

The problem I am experiencing with my 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt ss is the rear brake pads wearing out quickly under normal driving conditions. Because the brake bias is set to the front brakes, they should wear out long before the rear brakes. I believe the problem lies in the hardware of the braking package. Either the caliper is causing the pad to constantly rub the rotor or some other issue is present. I first noticed that the rotors were scored at about 3,000 miles, was told it was normal. At 20,000 miles the rear pads were down to the metal on the inside pad. Also, its not just a problem with the rear pads, every rotor on the car is scored beyond normal wear. This is a known problem with a lot of the 2008+ ss Cobalts, not with the way they are being driven. General motors is aware of the problem, as many people have complained. When I took my car to the dealer, they too said that it was uneven wear that should not have happened. But, instead of looking into the cause of the problem, they simply replaced the rear pads. This was a temporary "patch" not a fix. In 5,000 miles, they'll start to wear again unevenly. I think general motors needs to evaluate the rotors and pads on these cars. Under no circumstances, is there an excuse for the brakes and rotors to be worn out on these cars at 20,000 miles under daily driving conditions. If the problem only effected a couple of cars, it could be blamed on the driving patterns of the operator. However, this is a common problem for all the owners as passed along through enthusiast car forums.

Rear brake calipers not applying even force on both inner and outer pads, causing premature wear and tear on the pads and rotors, and additional stress on the braking system.

At 8,000 miles the rear brake rotors were deeply groved. The front rotors looked fine, no groves. At 18,000 we had to swap out the pads as the friction surface was completely gone. We discussed the problem with the dealer on both occasions, but they said there was nothing they could do as there was no recall. I also tried to question if the problem was with the rotors or pads or calipers, but they said they could not answer these questions. I'm just looking for some answers and service support.

Purchased car brand new, have approx 10k miles on it. Rear brake calipers seem to not release fully- can be heard grinding when reversing and screeching when gently braking while moving forward. Rear brake pads are wearing unevenly so that the outside pad is scoring the rotor and wearing much faster than the inside. Possible that the slider pins on the caliper are not lubricated? I've had my local chevy dealership where I purchased the vehicle look at it, they wrote it off as brakes being a "wear&tear" item. Rear brakes only account for 20% or less of the full braking of the vehicle. Why is it that my front brakes are fine and my rears almost need to be replaced already?.

I bought a new 2009 Cobalt ss turbo on April 15th 2009, about 8 months later my rear brakes had grooves in the rotors and my left rear caliper was sticking. This caused very poor braking performance. I took the car into the dealer and they had to replace the left rear caliper, new rear pads and they machined the rotors. I have have since had to take the vehicle back into my dealer due to a ring of rust building up on the left rear rotor. I have reason to believe that the rear brakes on these cars have defective parts from the factory. There are a large number of other 2008-2010 Cobalt ss owners having these issues.

Uneven brake pad wear in rear at 20 000 kms. The inner brake pad is almost completely worn compared to the outside bad. The caliper is almost touching the rotor.

See all problems of the 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt 🔎.

The brake caliper was rattling because it was broke I had a auto repair man replace part then all of a sudden it brakes again that was for the front and back it also has elected electrical problems the windows work when they want and the car mostly always stalls it has even stalled on me in the middle of traffic on hwy what it does is act real sluggish and the more you press on the gas the more it bogs out and pulls back instead of taking off as supposed to the turn signals in the front always blow everytime replaced there is also interior electrical problems such as the interior lighting works when it wants to and the doors lock and unlock themselves with will unset the anti theft system and allow for prowlers to take the car.

See all problems of the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt 🔎.

This is my second complaint on the same problem, see #10278491. Excessive scoring of rear brake rotors. The dealer turned the rotors at 4600 miles, at my cost. Subsequently, Chevrolet action center sent me a letter for $100 credit on service. Now at 7500 miles, they look pretty bad again. The dealer agreed this time to warranty pads & rotors, one time only. This is a manufacturing defect causing a safety problem. There have been a number of reports that the caliper pins were not lubricated at the factory, causing binding of the pads on the rotors. Others believe there is a pad/rotor incompatibility issue.

