2021 1500 27,000 miles - Brake issues, warranty or???

JDC802 · October 3, 2023

The start of the brake saga...

9/22 brought the truck in due to an intermittent brake failure dash error. Brakes checked out okay with 80% pad life on rear and 90% on front and it was diagnosed with an "undiagnosed wiring issue".

9/24 180 miles later service brake pad monitor error came on. 4 hours later a clicking also stated in the steering column when pressing on the brakes.

9/24 in the morning the dash says it's detected new brake pads.

9/25 I made an appointment and the soonest was 10/3.

10/2 evey time I set my parking brake it detects new brake pads.

After today's appointment the diagnosis is a bad brake control module and now my rear brakes and rotors need to be replaced because one of the four pads are worn and the rotor is gouged to heck when 180 miles earlier they never mentioned such issue even though I brought it in for a brake failure error?

I asked the advisor about this and she said when they check your brakes they don't look at all wheels, nor do they take all the tires off. I was also told it's completely normal to have uneven wear on pads. So WTF, when I was confident I could head out on a 2,000 mile trip.

So, I'm told this isn't warranty repair. (brake module is) I thought rotors were under btb warranty? Have any of you had any luck with having this repaired under warranty? Is it a faulty sensor gouging this ****** out of my rotor? Wondering what I can do to prevent this in the future besides check my own rotors every 10,000 miles since the multi point inspection is total BS and they only look at one wheel and your outer rotor only.

***new info*** I pulled the wheel off to look for myself and the pad looks to have a lot of life/thickness left but of coarse gouged due to the rotor. The gouged area of the rotor is in the exact location of the sensor. Thinking I will pull the sensors right out of the pad so it stops damaging the rotor until the dealer replaces them or I do.

Edited October 3, 2023 by JDC802

silveradosid · October 4, 2023

i had my truck at the dealership a month ago for some warranty work and asked them the same question as to why every other day it would say new pads detected, they said they checked the pads and i would need new pads and rotors very soon but had no answer for the new pads detected. last weekend i decided to put new pads on, and this brake system and detection is garbage. on all four wheels the inner pad was worn more than the outer. the truck said i had 30% on the front and 38% on the back. the front inner pads were about 30% but the back was about 10%. the rear left where the sensor was had worn the sensor right off, i dont know how it could have read anything. there is a mark on the rotor from sensor contact but not enough to warrant replacement. i have 65k miles on my truck. if the pads had worn even i would have got 100k out of the brakes. and to top it off GM knows about the inner pad wear problem and chooses to do nothing about it. they will not warranty the brakes on your truck, it is a wear item and some people are abusive on their brakes

KARNUT · October 4, 2023

I guess the question I have is why do they overload these vehicles with useless sensors you don’t need. Rotate your tires check your brakes. Change your oil check your filters. And so on. More stuff to disable a truck. I just don’t get it.

Edited October 4, 2023 by KARNUT

diyer2 · October 4, 2023

It puts them in control of your service, maintenance? They sell parts?

KARNUT · October 4, 2023

14 minutes ago, diyer2 said:

It puts them in control of your service, maintenance? They sell parts?

Yes you are correct. It also keeps you from modifying your truck. My 2014 GMC was my retirement truck. I was going to Supercharge it among other mods. Even though it was the best riding quietest truck I’ve ever owned. Cylinder deactivation among other disappointments I sold it and kept my old 92 modified truck. If I was to buy one now new, I wouldn’t touch it. That would be a first in at least 40 years or ever. I like personalizing my trucks. It’s just too risky.

GMCustomerService · October 4, 2023

21 hours ago, JDC802 said:

The start of the brake saga...

9/22 brought the truck in due to an intermittent brake failure dash error. Brakes checked out okay with 80% pad life on rear and 90% on front and it was diagnosed with an "undiagnosed wiring issue".

9/24 180 miles later service brake pad monitor error came on. 4 hours later a clicking also stated in the steering column when pressing on the brakes.

9/24 in the morning the dash says it's detected new brake pads.

