For the first time, while driving the Cherhola Skyway (Other end of the Dragons Tail in Tn and NC), my brake disks warped. In fact, the warping was so bad that it caused dangerous steering shake. And this at or below legal speeds.
However, as soon as the disks cooled, the shaking was gone.

This means the dealer will not find anything wrong if I take it in. Even if the warping was still there the only remedy Chev offers is more of the same. I think it is time we report our experiences to the Nat Highway Safety folk to see if we can generate a recall with a real fix.

Has anyone filed a complaint about their brake disk warping yet?

The url is http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/

 

Well then you better report every vehicle made IMO. Every cars rotors can warp and IMO it has nothing to do with the manufacter. It is just a fact of life. Rotors warp, period. You want to fix it buy heavier duty rotors. What exactly do you expect to have done after all? It is a simple problem and one that has exixted for a long time and has only gotten worse since they took asbestos out of the shoes.

 

Absolutely wrong read. Disk brake rotors in normal service should not warp. They are not designed to warp as you seem to infer. Warping should only occur under conditions which are not normal or usual or when some maintenance item has been preformed poorly, such as uneven torquing of the lug nuts.

I have owned many autos with disk brakes and this issue has not occured even when the disks had as much as 200,000 miles on them.

What I want is a part that will preform as intended in normal service for a normal lifespan, not one that fails in the first 15000 miles. Sounds like the only car you have ever owned is a used Yugo.

 

Mine worked good for 63,000 miles.

 

Sounds like toms HHR is special, must be all the deer you have hit.

 

I have an 06 HHR, at 6000 miles the dealer resurfaced them. Then again at 13,000 & 18.000. I got fed up with taking my car back for the same problem time after time. So I picked up a pair of drilled & sloted rotor's, and green pads. I now have close to 60,000 miles on my baby and still no warpage ??
I feel not only is it the new style pads but also the poor steel used in the rotors. I have a '96 GMC Jimmy with nearly 157,000 miles on it and have yet to surface / replace the rotors. Even after putting on 4 sets of pads. On any given weekend I pull a small trailer with a riding lawn mower on it.

 

Just ordered my drilled rotors today......

My rotors warped so bad driving the dragon that I almost had the car towed.... 1/2 hour cool down and the rotors were good enough to drive with. Now here's the thing, whenever the air temps rises to over 85 degrees the rotors start to warp again even if I am just barely using the brakes.

I don't believe that this is anything other than a design flaw, with the rotors. I have put lots of hard miles on cars and trucks and never had a rotor warp on me. In fact the only other warped rotors I ever had to deal with were on a Chevy Suburban that my ex-wife used to ride the brakes on all the time. It was normal to see her accelerate away with the brake lights lit. In my opinion it should take that kind of abuse to warp a rotor not just 15-20 minutes of spirited driving.

My HHR will never see Chevy rotors again. Brakes are just too important to skimp on.

 

I have 34000 miles on mine, and I have turned the rotors twice. I still have a vibration. Not only do I get it from the front but mine is also vibrating from the rear. This sucks! never had so much problem with brake vibration

 

Lets not get personal shall we? I have owned and driven many cars. I have put 100's of thousands of kilimeters on them and I have had rotors warp on other vehicles. It is a simple fact of life. I'd love to see a set of rotors that lasted 200000 miles. Must never had to use the brakes. Rotors warp and the more economical the car the more often it happns. It is just the way things are IMO. If you want those super beefed up rotors, fine get them, but do you really expect a car company to put the Best of everything on a very cheap ride? I don't and I expect to get what I paid for. I paid for a sub $15000 car and so expect those issues. Makes sense to me. They seem to perform fine for me and I drive over 100 miles a day back and forth to work in bumper to bumper and stop and go traffic.

 

I think I'd be looking at another source for your problem...once a rotor warps, it does not return back to normal, it stays warped. Sounds more like a pad/ caliper problem.
I doubt chevy makes their own rotors, I bet these are those wonderful china save a buck rotors. Ive seen this issue with Wagner rotors, their "economy" ones. As not alll the HHR's have this problem I'd say a bad batch got thru.But of course getting them to admit it is inconcievable. Since this is a known issue and you know the dealers will just take the least expensive route, spring the %100 for a new set from a reperable parts store and be done with it. My time is more important then having to lose the var for how many days each time it has to go back.