# Brakes



## 72buickgs (Mar 20, 2011)

out LS has disk drum and they work well. i have an '08 astra xr dr 5spd with disks on all fours. best brakes i have ever had or experienced.
remember that brakes do have to be broken it. there is a procedure.


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

...the 4-wheel discs on our LTZ seem fine.

...remember, the Cruze's weight is 3200+ lbs, so it's not _light weight_ by any means.


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

In their May issue comparo road test, Car and Driver Magazine complained that the brakes on their 2LT RS tester with the 17" wheel option faded so badly in the braking tests that they smoked like they were on fire. The Cruze did have the shortest stopping distance of the five cars in the test though. I suspect that the pads are not all that good (non domestic content). A brand new car should not have brake issues, but if I see a bunch of braking complaints, I'm planning on doing a brake pad upgrade on the Cruze I order. Yeah, that's an extra $90 or so for the four wheels, but I'm planning ahead. It should only take me 3 or 4 hours to do all four wheels.

Also, how many miles on the odo? There may be a pad or two that have not mated to the disk properly.


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## Silver RS (Apr 8, 2011)

JGA said:


> I find the brakes on my 2LT RS just bearly adequate. I though having 4 wheel disk brakes would be a lot better. How are the rear drum brake cars? Any comments please.


 
I have a 2LT RS with 16 inch wheels which comes with rear drum brakes and they brake very well. I only have 400 miles on the car so I am still with in the brake in period. It does take some time for the shoes to seat themselves depending on individual driving habits.


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## jakkaroo (Feb 12, 2011)

ive smoked my brakes on my ls racing through the mountains


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## miaheatfan (Feb 25, 2011)

The braking in my 2LT has always been underwhelming but lately it's been getting even less responsive. I shouldn't have to push the brake pedal to the floor in order to stop in a reasonable amount of distance in a car with only ~2300 miles.


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

...check with your Service Manager, maybe they'll find something that's causing your "underwhelming" brakes?


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## Skilz10179 (Mar 22, 2011)

Your front brakes do over 70% of the work every time you stop your car, with slightly upgraded rear brakes there isn't going to be a big difference. With that said, our brakes are definitely on the small side for what these cars weigh.


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## SilverCruzer (Nov 30, 2010)

1 LT - Brakes work great. Stops on time, takes little pressure.


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## CHEVYCRUZE RS (Mar 29, 2011)

lol! same here! my reasoning: had to "work in" my brakes!




jakkaroo said:


> ive smoked my brakes on my ls racing through the mountains


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## JGA (Mar 15, 2011)

Jim Frye said:


> In their May issue comparo road test, Car and Driver Magazine complained that the brakes on their 2LT RS tester with the 17" wheel option faded so badly in the braking tests that they smoked like they were on fire. The Cruze did have the shortest stopping distance of the five cars in the test though. I suspect that the pads are not all that good (non domestic content). A brand new car should not have brake issues, but if I see a bunch of braking complaints, I'm planning on doing a brake pad upgrade on the Cruze I order. Yeah, that's an extra $90 or so for the four wheels, but I'm planning ahead. It should only take me 3 or 4 hours to do all four wheels.
> 
> Also, how many miles on the odo? There may be a pad or two that have not mated to the disk properly.


1800 miles. I followed the break in procedure in the operators manual. The pads should be seated by now. Chev claims they exceeded safety standards with 10 air bags, but they got the most basic thing wrong - the brakes.


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## Eightbelow (Mar 16, 2011)

miaheatfan said:


> The braking in my 2LT has always been underwhelming but lately it's been getting even less responsive. I shouldn't have to push the brake pedal to the floor in order to stop in a reasonable amount of distance in a car with only ~2300 miles.


 

I don't have any problems with my 2lt disk brakes. They were a little rough but after I broke them in they are as smooth as butter. If your experiencing the brake peddle going to the floor then check your brake fluid level, if that checks out fine then the problem is most likely a failing master cylinder and it would be covered under your 3 year gm warranty. If you can pump the brake peddle and feel a lot of pressure and resistance but when you apply constant force on the brake peddle without pumping and it slowly sinks to the floor it is most certainly the master cylinder.


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## Vampyre Mike (Mar 30, 2011)

I agree, on my 1LT with 200 miles and rear drum. The brakes seem a little to be desired, I really gotta hit it to stop. With my Altima I would kind of cruise (for lack of a better term) and then ease on the breaks... I'm hoping they break in.


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## CHEVYCRUZE RS (Mar 29, 2011)

my brakes work great on my ltz rs ! no problems yet haah!


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## cruzeman (Mar 13, 2011)

they do take getting used to as my pedal has alot more travel then im used to.


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## CruzinGeorgia (Apr 7, 2011)

cruzeman said:


> they do take getting used to as my pedal has alot more travel then im used to.


yep, takes a bit of getting used to & have to travel the pedal a bit before they apply at all. I figd it had to do w/getting mpg by having the calipers knock the pads back somehow to reduce pad drag. Not to rag on anybody but (imo) anyone smoking the brakes on their cruze or racing them in gen at all prob bought the wrong car/don't expect it to last. jmo


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## JGA (Mar 15, 2011)

JGA said:


> I find the brakes on my 2LT RS just bearly adequate. I though having 4 wheel disk brakes would be a lot better. How are the rear drum brake cars? Any comments please.


Just to let know, it took 3500km or about 2000miles for the brake to come to life. They are fine now. I still think the peddal travels too far before they engage. I assume this was on purpose. Not my thing. I would like to them to apply as soon as you press the peddal.


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## shawn672 (Oct 31, 2010)

Does anyone know if anyone is working on aftermarket brakes (same size, just not OEM)?