9/25 I made an appointment and the soonest was 10/3.

10/2 evey time I set my parking brake it detects new brake pads.

After today's appointment the diagnosis is a bad brake control module and now my rear brakes and rotors need to be replaced because one of the four pads are worn and the rotor is gouged to heck when 180 miles earlier they never mentioned such issue even though I brought it in for a brake failure error?

I asked the advisor about this and she said when they check your brakes they don't look at all wheels, nor do they take all the tires off. I was also told it's completely normal to have uneven wear on pads. So WTF, when I was confident I could head out on a 2,000 mile trip.

So, I'm told this isn't warranty repair. (brake module is) I thought rotors were under btb warranty? Have any of you had any luck with having this repaired under warranty? Is it a faulty sensor gouging this ****** out of my rotor? Wondering what I can do to prevent this in the future besides check my own rotors every 10,000 miles since the multi point inspection is total BS and they only look at one wheel and your outer rotor only.

***new info*** I pulled the wheel off to look for myself and the pad looks to have a lot of life/thickness left but of coarse gouged due to the rotor. The gouged area of the rotor is in the exact location of the sensor. Thinking I will pull the sensors right out of the pad so it stops damaging the rotor until the dealer replaces them or I do.

This is certainly not what we like to hear, JDC802. Please know, customer satisfaction is extremely important to us. Our team would be more than happy to take a closer look into the concerns with your truck's brakes. To do so, please send an email to [email protected] with ATTN: JDC802/GM Trucks in the subject line.

Please include your contact information, VIN, a brief description of your concern, and the name of your preferred dealership. We look forward to hearing from you. To learn more about GM’s Privacy Policy, please visit https://www.gm.com/privacy-statement.html. The information you provide may be monitored and recorded and is subject to the GM Privacy Statement.

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JDC802 · October 5, 2023

***Duplicate post by accident***

Edited October 5, 2023 by JDC802

JDC802 · October 5, 2023

22 hours ago, silveradosid said:

i had my truck at the dealership a month ago for some warranty work and asked them the same question as to why every other day it would say new pads detected, they said they checked the pads and i would need new pads and rotors very soon but had no answer for the new pads detected. last weekend i decided to put new pads on, and this brake system and detection is garbage. on all four wheels the inner pad was worn more than the outer. the truck said i had 30% on the front and 38% on the back. the front inner pads were about 30% but the back was about 10%. the rear left where the sensor was had worn the sensor right off, i dont know how it could have read anything. there is a mark on the rotor from sensor contact but not enough to warrant replacement. i have 65k miles on my truck. if the pads had worn even i would have got 100k out of the brakes. and to top it off GM knows about the inner pad wear problem and chooses to do nothing about it. they will not warranty the brakes on your truck, it is a wear item and some people are abusive on their brakes

They told me it was the brake control module throwing all the warnings such as new pads when there was none.

silveradosid · October 5, 2023

did they consider the brake control module defective

JDC802 · October 6, 2023

On 10/5/2023 at 6:56 AM, silveradosid said:

did they consider the brake control module defective

YES!

BIGDOGx · October 6, 2023

Of course i don't know how you drive which certainly has an effect, but brake pads should last longer than 27,000 miles and a couple years. My truck is not all that much different than yours, even over a half decade older, and i just replaced my front pads over the summer for the first time and had around 60k on them and over 7 years of use.

I would ask your service writer to justify how they didn't even bother to look at the actual brakes when it was in for a brake issue. All 4 tires should of been pulled and the brakes inspected, to me it sounds like your being fed a line of BS from your service writer. Clearly the pads should last longer then they did, they are considered a wear and tear item which is why they told you they are not covered, but if the failure was caused by something that is covered, then so shouldn't the pads and rotors imo. Call the GM number and see what happens, at worst it will just be a slight waste of your time, but maybe they can cover it or atleast meet your halfway or more. Rotors and pads on these trucks now will run you a good bit of coin so imo it is worth the effort to exhaust all options.

