Maybe make a few speed runs in D and romp on the brakes hard. See if that cleans them up.

 

This is the best answer. It’s called burnishing (apparently).
Brakes need to be used to stay working and in optimum condition. Use them!

they also don’t need to be perfect to stop the car. Grooves make noise maybe. So what? If there’s meat on the rotor and pad on the... pads, then you will stop fine when you need to.

Do 10-20 hard stops from 30-40 mph once in a while To clean the brakes and keep things moving down there.

 

If it's just rust on the rotors.. you can pull each wheel and sand down the rotors without removing them.
We do that on boat trailer brakes all the time because they sit over the winter and rust up.

 

I feel like there are actually grooves there that I can feel with my finger and sometimes even after driving all day the noise is there

 

The rotors are coated with an ant-rust coating. Mine look as new as the day I brought the car home. To have grooves you can feel as mentioned means something is getting stuck or perhaps the rotors were not heat treated correctly (unlikely). Any shop can pull the wheels and turn down the rotors if allowed and slip in some new pads or at least give you advice. There was also a service bulletin early on about nitrogen or some other gas In the brake lines that need to be removed. Did your car get this completed?

 

Something is not right down there. We're in the frozen ass-end of nowhere with magnesium chloride solution sprayed on our roads in winter, always drive our 2017 in L and seldom use the brakes. They're as clean, shiny and noise-free as new.

jack vines

 

... The dealer quoted 485 to replace front disks/pads.

"It's difficult for a man to know something when his salary depends on his not knowing it." Upton Sinclair

A little dirt on noisy brakes? No problem. Replace them! That'll be $485 please.

Rich

 

The dealer said that because I didnt use my brakes much (maybe few times a month) and the car sitting too much that I didnt clean off the oxidation which lead to my problem. I"m on my way to pick it up, which I had changed my mind earlier.. I'm out almost 500 and turning my car in a few months. I just couldn't take the embarrassing can opener sound anymore. Since there is nothing good available in USA right now (E-Soul/Kona) that you can get ill have to go back to gasahol for a while ... sigh..

 

99% sure it's a rock stuck between your pad and the rotor.

 

You said you almost never use the brakes. Do you only hear the sound when using the brakes or all the time? Are the grooves in both front rotors or only side?

 

heard it all the time, and the grooves are on both sides but more so on the drivers.

 

If you did use the brakes "a few times a month" this doesn't make sense.

And even if you didn't use them much, given what the others here have said, it still doesn't seem likely what they told you is correct.

Also gotta add, nothing wrong with a good efficient gas car for daily drives. Just don't commute alone 100 miles a day in a Hummer H2... like some do.

 

Just heard from a colleague who had to replace the brakes on his Renault Zoe for what the dealer said was the same reason. My response was the same as on here, "What the?" I live in California. He lives in England. Still, he lives in a hilly area and he uses his brakes as much as I do driving in "L".

Could this be how dealers plan to make money on EVs?

Just doesn't sound right or make a lot of sense to me.

Paul

 

Are you sure its the brakes?

 

I even go a step farther and put the car in N as approaching a stop sign at ~30MPH, and brake hard and fully with only the pads. Do that once a week or anything the car has sat a few days and it has made a world of difference.

 

Burnishing only needs to be done on new pads to wear/burn off the resin by doing a few hard almost stops, then continue driving until the pads and rotors cool off so that any melted resin doesn't stick to the rotors, where it can grab or cause noise. I had put new ceramic pads/rotors/calipers on my Mustang a couple of months ago and the manufacturer went into great detail about the burnishing process, and how important it was to do it properly and not to come to a complete stop at any point during the process. A complete stop could only be made after allowing the brakes to cool by driving at moderate speed and only gentle braking for at least 5 miles. I followed the instructions, the pads smoked and smelled awful, but after 15 minutes of hard braking then moderate braking, then cool down driving, all was well and they stopped great and are quiet.

In don't believe burnishing needs to be done after that, even if the rotors are turned, because the purpose is to break in the new pads. I remember my Dad doing the same thing with new shoes on his drum brakes!

I know my Bolt's rotors look new, and hope they stay that way for as long as I can tolerate the seats. Just got some different foam, so going to try to make them comfortable. Second attempt at the bottom cushion. Then, it will be too add some lumbar support.

 

I know my Bolt's rotors look new, and hope they stay that way for as long as I can tolerate the seats. Just got some different foam, so going to try to make them comfortable. Second attempt at the bottom cushion. Then, it will be too add some lumbar support.

Let us know how it turns out (the seat mod).

 

I would just go to a local shop (for a second opinion) and have the rotors turned to remove the grooves. The pads will re-seat on the newly cut rotors after a bit.I have 38k on my 2017 Bolt and the brakes are almost new, but they sound like crap if I put the car away wet until I drive it for a few miles. NO brake problems yet other than the tapping noise from the master cylinder/power brake unit that had to be replaced under warranty

 

2017 LT here with 31k miles and noisy brakes. Brakes are only used for panic stops; else it's always regen. Should I worry? This is the last day of my 3-y warranty.....

 

Noisy is not a helpful description: Noise when not braking (frozen caliper, out of round disks, bad rust), squeal when braking (there are products for this), pulsation when braking (out of round rotors). I would use the brakes heavily (don't use regen at all for a week or so) and try to get a little wear on them. If the rotors are the problem, get a local garage to turn them (machine them on a brake lathe). If the pads are more than half left, that may be enough.

 

Noise only when breaking, like you'd normally expect from brakes that have not been used in a long while. Pads being worn down are unlikely the problem since they are barely used. It may not be a problem; the brakes still work. But I had heard here that GM anticipated minimal break use on the Bolt and had dealt with the rusty because never used issue - see #6 in this thread and probably elsewhere on this forum. This makes me thing that something else may be happening that might need to be looked at.

 

Before you assume let Mr. Google be your friend.

GM develops rust-free rotors to keep car wheels shiny

Auto maker’s protective brake coating shines

www.theglobeandmail.com

 

..And the dealer "rust/grooves" comment? Seems to be a mistaken dealer or a failed coating.

 

So that leaves pad noise, my recommendation still stands

 

Thanks. I decided I'd see what the dealer says, on the last day of my 3-y warranty. 2 miles away, nice day for a pandemic drive along the Atlantic ocean coast. Yes, I suspect if stay out of :low" for a while and use the brakes it will go away.

 

After winter brake caliper service

For those of you in the NE United States or parts of the county who encounter salt and other nasty stuff to make our roads drivable, is anyone performing a yearly cleaning and lube service of the calipers on their Bolts? Tesla recommends this: Winter Care Tesla recommends cleaning and...

www.chevybolt.org

 

Yup, that describes me [NE winter road salt]. Something else to remember to do.

 

Do I understand correctly that Scooter is months away from turning in a lease and was considering paying $500 for front brake service?

I do my own brake work and typically spend $12-20 on a pair of brake pads and perhaps $40 on rotors (rare). It's an hour job.

My expectation is $500 would replace brake fluid, bleed, and replace pads and rotors on all 4 wheels.

 

This all sounds very odd to me. It seems that noise would only be generated if there was contact between two moving parts. How is anything in there making contact, unless it is a rock like someone suggested. Also, how is a rust "groove" supposed to form? Does the rust know somehow to form a line? No, obviously not. If there is a groove, it was worn there by scraping. You have to figure out what was scraping to make the groove. Once the groove is formed, then it could rust, but the rust isn't going to cause a groove. All sounds very suspicious to me.