The rear brakes are toast on my new car. I have around 10,000 miles and will soon have to pay for new rotors and pads. Hopefully I can afford to do this before my calipers go out too. 2008 Cobalt ss - premature ware - never driving hard - daily driver -.

I just bought my car in April of 2009. I own a 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt ss and I am seeing a fairly quick brake wear rating on the back brakes. Upon closer examination, I notice the brakes have some pretty deep groves which I have never seen before on brakes discs on a car. I researched these grooves online and apparently its called "scorching". Its what's responsible for wearing the brakes as quickly as they are. It seems too be caused by fragments of metal not filed down on the rear calipers etching out the rear rotors. Its also been brought to my attention that the calipers compress the rear rotors harder on the inside of the rotor than the outside. This might be another reason to the scorching.

While driving down the highway, doing approximately 60 mph, my 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt ss shed it's inner left rear brake pad, causing the brake pedal to sink to the floor, when pressed, to no avail. Luckily, no accident resulted. Upon inspection, the left inner pad was completely gone, while the left outer, and both right rear pads were well within normal limits. The gm dealership refused to fix this problem, stating that it was "normal wear and tear". A mechanic at the dealer whispered to me that it was a failure that was likely caused by the caliper not retracting properly, and, while it should be covered under warranty, there was nothing he could do. This failure occurred at about 12,000 miles, while the vehicle was only 4 months old. The rear brake pads, as well as, the left rear rotor had to be replaced.

2009 chevy Cobalt super sport rear brakes wearing down too quickly. Only lasted 10,000 miles to which I was told had to be replaced at the cost of 470 dollars. Remaining front brakes had more than 60 percent of life. Rear brakes were completely gone. Rear brake caliper failure is reason, but Chevrolet refuses to admit fault.

I have a 2009 Cobalt ss, and am having a problem with the rear brakes grinding, and making noise. I have had them checked at 6,000 miles and the rotors and pads were already real bad. Now at 11,000 miles had it checked out again and the inside pad is completely metal to metal and the out side pad is still like new. I think there are stuck calipers and making only the one pad do all the work. It is starting to have decreased braking ability and gm still wont warranty it.

The rear brake calipers fail to release properly, causing the inside brake pad to wear more than twice as fast as the outside pad. Therefore forcing the rear pads to be replaced twice as often as the front brake pads.

Rear brakes have extreme gouging after only 7,000 miles and are starting to squeal and you can tell they are sticking to the rotors and not fully releasing which can turn into a big liability issue. Gm needs to replace the rear rotors with a quality product that can withstand the rear pads used. . . . Or really needs to change to brembo rotor/caliper like the front.

Under normal daily driving conditions (majority is commuting), my rear rotors and brakr pads were replaced at 21,259km, quote from service order from my dealership, "rear brakes at squealers, confirmed squeal noise from rear. Found rear brake pads at squealers. Both rotors badlyscored. Machined rotors lr19. 0mm and rr19. 10mm replaced rear brake pads". Then at 42,465km brought vehicle to dealership as I could smell burning brakes from the rear end after only 20 min of daily average driving . Following is a quote from my dealership work order, "cause: seized/binds/sticks. Found rear brakes @ 2mm remaining on rear inboard pad. Checked complete hydraulic sys. Checked for abs codes. Checked for bulletins on rear brakes. Checked e brake no problems found. Removed rear calipers and found calipers sticky. Need to be replaced both rear calipers sticky. Need to replace both rear calipers, rotors and pads. Inner pads 2mm outboard 6mm and rotors undr min. Replaced both rear calipers, rotors and brake pads. Bled brake system". Then my dealership followed with "this will be the last time gm will replace rear brakes". As far as I am concerned if the rear brakes are inadequate fro the application and are being worn out and damaging brake parts every 20,000km or so then a recall needs to be done with replacements of an adequate breaking components.

Scoring of inner rear rotor. Noticed after 1100mi. Due to some part of caliper rubbing on rotor.