Freeway speed braking compromised due to extreme vibration caused by warped front rotors. Dealer has tried to repair problem by machining - always reappears after 5000 miles. Now they refuse to fix as it is a 'wear item'. This is a design or material quality issue that has been present since new. Brakes that can't be used to their full effectiveness are a safety item.
1998 Chevrolet Camaro brakes complaints
Page 2 of 4: complaints 11 to 40 of 92, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Front rotors warp so bad steering wheel shakes so violently you can lose control, gm says normal wear and tear, 1/2 front breakpads still left.
Brake rotors are prematurely wearing, cause unknown. Please give any further details.
Rotors are warped, and when driving at highway speed vehicle shimmies. When appling brakes front shakes very hard. Dealer has attempted to repair this problem once, but it has occurred again.
Rotors for disc brakes are warped or get warped when car is new w/lt1000 miles
The front brake rotors have warpped six (6) times on this car causing steering wheel shaking and posssible loss of control. Including the original rotors, there has been four (4) new sets of rotors on this car and those rotors have been resurfaced three ( 3) times. I have been to two different chevrolet dealers to have this work done and have contacted general motors direct and they can not figure out why the brakes are defective. I have heard of many camaro and firebird owners with this same rotor warpping problem. I first filed a complant with the federal safety agency on 5/29/99 and the rotors have been replaced two more times since that submittal.
Rotors turned at 9100 miles. Warped again at 27,000. Dealer failed to make good.
When car is being driven in wet conditions and the brakes are applied, the car shakes violently, to the point of loosing control of the car. The dealer says it is the anti-lock brakes and this is normal.
Front brake rotors have warped. Dealer will not replaced rotors under warranty. Chevy considers it acceptable for rotors to warp at 30,000 miles. *ak
Vehicle has 39,000 miles on it and it needs another brake job for the 3rd time. Headlights flicker , appears to go completely off at no set time has been in repair 10 times for this
Noticed pulsation and squeaking brakes. Brought vehicle in and dealer said that rotors needed to be turned. Not under warantee since 20,000 miles, but also replaced all pads due to service bulletin on pads. Rotors appear defective design and band aid repair of softer pads to mask problem. Could end up being major problem if not corrected properly. How can we all get chevy to own up and replace a faulty brake system design? By the listing in your complaint database, it is obvious that this is a very wide spread problem.
Taken vehicle to dealership to have brakes checked. Mechanic noticed rotors were warped & turned them. This has happened 3 times before because steering wheel vibrated. The fourth time rotors were replaced due to being too thin. Now rotors are warped again.
While at a stop light with foot on brake pedal vehicle continues to move forward, also, when applying brakes pedal goes to the floor, causing extended stopping distance. Please give any further details.
Brake rotors warped as a result of factory flaw, separated 3 times before 20,000 miles, but pa chevrolet refused to replace and only turned rotors on 2 separate occasions, causing a brake failure leading to accident.( dot number: tire size: p23555r16 )
Excessive wear of front rotors due to warping. Two sets of rotors had to be replaced within 3,000 miles of wear. Dealer notified.
I first noticed that I was having a problem with my brakes when I would apply the brakes to either slow down or to stop. The steering wheel would have a slight shimmy to it. I took it and had a mechanic that I know and trust take a look at it and he had to "machine" the right front rotor. I didn't write down the mileage at the time because I didn't think it was that improtant. I took it to the dealership on 3/3/99 and asked them to take a look at the brakes because I could hear a scraping noise coming from the right front brake when I would apply the brakes. The shop looked at the brakes and said that they were fine. I took the shop foreman for a ride with me so that he was clear on what I was hearing and he told me that they were suppose to sound like that. I have not been back to that dealership since. I have a terrible shimmy in the steering when I apply the brakes and the noise is terrible. I have had the rotors replaced and it has already wore out this rotor. I don't know where else to turn to to get some kind of help on this. I have the original rotors that came off of the car. I also have all of my repair receipts.
Emergency brake failed to work properly when engaged. Vehicle would be moving. Also, fuse was replaced twice/ air came through the hatchback & doors/ muffler kept making clunking noise/bumper has been replaced 3 times, and tires would lose traction when the brakes were applied.
