This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
I sent the follwing to GM>>>I own a 96' Chevrolet Tahoe. I love my truck but I have a major concern. My brakes are horrible, I thought it was the pads, so I had them replaced, then my rotors warped... so I had them replaced also, my brakes still felt soft so I kept driving it like that for about 5000 miles, next I'm driving on a flat road and come to a stop. I take off from this country road and see a deer, I hit my brakes and nothing!!!! the brake fade is so bad that I go back to the dealer again. He suggests a master cylinder (ouch) so I foolishly give him my money. Next day I'm going down a slight hill and again major brake fade. I am really upset and honestly frightened of your vehicle. In reading some of the news groups on the internet, I find that many folks have contacted GM and alerted you to this problem, please fix our brakes before one of us and/or an innocent bystander gets seriously injured or killed. Please help save lives, don't be like Ford and deny an obvious problem with your 92-99 Tahoe, Suburban, and pickups.
The discs and the cylinder have been replaced twice and now need to be replaced for the third time. If we drive in the nearby smokey mountains the brakes begin to smoke soon after starting downhill where more braking than usual is required. We have been told by the GMC dealer where we purchased the Tahoe that the brakes on the 1996 vehicle were too small and have since been upgraded on later vehicles. Yet they charge us to replace the brake discs or cylinder. We basically can not drive in any mountain areas with just passengers, much less pulling anything.
Calipers operate improperly, causing uneven pad wear/premature wearout. One pad (on the same caliper) would be completely gone (down to rivets)and the other having more than half its life left. This happened on both front calipers. This caused excessive wear to rear shoes because the front brakes were not fully opetational and the rear brakes were primarily stopping the vehicle. The dealer replaced pads first, later did a caliper rebuild kit, later after vehicle out of warranty, refused to replace calipers, or fix problem. I had calipers replaced at my expense (bendix calipers). I am currently waiting to see if this fixes the problem. Have contacted GM and they now refuse to fix the problem as vehicle is out of warranty(even though problem has occurred repeatedly since vehicle was new).
Brake rotors and pads had to be replaced every 5000 miles of wear and the brakes would squeak all the time. Vehicle been in/out of dealer shop on numerous occasions. Dealer informed consumer that they could not find anything wrong or duplicate the problem.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Prairie Du Sac, WI, USA