# Noise heard when applying brakes toward end of complete stop FOLLOW-UP



## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

As far as I am concerned, the ABS brakes on my 2012 2LT really suck, clunk like crazy if mother nature doesn't put an even coat of ice under both wheels at a stop sign. To get around this, downshift, and very slowly press on the pedal than quickly ease off so the darn front end doesn't rattle apart.


Not the first car with ABS, over 30 years worth, others would just buzz, mostly felt on the pedal, my dealer says, dey all do dis. Tend to agree with them, with mandatory ABS, sure cheapened them up. But not a problem at all on dry surfaces. You do not specify the conditions of your road, suppose to guess? Are you ABS being activated?


With front end clunks, extremely difficult to determine what and where behind the wheel, get a trusted driver and with run along side, not on a busy highway or road, and really helps to determine the source of the noise, can actually see the wheel move forwards and backwards with defective ball joints. Can also be defective control arm bushings. Really not very much to the Cruze's front suspension. With the 04 Cavalier, was defective upper strut bearings, but once in my hand, were really sloppy. 

Another was a broken upper spring coil, really not enough to lower the vehicle. Troubleshooting should easy unless you have an idiot working on your car. Sure ran into a bunch of morons, idiots would be a compliment with defective rear disc calipers. Like ain't getting any codes, your calipers are fine kind of absolute idiotic statements. Other problems are loose tie rod ends, but can feel the slop in the steering, broken stabilizer links, eyes work for these.

Bushings should be sprayed with silicone, dey don't do dis with an oil change and advertised grease job, last much longer.

Typical brake problems are a low pedal or shimmy when coming to a stop. Cruze used these crazy pad cradles with steel clips, where rust builds up underneath binding the pads, can't release and warp the rotors.

May have to give you the same advice a GM rep gave me on this board, find another dealer, with me the third one was okay. But no problem after my warranty runs out, will do it myself.

My Chevy dealer wanted $$$$ for upper strut bearings, cost me 40 bucks and about two hours of slow easy work. And I am slow!


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## Houd (Aug 4, 2012)

NickD said:


> As far as I am concerned, the ABS brakes on my 2012 2LT really suck, clunk like crazy if mother nature doesn't put an even coat of ice under both wheels at a stop sign. To get around this, downshift, and very slowly press on the pedal than quickly ease off so the darn front end doesn't rattle apart.
> 
> 
> Not the first car with ABS, over 30 years worth, others would just buzz, mostly felt on the pedal, my dealer says, dey all do dis. Tend to agree with them, with mandatory ABS, sure cheapened them up. But not a problem at all on dry surfaces. You do not specify the conditions of your road, suppose to guess? Are you ABS being activated?
> ...


Thanks for the thorough reply NickD.

I should have specified that the clunking noise comes from the front right side, on whatever type of roads ( summer, icy, snow, etc... )

They checked the ABS and said there was no errors in the codes and had a very detailed look at the brakes l as well as the surrounding area and reassured me that everything is working the way it's supposed to be without any physical faults visible. The noise is what is puzzling them to the point of ordering random parts to scratch them off the possible cause list...

I appreciate the tip on how to get around the noise however I'd rather them adress the problem rather than roll up their sleeves and basically say suck it up...

The noise comes from the brakes even when the ABS is not activated...

If the issue is not resolved in a few weeks I will have to bring it to another chev dealership and see if they can find what is wrong with it as you mentioned....


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Five easy to remove bolts removes the struts from these things. With that spring pressure relieved, can really rattle things around to find the problem. 

I drill holes in the bottom of my ball joints using a spur drill so chips don't get up into the grease. Then add a self tapping zerk fitting to give it a shot of grease every once in awhile. They last a lot longer this way. Same for the tie rod ends.


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## Houd (Aug 4, 2012)

Gotcha, I'm gonna wait before i start drilling holes myself as I am not a car guy when it comes to repairs and all, plus i want to see if they will be able to come up with a fix as they are having the same problems with equinox models but are able to solve the issue on the equinox. Might just have a defect on my hands...


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

Houd said:


> Years later I stumble onto this thread as I have been having similar problems with my 2012 Chevy Cruze LT for over the last year or so... I had to restart this thread because I won't get any answers posting it on the original one as it dates back to 2011...
> 
> Dealer has had a look at it almost ten different times, replacing all sort of braking parts from cleaning the brakes to new brake pads and rotors all while covering it under warranty.
> 
> ...


Hey Houd,

Very sorry for this! I can imagine how frustrating this may seem, and I would be happy to get you in touch with the right care team in your location. If you need any kind of assistance with this, please feel free to reach out to me via private message and include your VIN, current kilometers, contact information and the preferred dealership you have been working with. I'm happy to help the best way possible. 

Patsy G
Chevrolet Customer Care


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## Houd (Aug 4, 2012)

Chevy Customer Care said:


> Hey Houd,
> 
> Very sorry for this! I can imagine how frustrating this may seem, and I would be happy to get you in touch with the right care team in your location. If you need any kind of assistance with this, please feel free to reach out to me via private message and include your VIN, current kilometers, contact information and the preferred dealership you have been working with. I'm happy to help the best way possible.
> 
> ...


Pm'ed, thanks!


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Nothing like going to a wheel alignment shop and being told all four of your ball joints are bad. Well I didn't go, my kid did, called me to come over. We just replaced all four ball joints! Hand me that quote for 800 bucks. The guy tore it up. 

