Many of you have suffered the irriating squeaking brakes.

Some of you have suffered the brake scraping.

Most of you have experienced this somewhere around 10,000-12,000 miles at first. Low miles.

As I posted in this thread http://www.chevymalibuforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2088 , I finally got the constant squeaking at low pressure low speeds from the brakes.

It final reached a scraping noise after about 1,000 miles yesterady 7/22/09.

NORMALLY, I would think that the brake pad busted up or there is some other serious brake issue. And just as I would normally do, I took off the wheels and checked the brakes. All the pads were fine and in very good shape (80% life or better).

What happened a few days later leads to this email. All of a sudden when the brakes were cold, a bad metal SCRAPING sound began (happened yesterday) and then went away each time after minutes of driving only to have the minor squeak.

So last night, I figured I'd try something simply (didn't have time to pull a wheel off) and really didn't expect it to make much of a difference.

HOWEVER, it did. It FIXED my problem. For how long, I do not know but will investigate and hopefully get photos this weekend.

So whats the SIMPLE fix that takes a couple of minutes?

Let me start out with what appears to be the problem.

Behind the rotors are sheet metal like heat shields. ding ding... scraping... metal (heat shield) to metal (rotor) scraping

Yep. Either GM appears to have a design clearance issue that over time and many heat cycles causes it to what I believe to come in contact with at least the caliper (thus squeaking) and possibly the rotor (thus scraping). Or GM has a design issue with the metal used for the heat shield (warping) and/or rotors. Since my rotors don't seem to be out of round (warped) as I don't have pulsating, etc, I would have to say that someone tucked in the heat shields a little to close to the rotors and calipers or used the wrong metal for them (heat cycle warping).

Either way, in my opinion it is a VERY silly design issue that will waste a TON of warranty money replacing pads, rotors, etc and not to mention all the silly bad press on these forums, etc. AND ALL the frustration all of you have suffered!


So, now the silly quick fix.

FIX: Folks, the ONLY thing I did was put my hands through my wheels and pushed back on the heatshields around the rotors. {Common sense disclaimer here: make sure the brake components are cooled down first!} They don't want to move much and in some places won't budge at all. NOTHING else was touched or moved. You sort of have to just do it around the rotor. Note: I only did this fix to the front brakes.

RESULTS: Much to my SURPRISE today, I had absolutely ZERO brake squeaking and certainly no scraping! ZERO. After having consistant squeaking for about 1000 miles, nothing, ZERO!

For one, I can't believe that possibly bending back the heat shields less than maybe an 1/8th of an inch was the fix. But then again, I can't believe still that undamaged heatshields would even come in contact withe brake components. But the results say it worked.

I will be taking the rotors off this weekend and seeing what is really going on. At this point, I FULLY expect to find scraped heatshields at the very least by the calipers and the worst the flat surface next to the rotors.

I really hope that all Bu's don't experience this but if it is the heatshields I have a feeling that at some point most will and most unfortunately will blame the brakes or the brake components. Heck I wouldn't be surprised is most dealers and shops even played it up for a little extra cash to replace brakes, etc. Unfortunately, I think this will do nothing but aggravate the customer and tarnish the reputation of what is otherwise a great car. Not to mention not fix the actual issue unless a tech notices the contact and bends them back during the brake job.

And NO, brake squeaking is NOT normal on a good working condition break system in my opinion despite what some claim. It is embarassing to be driving a nice car to have minor quirks like this at the very least, at the extreme, I don't know how much of a hazard this could potentially cause if something did rip apart because of contact...

I hope this helps someone and if it does, please let me know!

Do you have any pictures? I had the weird grinding scraping noise with my front breaks a week ago when it was raining but weird thing was after the rain it didn't make the noise

EcoBU!!!! your the man right now!!! i just went out and did it and now no noise!!!!!!

its easy to find

look at your caliper, look under it slightly, and on the back side of the rotor there is a heat shield that seems to run all the way along the back, you can follow it around with your hand. i gave mine a little push all the way around and BINGO no noise!!!

going to give it a try tomorrow after i wash it. hope this works, mine has a slight sqweel coming from the right rear. been thinking of using 400 grit sand paper on the rotor braking surface to see if that would help.

My wife's LTZ had the squealing problem. Took it to the dealer, the scuffed up the rotors and it went away.

08 LTZ here. Low speed roll squeek -- not "grinding" sound ever. Started at about 10K miles. Took to dealer service manager -- said GM has a service bulliten on this issue. I have a good relationship with my dealer (Las Vegas/Henderson NV area) and they drove it. When car came back from test drive, they agreed to replace the front brake pads BUT used ceramic pads. Problem fixed, no squeeks (yeah!!), no charge. Said rotors where fine, old brake pads were only about 40% usage (rears only 30% wear). Had to wait about 90 mins. -bird

I just returned from the dealer. I brought my Bu in for an oil change and tire rotation. I just hit 12,000 miles and I've been hearing a scraping from my front wheels first thing in the morning. I've also been hearing a scraping sound from my rear right wheel when backing up. So while I had it in for the oil change I had them check out my brake pads and rotors. They said everything looked fine with no "abnormal condition".
When I backed into my driveway I could still hear the scraping. I read this thread and I think it just might be the answer I was looking for. I'm going to give it a try.

super bump, i believe i am suffering from the same problem, i call it bird chirps, bc that what it sounds like to me, f ing annoying, driving over uneven road , and i hear it, and i am tuned to it, you really have to listen but its there, was going to replace the brakes , which my mech said could be the problem( like rusty metal stuck somewhere), will try today, my chirp sqeek would go away during rain.