Consistent Brake Issues

[Dusty A]

Hi all,

Seeking a little advice. I have a 2007 Pontiac G6 GT that consistently needs its front rotors resurfaced or replaced every few months. I’ve driven the car barely 10k miles the past year, and in that time it’s had the pads and rotors changed 3 times. What happens is the car will start to have a brake pulsation through the steering wheel while braking lightly, and it gets worse as the brakes warm up.

About 4 months ago I had a brake job done on the front and one side was almost to metal while the other was about 50%. The rotors were replaced with this brake job as well. Pulsation went away.

A week ago it started again, so I inspected the brake pads myself. They were actually worn evenly but had barely a quarter inch of material left on them. I decided to replace just the pads, for now, to see what would happen. During the install I found a seized guide pin on the front right. Fixed that, installed the pads, drove the car, and the pulsation is still there but it’s noticeably better.

So I’ll replace the rotors soon to fix it, but 3 months later I don’t want to be replacing brakes again. Why would the car be burning through pads and rotors so quickly? Only other option I see are the calipers, but I’m not exactly sure what to look for in order to check them.

This is the first bit of car work I’ve done on my own, so I’m excited to get this issue squashed. I’m actually embarrassed how easy it was to do the brakes, and that I spent $600 the week before for a brake job on my wife’s car…Never again.

Topic

[Billy]

Sounds like the calipers have built up some corrosion around the pistons and are not retracting properly. I would inspect them carefully, and replace rather than bothering to rebuild them. Also replace the hoses and flush all the fluid.

[Mike]

It sounds like you have found at least part of the problem with the frozen slide pin.
A sliding caliper that can’t slide back and forth is going to be problematic.
The fact that the guide pin was seized on a car that has already had the brakes serviced 3x in the past year with only 10K driven smacks of poor quality servicing. (Unless you’re talking about the threaded bolt being tough to remove from the sliding part of the 2 piece slide pin.)

You should also check the rear brakes to be sure they’re functioning properly.
Rear brakes are responsible for 30% of the braking and , if not working, the front brakes must absorb that extra 30% of work–which wears the front brakes out faster.

The pads and rotors should be changed at the same time, the rotors cleaned of shipping oil with brake cleaner spray before installing, all hardware cleaned, the slide pins cleaned and lubricated with silicone paste, anti-seize on the clean pad contact points as shown in the ETCG video link, damaged hardware should be replaced as needed.

If you read this and watch the video, you should be good for some time with the front brakes after you service them.
https://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-brake-problems/disc-brake-service

It doesn’t pay to buy the cheapest pads and rotors , either.
You don’t need premium/”super-special” pads/rotors–just good original equipment pads and rotors will do or a reasonable substitute like any of the parts listed in Rockauto’s “Daily Driver” parts list .

On a 12 year old vehicle, it would be wise to replace the old brake fluid, unless it has been done in the past year or two.
Use the brake fluid type specified in your owner’s manual, as different types of brake fluid don’t mix.

There are some people who are naturally harder on brakes; a driver who is very nervous and applies the brake very frequently or rides the brake lightly at all times overheats the brakes, causing pulsating and wear issues.
Making a very strong panic stop can deposit a chunk of brake friction material on the rotors–but it’s still better than having an accident.
Some models of cars do go through brakes faster than others–likely due to engineering issues.

There can be other oddball issues but it sounds like your vehicle may just need a carefully done brake job with good quality parts.

[waleed]

If it needs brakes that often Its likely the front calipers need to be replaced. Not a hard job to do as reman units are very reasonably priced. I’m surprised when you got them changed so often the didnt decide to check the sliders, or calipers

[Author]

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