The EBC warns of "brake shimmy" occurring at 2000 miles. That is exactly when mine started with the slotted & dimpled rotors. I replaced them with cheapo Chinese rotors, and made sure I bedded the brakes correctly. These rotors now have about 12,000 miles and are fine. I wouldn't waste my money on the EBC's again.

 

Having owned a '07 HHR since it was new I am very familiar with the brake issue. This car is under braked and that is all there is to it.

I've got 78,000 mile on it now and am now up to my 6th set of rotors & pads on it.

I don't care how you break them in, bed 'em or anything else everyone claims to prevent the problem, you can do all that and use stepped torqued on the wheel lugs to boot and I guarantee you will get the shimmy long before most other vehicles.

All you have to do is have one hard brake apply at 70 mph on the expressway and you'll be the unhappy owner of a vehicle with brake rotors that are trash.

I even purchased and installed EBC dimpled and slotted rotors and EBC pads on the 3rd go around. They were great for about 15,000 miles then they were as bad as anything I've had on the car. Again, one hard brake application at 70mph is all it took.

I have now gone to AutoZone's SD rotors and their organic pads. They leave a lot of brake dust on the wheels but who cares if my rotors last longer than 8k.

The guy behind the counter at AutoZone said a customer who is a member of the local HHR club said the organic pads do the trick. Time will tell.

 

Welcome aboard MichiganMarty! I'd say with six sets of brakes in 78,000 miles you may hold the record here, but one question begs to be asked, how often do you adjust the rear brakes?

With that much brake wear on the front, it suggests to me that you may have a serious imbalance going on between the front and rear brakes. The automatic self adjusters on the HHR drum brakes are anything but "automatic self adjusters", you should adjust them every time the rear wheels are off to avoid issues.

 

Torquing your lugs properly is a given and should be done on any car.

The EBC rotor are no better or worse than any other rotor. The dimples and slots have no effect in preventing the pulse.

Also the warning they give in the install directions are for the noise that they can make after install up to 2,000 miles. This typer of rotor can make noise.

Just because you can change pads and bolt on wheels no longer means you are doing it right anymore. There are some small but key things that need to be done anymore if not you will have issues.

As I have stated if it were just material issues we all would have the same problems but not all of us do. We are using the same stock parts as the ones that complain with good results.

Just many also need to learn the dimples and slots will not fix this issue if the parts are not installed and seated properly. They are cosmetic and wil not solve anything. The slots can clean the pad a little but that is not often a issue on road cars.

 

6 sets of rotors in 78k miles - thats absurd...

and i have 56k on original rotors?? sorry dude but there is something wrong with that picture

 

Come to think of it, I DID notice that a good hard brake going downhill at about 70mph did make for some shaking, shimmying, ratteling, & a few choice words for the guy in front of me who decided to cut in front of me & slow down for no apparent reason than he was just a @$$. But anyway, I Now have to deal with these issues. Just out of curiousity, WHAT makes the HHR different with this? When I had my truck, I had a similiar situation where I had to 'brake hard', but that didn't make any difference that I noticed.
B.T.W. I have about 45,600 miles on the '06 I have, It 'looks' to me that these are the factory rotors, but Don't quote me on that, it just LOOKS like that to me. (But I Don't Know A Whole Lot!)

 

Rotors are too small. I had similar problems with a 1998 Dodge Stratus (cab forward, weight forward). Brakes lasted 15,000 miles. Rather than admit to a design flaw, Dodge increased the rotor size for the 2001 model year of the same car. I think the best answer for the HHR is to retrofit the larger re-drilled Viper rotors.

 

Here is what EBC says and it is the same or similar to most brake pad companies and brake system MFG. It can be found here

http://www.ebcbrakes.com/automotive_..._flutter.shtml

What causes brake vibration or steering wheel flutter?

Automotive vehicle brakes are an exact science and after several thousands of mile of driving sometimes a brake vibration occurs which is due to several things and can be remedied as follows.

