[rudiger]

This is a not uncommon problem for northerners and you are not the first to bring this up. There are plenty of us Southerners with EV's with 100k miles or more and the brakes look new. You problem is also not isolated to GM or the Bolt. There are plenty of Tesla's that experienced the same issue. Normally the only parts that need to be replaced are the pads. If the rotors were rusted and unusable you could visibly see it. What happens is the brake pad itself separates from from the back plate due to rust from lack of use. This is not a $1,300 job.

This is also not necessarily the dealers fault either as this can also happen to ICE vehicles. Rule of thumb when driving in a climate with heavy salt on the roads is to wash the the vehicle to remove road salts as soon as possible. Whenever we have salty roads as soon as it gets above freezing I take the garden hose to all the wheels and brakes just to avoid this issue.

Back in 1985, I bought a brand-new Honda Accord. At 10k miles, the front brake rotors warped and had to be replaced. Honda refused to cover the replacement. I had it fixed and promptly traded it. It was the one and only Honda I've ever owned and, from what I've read, the problem continues to this day.

 

[OkieBolt]

Back in 1985, I bought a brand-new Honda Accord. At 10k miles, the front brake rotors warped and had to be replaced. Honda refused to cover the replacement. I had it fixed and promptly traded it. It was the one and only Honda I've ever owned and, from what I've read, the problem continues to this day.

I bought an SVT Contour new in 2000. After about 6 months I started to develop stress cracks in the brake rotors. When I was in the dealer for something else I mentioned the stress cracks in the rotors. They replaced the rotors and pads under warranty. May have been the almost daily 110mph to 50mph then hard clover leaf to 0mph I was doing on my way into work. Brakes worked well but were very undersized for that level of stress. Joke was on me though because they tightened my lug nuts to over 150 ft/lbs and warped one of my Borbet wheels. They offered to pay for the replacement but I just decided to not go back to that dealer.

 

[ndonurantia]

I purchased my 2020 LT in April of 2021. Just 19 months and 16k miles later, in December 2022 I was informed that my brakes were so rusted that I would not pass state inspection and needed to be replaced, to the tune of 1.3k. This isn't aren't covered under the warranty. I live in a cold climate, which means lots of salt on the roads in winter, and also insane battery drain (I average 140 in the winter, even with only moderate heat use). Because of the battery drain, I use regenerative breaking 95% of the time in the winter. Which apparently is why I have rusted rotors after less than two years. So understandably, I'm pissed. Basically the only way to make the car usable in the winter for longer drives is to use regen, but the only way to prevent the rotors from rusting out is by using the brakes. The dealership suggested I try and call Chevy to see whether they would be willing to pay for some of the repair. I cannot be the only person dealing with this issue -- it seems like a significant flaw in the design (I have heard that Tesla, for example, has figured out a way to prevent rust build-up on rotors even with the use of regenerative braking). Has anyone had success in getting Chevy to pay for some/all of their repair for this issue?

This may sound far fetched but perhaps the previous owner had the brakes swapped out and put in some old ones from a different Bolt before you bought the car. Why that might happen I don't know. Anyway, it's just speculation. Is there any way to tell if the brakes you have came on that vehicle to start with?

 

[rudiger]

I bought an SVT Contour new in 2000. After about 6 months I started to develop stress cracks in the brake rotors. When I was in the dealer for something else I mentioned the stress cracks in the rotors. They replaced the rotors and pads under warranty. May have been the almost daily 110mph to 50mph then hard clover leaf to 0mph I was doing on my way into work. Brakes worked well but were very undersized for that level of stress. Joke was on me though because they tightened my lug nuts to over 150 ft/lbs and warped one of my Borbet wheels. They offered to pay for the replacement but I just decided to not go back to that dealer.

Unfortunately, the Honda dealer wasn't nearly as accomodating. It was a flat-out "no" to replacing my warped rotors under warranty ("normal wear-and-tear at 10k miles"? give me a break), so that was the end of my interest in ever owning another Honda vehicle.