Against all better judgment, I'm going to respond in a good faith attempt to close this out. No, it wasn't (cue the turban!) the "obvious" hubs. No, it wasn't the CVs. No, the results on the lift weren't magically (cue the turban!) completely uncorrelated to the results on the road. No, my front end vibration wasn't a result of the rear hubs (shocking ...).

The factory ACDelco (Ferodo, really) pads were the problem. They "spotted up" (warped, pad deposits, call it whatever your turban wants to call it) 3 sets of rotors in less than 1K miles each time.

Now - 10K miles on Akebono Ceramic pads and everything is happy as a turban-adorned clam.

Hopefully this helps the next guy ....

 

Glad you found it! And thanks for letting the rest of us know.

 

Glad you figured it out.

You mean to say after 125,000 miles nobody ever looked at the pads?

 

Apparently! Great the issue is resolved, case closed!!!

 

Still OK several K miles later with the Akebono ceramics. I know this sounds unorthodox, but I did a track day in my HHR SS with the factory Ferodos (mileage unknown, but according to the PO they were newish at 100K or so, or 7K miles before I did the track day). I'm a former/current SCCA driver and I enjoy making people laugh, cry, and point me by in their 911 Turbos when I pass them in my Cobalt Turbo Breadvan. I also enjoy bringing a canopy, a grill, 7 lawn chairs, 3 cases of drinks, 7 clowns, to the track.

The Ferodos held up well (the dust boots became "crisped", for sure), but it seems that track duty converted them into "Rapid Rotor Depositors".

I'm thinking hard about the Brembos. My HHR is apparently rare in having the Quaife but no Brembos?

I need to start a new thread on the fan control module ....

 

Brembo's ... Try these beauty's , just a hundred bucks more!!



Ecotec Parts 14.5 inch Front Brake Kit