Hey I went 55k with my rotors!!! Too bad I have to change the rotors with the disc brakes at 55k?!
One for the books with me in my entire car owning career

 

I have 52K miles on my 06 HHR with no brake issues. I do believe warping occurs under hard braking conditions and running the Dragon requires some hard braking many times if you try to run it quickly. No standard car has race quality brakes. I have hard warpage issues on other cars and just decided to replace the rotors with a better quality rotor and brakes. My last car had the rotors resurfaces around 35 K and to warpage came right back. The rotors and pads were replaced at 45K. Those lasted to over 100K miles on that car.

 

I have 50,000 miles on my 2008, I have no problems with my rotors

 

You know what? It doesn't really matter what the actual cause of the problem is. Its a problem. Simple as that. GM hasn't stepped up to the plate with a permanent fix on their dime (not that they have a dime anymore )

Still, I think most of us knew the solution all along. Replace the pads and rotors. Its not rocket science. Owners of standard cars should never have to go through the procedures out lined in Hyper's post. That's simply ludicrous. I don't own a race car, and don't intended on racing the cars that I own. I've never had to "baby" my brakes in that manner before, why do I need to start now?

"No standard car has race quality brakes". Of course not, but neither should we be having brake issues at 6 and 10 thousands miles. No other car I've owned in 30 years has had brake problems on this level.

 

I on the other hand can write a list of cars I have owned that have had brake problems from day one. Lets see, Dodge Omni, Potiac Sunbird, Cevy Cavalier, and others I have owned. Hell you could not keep a set of brakes on that damned sunfire for longer then 20k no matter what was done.

 

so what is the proper procedure to bed the brakes......

 

What ever the pads you bought tell you to do. I use different pads on different vehicles and they all have different methods recommended. There is no such thing as one correct bedding procedure.

 

My wife's 06 HHR discs warped, so I had them turned and put new pads on. A week later, warped. She drives around 35 to 40 MPH on surface streets for work.

I bit the bullet and bought new rotors and ceramic pads from NAPA and after 10K miles, no issues at all.

GM says they get it, but they don't.

 

This is correct and to help breake companies like EBC and Bendix nowe offer pads with material that will bed in the brakes under normal driving in the first 300-500 miles. They clean the rotors up and bed in the brakes to them and prevent any more issue with the new brakes.

The biggest problem I see with most people with new cars is they go out and do some hard diving on new pads and never get them bedded in. This lead to the issues later on.

Note GM uses the same pad and rotor on the same vehicle for the same year but some people have the issue and some do not. It is like complaining about a bad lobe on a cam when the entire cam is made of the same material.

Here is a general way of doing it but it can vary per vehicle and mad material.

How to Bed-in Your BrakesBy StopTech

Bedding allows your brakes to reach their full potential. Until they are bedded, your brakes simply do not work as well as they can. If you've installed a big brake kit, changed your pads and rotors, or even if you've purchased a brand new car, you should set aside some time to bed the brakes in by following the instructions below. Proper bedding will improve pedal feel, reduce or eliminate brake squeal, and extend the life of your pads and rotors. For more on the theory of bedding, please refer to this excellent article by StopTech: Removing the Mystery from Brake Pad Bed-In.

Caution: After installing new pads/rotors or a big brake kit, the first few applications of the brake pedal will result in almost no braking power. Gently apply the brakes a few times at low speed in order to build up some grip before blasting down the road at high speed. Otherwise, you may be in for a nasty surprise the first time you hit the brakes at 60 mph.

If you have just installed rotors with zinc or cadmium plating, or if the rotors have an anti-corrosion phosphate coating, you should postpone the bedding process until normal driving has allowed your brake pads to polish the rotors clean and removed all traces of the plating or coating.

Read and understand these instructions completely before starting. If you have any questions, give us a call or email. Do not substitute higher speeds for the 60mph called for in these instructions. The heat in your brakes goes up exponentially as you increase the speed from which you brake. If you make repeated stops from 80 or 90mph with street pads, you will overheat the brakes and may end up having to replace pads and/or rotors.

When following these instructions, avoid other vehicles. Bedding is often best done early in the morning, when traffic is light, since other drivers will have no idea what you are up to and will respond in a variety of ways ranging from fear to curiosity to aggression. A police officer will probably not understand when you try to explain why you were driving erratically! Zeckhausen Racing does not endorse speeding on public roads and takes no responsibility for any injuries or tickets you may receive while following these instructions.

From a speed of 60mph, gently apply the brakes a couple of times to bring them up to operating temperature. This prevents you from thermally shocking the rotors and pads in the next steps.

Make a series of eight near-stops from 60 to about 10 mph. Do it HARD by pressing the brakes firmly, but do not lock the wheels or engage ABS. At the end of each slowdown, immediately accelerate back to 60mph and then apply the brakes again. DO NOT COME TO A COMPLETE STOP! If you stop completely and sit there with your foot on the brake pedal, you will imprint pad material onto the hot rotors, which could lead to vibration, uneven braking, and even ruin the rotors.

The brakes may begin to fade after the 7th or 8th near-stop. This fade will stabilize, but not completely go away until the brakes have fully cooled. A strong smell from the brakes, and even smoke, is normal.

After the 8th near-stop, accelerate back up to speed and cruise for a while, using the brakes as little as possible. The brakes need about 5 minutes to cool down. Try not to become trapped in traffic or come to a complete stop while the brakes are still very hot.

If race pads, such as Hawk DTC-70 or Performance Friction 01 are being used, add four near-stops from 80 to 10mph.

After the break-in cycle, there should be a slight blue tint and a light gray film on the rotor face. The blue tint tells you the rotor has reached break-in temperature and the gray film is pad material starting to transfer onto the rotor face. This is what you are looking for. The best braking occurs when there is an even layer of of pad material deposited across the face of the rotors. This minimizes squealing, increases braking torque, and maximizes pad and rotor life.

After the first break in cycle shown above, the brakes may still not be fully broken in. A second bed-in cycle, AFTER the brakes have cooled down fully from the first cycle, may be necessary before the brakes really start to perform well. This is especially true if you have installed new pads on old rotors. If you've just installed a big brake kit, the pedal travel may not feel as firm as you expected. After the second cycle, the pedal will become noticeably firmer. If necessary, bleed the brakes to improve pedal firmness.


Note step two as here is where most encounter their brake issue. If you like google brake bedding in or visit the web sites of most quality pad or beake company and they will list the importance of this and how they recomend to do this with their product.

I hope the HHR web site will follow up on this and will be one of the few informed enough to understand the truth on this as many web sites in error place all the false blame on warped cheap rotors.

Sorry again for the long post but I feel this is very important. I used to feel the same way too till I learned what was really going on and I hope to help spread the truth on this and prevent people spending a lot of time getting mad or spending a lot of money only to have it happen again.

Brake instructions are very good today and it is a shame only the installer gets to read or see them. Also the Brake MFG web sites often dispell may web myths that are still going strong. Take the time to read one or both.

 

Chevy does make it's own rotors and for all the other GM vehicles. I worked in the plant (Saginaw, Michigan) during college making them. Delphi is now the new name, but they build them for GM none the less.
My '07 has 34000 and dealer just turned my rotors due to warping.