1998 Chevrolet Camaro: rotors or pads wearing out early

Filed Feb 5, 2004 · Brakes, Electrical · FL

1998 z28: have experienced fuel pump failure (replaced by dealer circa june 99) also, experiencing an erratic fuel gage...reading fuel for a lengthy period of time, then suddenly drops to less than 2/3. Intermittent horn function: complete horn failure; however, if you shut the engine off and restart horn will work. Front rotor warping repeatedly. Manufacture denies there is a problem, says driver is overheating brakes. I believe the problem is rotors are poorly designed. Also found if you don't drive through water when rotors are hot that this will help. Slow acceleration after cold startup. However, if you shut engine down and restart acceleration will be normal.

Filed Mar 21, 2003 · Brakes · 28,000 miles · TX

Front brake rotors warped on 1998 chevrolet camaro z28; I know of several people personally that have 1998 and up camaros/firebirds that had this issue. I have also heard many similar complaints from people in car clubs and internet message boards. People refer to the stock rotors as junk because they warp so often which leads me to the conclusion that the car manufacture did not put adequately designed rotors on the vehicles. People with this issue say to buy non-oem rotors because they will warp again and simply having the rotors turned does not help as they warp again. I have actually had my rotors turned and new brakes (installed by dealership with oem parts) put on the car and I have the warping issue. Mechanics that I know also agree that the brakes/rotors are not adequately designed for these vehicles.

Filed Feb 1, 2001 · Brakes · GA

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.

Filed Sep 28, 2000 · Brakes · AL

Brake rotors are prematurely wearing, cause unknown. Please give any further details.

Filed Aug 21, 2000 · Brakes · MI

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.

Filed Jul 4, 2000 · Fuel system · KS

There is a fuel line which runs over the #1 coil pack on my 1998 camaro z28. There are two screws which hold down the #1 coil pack. One of the screws has a pointed cone shaped top. A fuel line and air line run directly over this screw. There was a post on ls1.com notifying owners of 1998 z28 camaros of this potential design defect and for owners to check their vehicles for premature wear and possible rupture of the fuel line. I inspected my vehicle and the fuel line. The screw had worn through the insulation and either into the air line or fuel line. I went to superior chevrolet in shawnee kansas and spoke to the service manager and informed him of the problem. To prove that my vehicle was not the only one with this defect we randomly selected another 1998 z28. It had the exact same problem. He had me leave my vehicle the next day. Upon returning he said the fuel was inspected and that it was ok. The fix was to relocate the fuel and air line with a plastic wire-tie. I voiced my concerns with fix, but was assured the problem had been corrected. It still concerns me however, that the lines could have been inspected without removing the insulation from the lines to determine the extent of the wear and penetration of either the air line or fuel line. The fuel line and air line assembly had not been replaced. Please note that the car is still under warranty. I believe that this defect can harm the public because the design defect can wear all the way through the fuel line and cause gasoline to leak onto the hot engine, or exhaust manifold, causing a fire or explosion, with the potential to obviously burn up the car and also harm or kill passengers in the car. I would hope that the federal safety agency will examine this problem and demand that gm issue a recall to correct this major design defect and (not with a cheap wire-tie). Thank you for making this venue available so I can express my concern.

Filed Mar 17, 2000 · Brakes · OK · crash · 2 injuries

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 )

Filed Oct 23, 1999 · Brakes · TX

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.

Filed Oct 13, 1999 · Brakes · CA

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.

Filed Oct 7, 1999 · Brakes, Transmission · NJ

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 )

Filed Sep 23, 1999 · Brakes · CT

Warped rotors - twice. Dealers/gm won't replace defective materials because "they don't have to". It's a safety hazard that gm doesn't care at all about. It seems to me that the metal for the rotors on these cars wasn't properly hardened. These cars were assembled just prior to the big gm strike. Please investigate this. With all the other complaints of this problem with these cars with the federal safety agency, one would think there'd be a recall or tsb released on these by now. Is the federal safety agency doing anything about this? Btw - I also plan to contact my state's attorney general about this.

Filed Sep 2, 1999 · Brakes · PA

Brake rotors wear out. Dealer ship has looked at the vehicle. Consumer has to change the rotors every 3000 miles, while he still has the original pads on the car.