First of all it is important to detect if the vibration is coming from the front brakes or the rear. Generally front brake vibration can be felt through the steering wheel and rear brake vibration is felt in the seat, the brake pedal and the bodywork of the car generally. brake vibration can become so severe that it detracts from effective stopping power of the vehicle. Cases have been reported where drivers actually reduce their braking pedal effort to try and prevent the steering wheel from shaking due to this brake vibration and obviously this is a major safety issue.

The brake vibration is coming from the brake rotor in 99% of the cases although it may have been caused by other components within the car such as a tyre that is not in balance, a seized or dragging brake caliper or s suspension part. However for economy reasons drivers should always consider that the brake vibration is actually coming from the rotors as this is the most common cause by far.
Click to see more about Premium Rotors
The problem starts out with brake rotor run out and checking for brake rotor run out can be achieved quite simply with the run out gauge shown here . If the run out is more than 0.004 inches or 0.1 mm there is an issue to resolve. However even considering that rotor run out may have started the process to experience brake vibration the run out itself is not so much the problem. What happens is that when a car develops or has rotor run out it develops a condition known as DTV or Disc Thickness Variation which is caused when the rotor nudges against the pad each rotation as the car is being driven and the brakes are not applied.
This gradually wears a small “thin spot” on the rotor and it is this thin spot that causes brake vibration as the brake is applied and the thick-thin rotor tries to pump the caliper pistons back in the brake system. The harder you press the brake pedal the worse the vibration. Alternatively a driver of your car may have nudged a kerb stone or hit a pothole on the road which throw out the alignment of your vehicles steering and promotes brake rotor run out, which leads to the condition DTV mentioned above and there you have your brake vibration.

The easy and quick way for a mechanic to remedy this is to replace the rotors and hand you a nice fat bill and smile. However your problem will return in 3000-4000 miles exactly and you will be buying more rotors at which point the next or same mechanic will tell you that you purchased low quality rotors. Mechanics may even say that your rotors have WARPED which is frankly impossible and indicates an uneducated mechanic.

The REAL way to solve the problem once and for ever is by taking your car to a garage that has an ON CAR BRAKE LATHE as this machine is the ONLY way to correct both DTV and geometry or alignment issues with your vehicle. The problem will then go away until the next time you have to replace your brake rotors, many thousands of miles down the road. That is unless you bash the kerb again.
More on brakes and the technical aspects can be found here.

http://www.ebcbrakes.com/ebc_brakes_...es/index.shtml

Education on how things are today and how they work is key to proper brakes. Things are not like they used to be. The reason people use 6 sets of rotors in 76K miles is they never really address the real cause.

Too many blaime the wrong things and fix the symptom but never fix the cause. As long as this happens you can put on any rotor and brake pad and it will repeat time and time again.

The brake issues are not just a HHR thing but an issue with nearly every car model out there. But note it does not effect all the cars of one model. THere are plenty of HHR's that don't have the issues with the very same stock pads and brakes that others have issues with.

The real issue is that even most mechanics today don't know or service many systems properly. They get you in and out and by the time it happens again it is not their fault in the eyes of the owner it is the cars fault.

Don't just read EBC info but seek out other brake companies and most good companies all have the same message on what causes it, how to fix and deal with this issue.

The MFG have a little more info than just a bunch of rotor changers on the web that keep having the same issues time and time again. I read and learned and no longer have issues with rotors.

I am not hear to argue or hurt anyones feeling as I too had the same issues and thought the same way. I found through reading and learning how things have changed and todays brakes are less forgiving to other outside issues.

I am no smarter than anyone else I just read up on today brakes and solved my issues. I just see the same thing over and over with many and just wish they to would read up and solve their issues. The answers are there and just need to be read and followed. If this was done it would save a lot of grief and money.

Anyone can disagee with this info if they like as it is not my info it is what the Brake MFG try to teach. There is no great conspiricey here as a happy customer is a repeat customer. They are trying to solve everyones issue and provide a product that has no issues. EBC, Bendix, NAPA etc have nothing to gain with poor service from their rotors and pads. THey want you back to buy more. Ripping you off on one set of rotors is not a good long term sales goal.