Front Disk Brake Grooved And Brake Dust

ujtruck · December 5, 2007

My Front Disk Brake grooved and Brake Dust, not even 20K yet, anyone have a solution to this?

Once in a while they squeak too.

Should I visit Dealer ?

Yes I searched, I couldn't find good a answer

Thanks in Advance

bow07 · December 5, 2007

The passenger side brake? Mine is the same way. I think I remember reading a post about it a while back, but nobody had any answers then. I am curious as the cause as well. (I have 10,000 miles on the truck)

pm26 · December 5, 2007

I have only 6700 miles on mine and the passenger side front brake rotor is grooved also. Must be a real groovy feature on these trucks.

Zembonez · December 5, 2007

I have only 6700 miles on mine and the passenger side front brake rotor is grooved also. Must be a real groovy feature on these trucks.

HA! Groovy.

Original brakes should go 50K at least. Unless you are really working a truck hard, I can't see how the rotors should have any noticeably wear at 20K. My 01 Silverado had 95K + on it when I sold it and still had almost half of the original pads and the original rotors... and they still looked good. Admittedly my driving is 80% highway but still... 95K.

Might look into a sticking caliper or calipers. Even all city traffic driving should perform better than 20K.

pm26 · December 5, 2007

I have only 6700 miles on mine and the passenger side front brake rotor is grooved also. Must be a real groovy feature on these trucks.

HA! Groovy.

Original brakes should go 50K at least. Unless you are really working a truck hard, I can't see how the rotors should have any noticeably wear at 20K. My 01 Silverado had 95K + on it when I sold it and still had almost half of the original pads and the original rotors... and they still looked good. Admittedly my driving is 80% highway but still... 95K.

Might look into a sticking caliper or calipers. Even all city traffic driving should perform better than 20K.

Let's not kid ourselves. GM used to supply quality brake rotors on their trucks. Then, at some point they switched to cheap foreign made junk. Here is the proof. I have a '99 Mazda 626 V6 with over 181 k miles and still excellent 4 original OEM rotors that never needed to be turned (only sanded) and they are not grooved. I drive my Mazda far more aggressively than my truck and also brake harder. And I am the only one who drives both vehicles and I bought the Mazda and the truck new. And my truck has 6,700 miles on it and the right side rotor has been grooved since 2,000 miles or so.

I sold my '95 Nissan truck with 95k miles and still very good and ungrooved front original brake rotors. And I also bought that vehicle new.

Zembonez · December 5, 2007

Let's not kid ourselves. GM used to supply quality brake rotors on their trucks. Then, at some point they switched to cheap foreign made junk. Here is the proof. I have a '99 Mazda 626 V6 with over 181 k miles and still excellent 4 original OEM rotors that never needed to be turned (only sanded) and they are not grooved. I drive my Mazda far more aggressively than my truck and also brake harder. And I am the only one who drives both vehicles and I bought the Mazda and the truck new. And my truck has 6,700 miles on it and the right side rotor has been grooved since 2,000 miles or so.

I sold my '95 Nissan truck with 95k miles and still very good and ungrooved front original brake rotors. And I also bought that vehicle new.

Well... I've had several friends with 2000 up Chevys that have had excellent luck with the OEM brakes on their trucks. I'm certain I am not the only one. My many GM trucks may not have been perfect but they have had excellent brake wear.

If you think GM makes such crappy trucks why did you leave the Jap vehicles and buy one?

ujtruck · December 5, 2007

Might look into a sticking caliper or calipers. Even all city traffic driving should perform better than 20K.

Sticking caliper sounds like it, I think its time to bitch @ Dealer this weekend

pm26 · December 5, 2007

Let's not kid ourselves. GM used to supply quality brake rotors on their trucks. Then, at some point they switched to cheap foreign made junk. Here is the proof. I have a '99 Mazda 626 V6 with over 181 k miles and still excellent 4 original OEM rotors that never needed to be turned (only sanded) and they are not grooved. I drive my Mazda far more aggressively than my truck and also brake harder. And I am the only one who drives both vehicles and I bought the Mazda and the truck new. And my truck has 6,700 miles on it and the right side rotor has been grooved since 2,000 miles or so.

I sold my '95 Nissan truck with 95k miles and still very good and ungrooved front original brake rotors. And I also bought that vehicle new.

Well... I've had several friends with 2000 up Chevys that have had excellent luck with the OEM brakes on their trucks. I'm certain I am not the only one. My many GM trucks may not have been perfect but they have had excellent brake wear.

If you think GM makes such crappy trucks why did you leave the Jap vehicles and buy one?

Please read my post again, slower this time. I said that GM supplied excellent rotors for their trucks in the past, but at some point they started using cheap ones - possibly 2004 or later. I certainly did not abuse my truck to have the rotor groove this early and many others are complaining of the same thing.

And I do not think it is just GM that's switching to cheap brake parts. Nissan did this too with their Titan trucks. So I am not defending any Jap vehicles either.

And my Mazda and Nissan were certainly not perfect. The truck was totally gutless, even with the V6 and 5 speed manual, and got only 17 MPG. And the Mazda is maintenance intensive with its timing belt and stupid and expensive tensioner pulleys. But their brakes have good components and that is worth noting.