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

...who else besides RAYBESTOS and BREMBO are in the OEM-replacement brake business? Shoes/pads and whole caliper assemblies?


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## slyedog (Mar 17, 2011)

Wagner is a big oem replacement.


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## 2004torridredgto (Apr 27, 2011)

I feel the same way as the OP. Nothing I've ever owned has had the braking capability I want. The S10 has twin piston aftermarket calipers up front and aftermarket one piston rears clamping on cryo slotted rotors. The GTO has 05/06 GTO calipers clamping on DBA rotors so I may be just spoiled with throw you through the windshield brakes but this is what I want?


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## shri2222 (May 13, 2011)

Once Hawk makes either their HPS or HP+ Pads i'll be upgrading. I run HP+ their track autox pad on my WRX, I <3 them. They make a huge difference. Negitives is they are noisey but if ur concerned with noice, Hawk makes HPS which is a street compound still has some noise, their ceramic is quite, but dosnt pack the same stoping force.


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## budd (Apr 12, 2011)

i have drum in the rear of my cruze and have no trouble at all with the brakes stopping. even lightly pushng the pedal they r just fine.(thank god lol)


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## Trtmntdude (Sep 19, 2011)

'11 eco with front discs and rear drums. Fronts started warping at 16,000 miles. I am NOT hard on the brakes. 6 months and 25,000 miles. All highway. I'd like to upgrade to something with more bite. anyone know of an aftermarket vendor? I've looked but to no avail.


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## A&J Cruzin (Aug 8, 2011)

i have over 6000 miles on mine..and they work great...but i will change the pads as soon as i see some ceramic pads around....heck autozone around here doesnt even have oil filters.


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## Jaycruze (Jul 11, 2011)

I did notice in my LS that the brakes do feel a little "soft" as if the car was too heavy for them, but they do work VERY well if required. I've had a mini van pull out into traffic looking through wrong way right infront of me, I had to do a hard swerve while braking very hard and the car performed amazing. The car felt sturdy and strong.

I wouldn't be surprised if the pads do wear out faster than average though.


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## cruzeman (Mar 13, 2011)

mine are warped at 14,000 miles of all highway driving. nothing phases me anymore with this car as its quickly disapointing me.


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## sam_advance (Feb 10, 2012)

Hey does anyone on this thread have any updates? I am taking delivery soon on my Cruze and am just thinking ahead towards brake pad replacements. I found what looks like Hawk HPS pads for the Cruze- but obviously from reading above I don't know if these have just been recently released, as it doesn't look like they were available at the time of the above posts. 

Brembo is also certainly a name I trust, and I couldn't find any Brembo replacement pads.(!) 

Hawk HPS High Performance Street Brake Pads - JCWhitney

Have any of you upgraded pads??


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

sam_advance said:


> Hey does anyone on this thread have any updates? I am taking delivery soon on my Cruze and am just thinking ahead towards brake pad replacements. I found what looks like Hawk HPS pads for the Cruze- but obviously from reading above I don't know if these have just been recently released, as it doesn't look like they were available at the time of the above posts.
> 
> Brembo is also certainly a name I trust, and I couldn't find any Brembo replacement pads.(!)
> 
> ...


If you're not looking to spend a fortune, the Bendix CT3 and Akebono Ultra-Premium pads are excellent ceramic pads.


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## sam_advance (Feb 10, 2012)

Thanks XT for getting back so quickly. Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by fortune? We could have different ideas of what's expensive. For me, If I spent 100.00 to 150.00 for great pads on all 4 wheels, markedly improved braking, that would be ok. I wouldn't want to go far beyond that, really.

Anyways, what I would be looking for is a great low-dust, low-noise pad with better bite than stock. I have no experience with the Bendix or Akebono's. Do you? Does that fact that they're ceramic pads matter much? (ex: ceramic brake systems on porsches, i.e. high performance, take time to heat up, can be noisy) Thanks again man!


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

sam_advance said:


> Thanks XT for getting back so quickly. Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by fortune? We could have different ideas of what's expensive. For me, If I spent 100.00 to 150.00 for great pads on all 4 wheels, markedly improved braking, that would be ok. I wouldn't want to go far beyond that, really.
> 
> Anyways, what I would be looking for is a great low-dust, low-noise pad with better bite than stock. I have no experience with the Bendix or Akebono's. Do you? Does that fact that they're ceramic pads matter much? (ex: ceramic brake systems on porsches, i.e. high performance, take time to heat up, can be noisy) Thanks again man!


I've used both pads and worn them down in both daily driving and heavy performance use. Between the two, I thought the Bendix pad had a harder bite but smoked up on very hard stops. By very hard, I mean pedal to the floor from 70mph to 0, but they were flawless in performance. The Akebonos were also excellent pads and served me very well on all of my cars. Both are ceramics. I personally choose ceramics because I don't like having to wipe the brake dust off of my wheels all the time, which is an issue with semi-metallic pads. 

I usually get my parts from rockauto.com, and they have the front Akebono pads for the Cruze for $80. Since the front of the car does most of the braking, I'd upgrade those first and see how you like it.


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## Beaker (Mar 21, 2012)

I had Hawks Ceramic pads on my GTO and they worked great and were noise free. I'm sure the HP+ pads would bite more but I didn't want noise or lots of dust. Also wanted something easy on the rotor. If my brakes are warped by 16,000 miles, I'll be going to a dealer and having them replace my brakes. Brakes should last at least 40-50,000 miles. At least OEM ones for this type of car.


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## Xenocamry (Jun 11, 2011)

+1, for hawk hps, had them on my mazda, they were great

Sent from my SGH-I897 using AutoGuide.com App


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