While driving at a speed of approximately 20 miles and hour I had a complete failure of the brake system, whit the brake pedal going completely to the floor. This caused me to have an accident and I rear ended another pickup truck and was only able to stop the car by applying thew emergency rakeake. Inspection by the insurance adjuster and the body shop showed the brake lines completely rusted out. The truck passed state inspection the day before. An internet search show that this was a safety problem (rusting) which gm convinced the nhsta was not a defect and did not need a recall. The least that should have been done was that owners sdhould have been informed. Also contrary toi what gm says it resulted in complete brake loss...not partial.
2003 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 brakes complaints
Page 3 of 15: complaints 41 to 70 of 429, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Cleaning & maintenance, including underbody cleaning, has been performed religiously on my truck regardless of mileage. Took it in for an oil change & when it was put up on the rack, the mechanic saw that the brake lines were rusted out. I was shocked since it has been well maintained and was even more so when told it would be anywhere from $900-$1,700 to replace the lines. He said the lines could fail without any prior warning while driving. Researching, I found this is an issue gm has been aware of, however instead of their addressing the manufacturing problem, they put the responsibility onto the owners. Like myself, I'm sure others are driving totally unaware of the brake line failure issue since there has been no recall.
Rear driver side brake in ruptured while pulling a loaded trailer. Luckily it was at a slow speed. This could have been tragic or possible deadly for me and my children if I had been on winding back roads on had a fully loaded trailed behind me.
When driving on a city street, brake pedal went to floor - had no brakes, had to rely on parking brake. One brake line, from proportioning valve to ABS unit had blown. All brakes failed. Upon looking, the brake lines running on top of the frame rail near the driver's side front tire were deteriorating from rust.
I was lucky to see a spot of fluid on my driveway. Figured it was brake fluid so I had my wife pump the brakes while I looked for the leak. When she pushed down hard the line busted and I lost about all my brake fluid. I've inspected my lines and they are all rusted. I have the truck in the shop now to replace all brake lines. Only 127000 miles on the truck.
Brake lines rust out completely
Within the last year 3 brake lines have broke. The first time 2 broke, and due to its age I did not think anymore about it, then the third just broke, the mechanic said he has never seen so many broken brake lines, another customer was having the same problem. Today I was talking to my neighbor and he just broke a brake line on his 2002 ford truck. Its like both gm and ford bought the same low grade brake lines in the early 2000`s and now they are failing.
Break line rusted out. Couldnt stop.
2003 chevrolet silverado. Consumer writes in regards to vehicle brake failure. *smd the consumer stated the brake failure happened with no warning. There were no signs of leak and no other visible or physical evidence of a brake system problem. The vehicle was take to a repair facility. The consumer was informed the brake line system needed to be replaced due to corrosion.
I have already replaced my brake lines once on the truck. At a stoplight I had my brakes give out again. Local mechanic states my rear brake line has rusted through again. This is a known serious safety issues and gm continues to deny that it's a safety issue. Brakes are too important to have constant rusting issues.
Slowing down for a yellow light turning red soon, my brake pedal went to the floor and I had no braking at all. I pulled back the e-brake lever and pushed the e brake. Able to pull into an empty parking lot of a bank (8:15am) and get it stopped. Fluid leaking fr l/rr pipe at l/rr tire area and from l/f tire area. Half hour later I could of hurt a lot of people. Feathered it home and fluid leaking from hole in l/rr pipe and l/f from somewhere I can't tell yet. Never heard of this brake problem happening before then had 3 people tell me at work that it happened to them in chevy trucks. C'mon man, is there a recall? Someone gonna get into something real serious here.
Leak under drivers door just had oil changed so thought it was oil filter not tightened , took it back to oil change place and they said it was the brake line and that he was surprised it hasn't busted already. Husband drove it home and and got half mile from home and they burst and he had to down shift to get the truck to slow down to turn and park it. This should of been recalled long time ago .might of killed my husband or someone else. Who thinks to have the brake lines looked at .
Brake line broke under driver side door.
Went out to leave in my truck and as I was backing out of the driveway the brake line broke. Thankfully no one was coming down the road.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet silverado 1500. While driving approximately 10 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed but the brakes failed to respond. As a result, the contact crashed into a pole. There were no injuries and a police report was not filed. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the brake lines and fuel lines were rusted, and needed to be replaced. The front passenger side brake line was replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 92,000. Ma 10/14
Driving aprox. 45 MPH ,came to a red light and brake pedal went to floor. Did have enough brakes to drive to a safe spot ,on a side road.looked under truck and brake fluid was dripping on the ground . Crawled under the truck to find brake line had rusted thru. Took vehicle to my mechanic for repairs.this is a very dangerous situation .
Trying to stop rusted brake line blew avoided accident by using parking brake
Brake lines corrosion and leaking
Came out of a store at a shopping mall and noticed a massive amount of brake fluid on the ground. A brake line between the fuel tank and truck bed has ruptured causing an almost complete loss of fluid.
Hopped into my vehicle friday morning and the brake pedal went to the floor. Rear brake line rusted away. Fortunately it happened in my driveway. The day before I was pulling my boat on the interstate at 70 MPH. There's a scary thought. Btw, vehicle has not been operated during the winter months the past three years.
No warning!!!(soft brakes or dashboard lights), truck brakes completely failed in traffic! After stop light, in slow moving traffic. Silverado crashed into small car and then, that car into another. No injuries, minor damage. I loved this truck. I have a folder an inch thick on this vehicle's maintenance! Never has it's service been ignored! Chevy should be accountable for this catastrophic failure of brake system. I would never buy another. Extremely disappointed with the ridiculously cheap parts used. Made in USA, chevy tough!!!! What a bad joke!