Rolling · December 5, 2007

The pads used in the GMT900 trucks are much higher metallic than older years, this was done so they would 'clean' corrosion and debris off of the rotors more efficiently. Side effect, severe looking grooves in the outside of the rotor. The only time they should be resurfaced or replaced is if any part of the grooves wear more than .060 into the surface.

There is a new pad avail for the trucks with a chamfered edge to get rid of the brake squeal, I have almost 10 miles on my truck since having this new pad installed and so far no squeal. And as hideous as the surface of the rotors looked...it is actually not that bad. Just looks like crap.

pm26 · December 5, 2007

The pads used in the GMT900 trucks are much higher metallic than older years, this was done so they would 'clean' corrosion and debris off of the rotors more efficiently. Side effect, severe looking grooves in the outside of the rotor. The only time they should be resurfaced or replaced is if any part of the grooves wear more than .060 into the surface.
There is a new pad avail for the trucks with a chamfered edge to get rid of the brake squeal, I have almost 10 miles on my truck since having this new pad installed and so far no squeal. And as hideous as the surface of the rotors looked...it is actually not that bad. Just looks like crap.

Well, one reason I have not done anything with the grooved rotor is because there is no chatter or vibration or any other adverse effect on brake performance. And no squealing either. But I still think that the older trucks had probably higher quality rotors. With the global economy, the manufacturers are constantly searching for sources of cheaper parts, and unfortunately, quality is often compromised in the process.

And using pads with more metal to "clean" corrosion off of rotors and grooving them instead sounds like a real Rube Goldberg solution to me. But why is only one rotor grooved? The other one looks good.

Can you tell me what is the brand name of the new pads you used? Are these available from the GM dealer or an aftermarket supplier?

Wingnut · December 5, 2007

I have only 6700 miles on mine and the passenger side front brake rotor is grooved also. Must be a real groovy feature on these trucks.

HA! Groovy.

Original brakes should go 50K at least. Unless you are really working a truck hard, I can't see how the rotors should have any noticeably wear at 20K. My 01 Silverado had 95K + on it when I sold it and still had almost half of the original pads and the original rotors... and they still looked good. Admittedly my driving is 80% highway but still... 95K.

Might look into a sticking caliper or calipers. Even all city traffic driving should perform better than 20K.

It's now approaching 110k, and I looked at them a couple of weeks ago...They're still fine.

The pads on my SS needed replaced around 20k. The pads still had 50 percent left on them, but the rotors were wearing down like a mofo. Couple that with the metric ton of brake dust those things generated daily...I replaced them with some MUCH less dusty pads that aren't hurting the rotors.

That's kind of an apples to oranges comparison though. The brakes on the SS in factory form are MIGHTY impressive for stopping ability. That truck stops faster than just about anything I've ever driven.

georgerosen06 · December 5, 2007

my old truck (96 sierra) had 150,000 miles on it be4 i had new rotors(front) and drums(rear). I had them changed at about 153000 miles just because i was broke at 150000 miles when i noticed they were bad...by the time i got them replaced when the guy put my truck on the lift he tried to spin the tires in neutral and the front two tires would not move! I would take them to get fixed immediately espically if you have the money :-P

trailrider325 · December 5, 2007

why was my post removed ????? i guess speaking the truth about gm brakes gets your post deleted sad very sad

Zembonez · December 5, 2007

Let's not kid ourselves. GM used to supply quality brake rotors on their trucks. Then, at some point they switched to cheap foreign made junk. Here is the proof. I have a '99 Mazda 626 V6 with over 181 k miles and still excellent 4 original OEM rotors that never needed to be turned (only sanded) and they are not grooved. I drive my Mazda far more aggressively than my truck and also brake harder. And I am the only one who drives both vehicles and I bought the Mazda and the truck new. And my truck has 6,700 miles on it and the right side rotor has been grooved since 2,000 miles or so.

I sold my '95 Nissan truck with 95k miles and still very good and ungrooved front original brake rotors. And I also bought that vehicle new.

Well... I've had several friends with 2000 up Chevys that have had excellent luck with the OEM brakes on their trucks. I'm certain I am not the only one. My many GM trucks may not have been perfect but they have had excellent brake wear.

If you think GM makes such crappy trucks why did you leave the Jap vehicles and buy one?

Please read my post again, slower this time. I said that GM supplied excellent rotors for their trucks in the past, but at some point they started using cheap ones - possibly 2004 or later. I certainly did not abuse my truck to have the rotor groove this early and many others are complaining of the same thing.

And I do not think it is just GM that's switching to cheap brake parts. Nissan did this too with their Titan trucks. So I am not defending any Jap vehicles either.

And my Mazda and Nissan were certainly not perfect. The truck was totally gutless, even with the V6 and 5 speed manual, and got only 17 MPG. And the Mazda is maintenance intensive with its timing belt and stupid and expensive tensioner pulleys. But their brakes have good components and that is worth noting.

Oh. thanks. I guess that came across sounding more like an insult than I intended it to. Wasn't really that. I have also had excellent Impiort vehicle luck. We have had a lot of Nissans as a family. I've had to look the other way more than a few times to keep liking my GM trucks. They do take some real shortcuts in quality sometimes.