I will also say don't go aftermarket unless you are putting on a high quality upgrade like Baer big brake setup. All of the ebay cryo this and slotted that crap from china will last 1/4 to 1/2 the life of oem stock imo.

A Lyons · October 13, 2024

Had similar issue with the pads a rotors being ruined by the bad ECM module. Now that there’s a recall will it cover the damaged parts caused by the defect module?

Rob Pob · May 4, 2025

CURRENT MILEAGE - 37,750

I'm hoping this forum will steer me to where I need to be with regard to the same/similar issue with my brake pad monitor issue.

Since the purchase of my 2021 Trail Boss LT in August of '21, I've been bringing my truck to the dealer for 5k intermittent oil changes regularly. Simply for peace of mind and documentation of quality care for the vehicle. With the cost of oil and filters, its worth it to me to take it there vs DIY like I used to. I'm not as nimble as I once was I mention this here because I feel its important for anyone reading this, to know the level of care I've demonstrated since taking ownership of my truck.

Id also like to mention, that over the many years of vehicle ownership, I've always prided myself with getting longer than normal wear out of my sets of brakes!

Now that I've mentioned all of that, let me get to the important part. Not long after my 35k service, I had a message pop up on the gauge cluster verifying that i "replaced rear brake pads?" ........ummmm no, that wasn't done as I'm still on the original brakes..... 35k miles would NEVER in my history of owning ANY vehicle, been a point to be concerned about brake changes. It seemed to happen a few more times soon after that but only when I used the electronic parking brake. So I'm thinking, ok, ill have the service peeps take care of that when I arrive for my next oil change at 40k. Just this past weekend, I happened to get a blowout (unpatchable gouge) so I brought the truck in for a full set of new tires as the factory tires were not looking their best, I was already looking for a new set anyway. So while there at the tire shop, I asked the tech if I could just take a quick peek at the brake pads and rotors on all four. What I found next blew my doors off! My front pads had about 65% and looked symmetrically worn (aka NORMAL). Then we stepped to the rears.....WHOA! The REAR INNER pads were almost down to the metal on the pad itself! AND, both right and left sides of the rears were SYMMETRCALLY WORN! The outer pads on the rears were also low, AND also symmetrically worn, but not nearly as low as the inners. If it were only one caliper and it seemed to be an isolated issue, I could live with that but when I realized how evenly the inner rears were both worn, that spoke volumes to me. The tech advised that I get them replaced ASAP. So i left the tire shop with 4 new tires and a raised stress level! First thing I did after that was Googled "2021 Silverado Brake Issues".....that lead me here to the GM Forum.

I immediately called my local Chevy dealer for appt to get brakes replaced and explained what had taken place up that point. I asked the svc advisor if he's ever heard of this happening and to my surprise, he said no. This concerns me because now it seems like its going to be an uphill battle to get help on the matter with Chevy backing their product as a warrantable issue. I couldn't find any recalls related to this but I did see some articles here on the forum. I'm asking for any advice or direction from ANYONE with similar brake issues to help me out.

Thanks in advance everyone!

Clint Buhler · August 12, 2025

My truck just hit 30,000 miles and there's been a noticeable gouge in the rear rotor for the last 10,000 miles. I just assumed it was a defective pad or something. At my last oil change, they told me my rear pads were getting pretty low. I did get a "New brake pads detected" notification over the winter, I figured it was just the cold temps or something. A week ago, I got a check brake wear sensor warning, and just yesterday it changed to "Rear brake pads are very low" or something like that. Well it's in the shop now getting rear brakes done, but I hope the new rotors don't get gouged too, because of some sensor, I don't want to go through this again. Brakes should last more than 30,000 miles IMO. I don't tow, and almost never haul anything. I just use it to throw my MTB in when I want to get to the trail, so it's light duty for sure, other than mostly city driving. I'm getting OEM AC Delco brakes installed. The mechanic sent me pictures of the fronts, and the inner pads are worn more than the outers, but there's plenty of pad left so I'm leaving them as is for now. I'll have to take a look at that sensor. Don't want it to gouge my new rotors too.