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet silverado 1500. While driving approximately 35 MPH, the brake pedal traveled to the floor when it was depressed and failed to stop the vehicle. The brake and ABS warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was stopped with the emergency brake and the contact was able to coast over to an emergency lane. The contact exited the vehicle and noticed that the brake lines were corroded and the vehicle had only front brakes. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic for a diagnosed and the stated that all the brake lines and possibly the ABS module needed to be replaced. The vehicle had not yet been repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 77,038.
My brakes failed coming back from a 356 mile trip. I was backing up my boat into the garage when the brakes failed. Luckily I stepped on the parking brake and was able to stop without hitting something. I think I am really lucky the failure did not happen on the expressway or when my wife was driving. There looks like 4 brake lines running from the master cylinder down under the driver side to the antilock brake unit. One of the brake lines in this bunch below the driver seat failed. I was suppressed to see how coroded all the brake line are. This seems to me to be a real safety issue. Looking on the web this looks like an issue the many people have encountered. It also appears that gm is aware of the issue and has done nothing.
Brake lining &frame.
The brake lines rusted and failed while driving in traffic. All the brake lines had to be replaced due to rust damage from inferior component.
I was getting ready to leave work and as I rolled towards the stop sign I attempted to brake but the pedal went straight to the floor. I rolled through the stop sign and into the next lane, fortunately there were no other vehicles at the time. When I exited the vehicle I immediately saw the trail of brake fluid and under closer inspection I could see where not one but two lines had ruptured at once. I was leaving to pick up my son from daycare and it is terrible to think that he could have been there and it may have been a busier intersection. Gm claims brake lines fall under routine maintenance but I don't understand which routine they mean. No gm tech or inspector has ever mentioned rusty brake lines. If they want to make the consumer responsible maybe they should train responsible technicians.
On april 11, 2015 I was driving my 2003 silverado 1500 to work. While driving across town I approached a stop light. My breaks felt very soft and had almost no resistance. While at the stop light my vehicle continued to creep forward very slowly into the intersection. Luckily, the light turned green shortly thereafter. I continued approximately 1 mile with no need for slowing down and arrived at my next turn. I went to depress my breaks and again they were very soft. Just as I was almost slow enough to turn my foot went completely to the floor. At this time the service break system light came on all of the alert tones began. Luckily I was going slow enough to be able to coast into a parking lot and come to a stop using what minimal braking power I had left. Upon inspection I found that my reservoir was very low. I knew something was wrong because I just had all of my fluids topped off within the last 15 days when I took it because I had 3 broken header bolts. After work, I checked the reservoir and it was totally empty I inspected the visible portion of the lines to find that one of them had corroded to the point of breaking (leaking all the brake fluid) and the rest were extremely corroded also. Overall, I am very disappointed with the performance of the vehicle. This will be the 4th time this year it has been in the repair shop for a costly repair. Since I purchased the truck I have taken very good care of it including cleaning all of the salt off in the winters after every storm and avoiding driving near the beach. I have taken all actions to keep the vehicle running good. I am glad that I did not find a need to stop short this time because I feel very confident I would have crashed and been injured.
I was towing my boat down a 4 lane highway, approximately 100 miles from home. As I approached a traffic light, it turned yellow and I pressed on the brake pedal. The brake pedal suddenly went all the way to the floor with no braking power and I rolled through a red light. As I coasted I tried the parking brake, which also had no braking power. As this occurred, I had to roll through another red light, thankfully I was able to avoid collisions. Shortly after I was able to ease the truck and boat up a hill and onto the shoulder. After being towed to a dealer, it was determined I had a complete brake line failure due to excessive corrosion on all the brake lines.
I was backing out of my driveway and noticed a fluid puddle in the spot where it was parked. Upon investigating,it has been determined that one of the front brake lines has ruptured. After further inspection,all brake lines are severely corroded and soon to accompany the ruptured line. I'm displeased that such a valuable safety aspect of my vehicle has been compromised by general motors. I feel that general motors should be responsible for such a dangerous situation. I have owned many vehicles in my 18 years of driving that were older and had more miles that had shown no signs of such failure. This is not normal.
My chevy truck is a 2003 with 52000 miles on it, one owner,the ABS sensors in the front wheels have failed 3 times now, what's scary is unlike other vehicles, the brakes fail when this happens, other vehicles the ABS just shut off, still have brakes, also I am about to put on my 3rd set of back brakes in 52000 miles, still on the first set of front brakes, shortly after putting disc brakes like this on the rear they went back to drums, I also noticed that all the brake lines look pretty bad with corrosion, and the fuel lines, they mounted them right up against the frame so there is no where for water and road crud to drain, being an engineer myself, I can't believe what they have done, the truck looks vary nice until you look under it, all looks like 200000mi 20 yr old junker. The attempts they made to protect the back discs are a joke, the inferior material used for something as important as brake lines and fuel lines is criminal, and then mounting them to something they knew was going to rot prematurely like the frame is unconscionable.......and no recalls on none of these issues is a sure sign nobody cares. One more note my friend had a 2002, and he had his brake lines recalled, 2003 are identical, no recall ?? One more thing, in the first 1000mi my brake booster unit had to be replaced.. I will keep this silverado until it turns to dust , which probably won't be long , I will not buy another. I have always been a gm fan, and have three other gm vehicles, my trust in them and the system to protect consumers has failed miserably. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
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