When applying the brakes steering wheel receives an excessive amount of vibration. Dealer has not seen vehicle.
Brake pads failed. Yh
Have had chronic problems with this car. Most recent being the failure of the ABS braking system. The dealership says that the ABS computer module and or sensors have failed. It seems that this is a constant problem with camaros. I feel as though this needs to be a covered repair. The car is practically new and they want $800.00 to fix it.
When applying the brakes car goes from side to side.dealer has repaired the vehicle five times, yet the same defect still occurs.
Camaro was brand new off the lot 6-99. At 28000 miles I began to notice while traveling at speeds of 55-70 MPH. And applied the brakes the front end of the camaro began to shake. The car now has more than 33000 miles and the shake is much worse. I went to tom bannen chevrolet to talk with the service mgr. And the new car sales manager. They both told me the front rotors were worn out and needed to be replaced with the total cost being my responsability. I have been driving for more than thirty five years and never had to replace rotors. I'am a retired truck driver. Should I ever find myself on icy slick roads and have to apply the brakes at the speeds mentioned, I will certainly go into a spin. I feel the the manufacture should be responsible for replacing the pre wearing rotors escpecially considering the intial price charged to me for the new camaro. I have spoke with other new car owners and many are expeiancing similar problems. Brakes are nothing to be experimenting cheaper and thinner parts just to save that mighty dollar. We are talking about quality, saftey, fair consumer trust that all parts are of the best quality when it comes to the braking system. Thank you for your patience in reading this complaint.
There has been a slight shimmy in the front end when applying the brakes at highway speeds since the car was new. The shimmy progressivly got worse and worse. I brought the car to the dealer to have it looked at. He says the rotors are warped and need to be resurfaced. He said that it is not a warrantee repair and I will have to pay for it. I argued that the car has always had the shimmy but I didn't supect a problem, this being my first car with ABS brakes. The car only has 18,577 miles, the brake rotors should not be warped. My arguing with the dealer has not gotten anywhere, since the car is no longer safe to be driven in its current condition, I agreed to pay for the repair. Now, after doing some looking around on the internet I have found out that many camaro owners have the same exact problem. Though some dealers have been repairing the rotors under warantee, but most don't. And I've also found out that resurfacing the rotors(which I am paying for!), and even replacing the rotors with oem parts does not solve the problem. There is a design flaw and the problem will continue to recur if gm replacement parts are used. In this day, a $20k-$30k new car should not have defective rotors that the owners are forced to continually get repaired. A cars braking system is its number one safety component, how can the consumer be subjected to this?
While driving at 20 MPH applied the brakes, and the brakes went straight to the floorboard, causing the consumer to rear end another vehicle. Vehicle kept going, causing the consumer to pump the brakes to bring the vehicle to a stop.
Brake rotors warp easily, previous owner had them repaired once. I am still in process of transferring warantee, where and when I will take vehicle in for repairs.
Car has been in repair 5 times for the brakes. 2 times for a caliper bolt that fell out, and the wheel locked. Both times I could have been killed in an accident if my wheel would have locked up on the interstate. They never do anything at the dealership but turn/clean roters which become faulty again. I'm looking into sueing chevrolet if they don't fix this defect. It is way too dangerous for something of this nature to keep occuring over and over again. Next time I might not be so lucky.
Brake rotors warped at 10,000 miles, dealer claimed only warrantied for 7500. Car in for brake problems 3 times, and they refused to replace the rotors. Contacted chevrolet, and they instructed dealer to replace rotors at no charge. Dealer was very difficult to deal with, did not want to replace until I took the issue to a higher level. Dealer claimed no knowledge of rotor problems with this car. I referred him to this website, and gave him a print out of the complaints on the 98 camaro. There is a lot of data available on the internet with regards to this problem.
I have talked to quite a few people describing the same problem with there clutches not working properly in the cold, also many people have problems with there rotors warping.( dot number: tire size: p275/40/17 )
When applying the brakes the vehicle did a 180 degree spin and hit a pole due to the ABS kicking in. Dealer has not seen vehicle.
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