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New Brakes at 34,000 miles?

2962 Views 5 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  sailurman
Hello, I am new to this forum!

To start off, back in April of 2015 I had my brakes serviced. They put on new rear brake pads (I have four disc brakes). The car had about 30,000 miles on at that point.

Fast forward to April of 2016 (a year later), I notice that when I am braking at slow speeds the brakes squeal. I thought maybe it was just some surface rust on the rotors. The sound has not gone away, but when I put the windows up I could no longer hear it. Then yesterday night, I noticed it was making a really loud noise at slow speeds. It was not nearly as loud in the today.

I looked at the brakes and it almost looks like the rear pad on the driver’s side was dry rotting. I took it into the shop and they are saying it had seized and it is overheating. I also noticed that there is a huge buildup of rust on the edge of all the rotors. Even one of my shinny lug nuts is rusting out. I compared it to my 1994 Mustang which had the brakes replaced in 2010, and the Mustang just has some minor surface rust around the edges.

I have only put about 4000 miles on since the pads were replaced over a year ago. They are telling me that all four rotors and pads need to be replaced. This is going to cost me $1400 (Canadian) to get fixed at the dealer. Oh and I did ask about a warranty with no success.

So does anyone have a Cruze out there with these brake problems? I live in a winter climate (from about December to March), in which there is salt put on the roads. I do not understand why my 94 Mustang that has six-year-old brakes (also four discs) with the same mileage (and has been winter driven), does not exhibit these same problems. Is this an issue with 2013 Cruze LTZ’s? I always thought brakes (mainly rotors) should be good for at least 50,000 miles.

I also just wanted to add I am not one of those people that are always using the brakes, I know how annoying they are to get stuck behind.

Thanks

Updated info
After reading the comments, it sounds to me that I should be getting minimum double the mileage before a brake replacement. It also sounds to me that when they did the service work last year, that they messed something up (pads should defiantly, defiantly last longer than 4000 miles). So ultimately I will have to pay for their mess up. Also I will ask about the caliper pins as mentioned. I think my 94 Mustang actually still has the original calipers from 1994 (I bought the car new), and it has about 110,000 miles on it. So something is defiantly not right.

I am going to call them at 7:00am (Eastern Time), if any of you have any suggestions I should add to my question list please feel free to post.
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My cruze still had the original brakes all around after 4 years and 94,000 miles. Front pads were well over half thickness yet. I drive about 80% highway so that helps, I also try to never use my brakes going above 35-45mph. This improves my MPG since I learn to coast out some of my speed before every stop.
I'm at 92,000 miles on my 2012 Cruze. Still on the original brakes. Granted I have drums in the back. I suspect whomever did the initial brake job screwed up and didn't adjust them properly.
I was only able to get about 60K out of my fronts. Rear are drum so those are still some good. Sounds like the brake job was botched.
If calipers are seized can likely be fixed with new caliper pins at a cheaper cost than replacing the whole deal.
4 wheel disc on my 2015 Cruze CTD with 120K Miles and still on original brakes. Took it in about a year ago to get them checked at a Brake Masters and the tech told me I still had over half and that I should come back when something starts squealing. Okay.
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