Not only this son, but two other sons and three daughters when off to college. Just told them to come home, but dad, they told me my car would fall apart and I will get killed! You won't get killed, know your cars. On one car, they loosened the wheel bearing saying the joints were bad, the crooks.

Makes a guy paranoid when you run into things like this over and over again. Another daughter came home with an outrageous quote with a check engine light on. Know exactly what the problem is and will be a five minute job for me. Ha, one way to get a daughter home for Thanksgiving. She was also made afraid to drive it, positivity no problems driving it home.


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## Daryl (Nov 10, 2013)

To put it bluntly, the brakes on these cars are complete and utter ****.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Daryl said:


> To put it bluntly, the brakes on these cars are complete and utter ****.


Somebody didn't do their homework in copying this 80's cradle with metal clips so they didn't have to machine the pad contact points. Even CR cut Toyota down on these kind of brakes. But not nearly the problem if you live in a salt free road area. Salt gets trapped between this cradle and metal clips, expands with rust and locks the pads. Back then, GM had far superior brakes.

With drums, got rid of that heavy U shaped single spring and went back to those tiny little coil springs like used on a 41 Chevy. But wasn't much of a problem even back then, no such thing as road salt. Insufficient force to activate the self adjust feature.

So if you are wondering why we are having problems, there is a reason, as stated above. 

Another big fat lie is that ABS does not interfere with normal braking. If a solenoid cheap made in China transistor shorts out, or using hygroscopic brake fluid that corrodes a valve where either can cause that valve to close. You get no brakes period to that particular wheel. 

How does it feel to live in an era loaded with BS?

One key reason they put a label on an electronic module, DO NOT OPEN, NO USER REPLACEABLE PARTS INSIDE. Is that they don't want you to see the cheap crap inside you are paying a fortune for. But getting around this by feeling up that cavity with epoxy.

Same thing with an ABS module, no replaceable parts available, no instructions on how to repair it, just pay $$$$ for a new one. Problem can be as simple as a cheapass made in China spring that broke, preventing a valve from opening.

This is telling it the way it is!!! And I dare anyone to contradict this! Tees me off.


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## Houd (Aug 4, 2012)

Just got the car back after it spent the night getting parts replaced, got a long list of new parts put on, including break pads, calipers, brackets, etc...

I couldn't hear the noise for the last 2 weeks before bringing it in as temperature dropped to -10 to -25 celsius... noise seems to stop when it's really cold out ( mind you I haven't driven it on any long trips for it to act up either ).

This might have to wait till summer but hopefully the noise will be gone by then... (crossing fingers)


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

A long list of parts? Did that include a new console lid?


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## Houd (Aug 4, 2012)

NickD said:


> A long list of parts? Did that include a new console lid?


Negative, mine never gave me any trouble, what's wrong with yours? or was wrong ?


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## Carol0622 (Oct 26, 2019)

I have a 2012 and having the same **** issue. New brakes and rotors and now it makes a horrible grinding/squealing/metal clunking noise. It only happens when I'm lightly applying the brakes to come to a stop. This car has been nothing but issues for me. Any advice would be appreciated.


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## plano-doug (Jul 1, 2015)

Carol0622 said:


> I have a 2012 and having the same **** issue. New brakes and rotors and now it makes a horrible grinding/squealing/metal clunking noise. It only happens when I'm lightly applying the brakes to come to a stop. This car has been nothing but issues for me. Any advice would be appreciated.


I've seen, on the Impalas, when the traction control fires, it makes a grinding noise. The Impalas are notorious for intermittent wheel speed sensors that cause the computer to misinterpret the intermittent signal as wheel slip which makes it apply the brake(s). I've not seen it on my Cruzes, but, assuming your recent brake job was done properly, it's something else to consider.

BTW, was that brake job done in a shop? Or DIY? Front axle? Or both?

When you apply the brakes, there can be a tiny bit of movement in the knuckle, maybe just enough to agitate a bad connection in the harness and cause the traction control to fire. This would imply a bad connection at the wheel speed sensor, perhaps caused by a poorly seated connector.

Again, this is a bit of a long shot, but if you've ruled out everything else...

Doug

.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

If the problem only started after the brake job, I'd suspect the brake job or the parts used.


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## Bob W (Jun 17, 2021)

This is the most frustrating issue I have ever had with a car. I have a 2015 Equinox that follows the same symptoms as described. Problem started after brake job and continues despite many attempts to fix. It is not the ABS causing it, it's a grinding, clunking from the front end at slow speeds under light braking condition. I am good with cars and Many mechanics and friends have had many ideas as to the cause but none is the right one. Apparently, from the entries I have read GM doesn't have a clue either. If anyone has had success please respond.


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## Blasirl (Mar 31, 2015)

Bob W said:


> This is the most frustrating issue I have ever had with a car. I have a 2015 Equinox that follows the same symptoms as described. Problem started after brake job and continues despite many attempts to fix. It is not the ABS causing it, it's a grinding, clunking from the front end at slow speeds under light braking condition. I am good with cars and Many mechanics and friends have had many ideas as to the cause but none is the right one. Apparently, from the entries I have read GM doesn't have a clue either. If anyone has had success please respond.


Welcome aboard!

I would look at the pins and seals. If you redid the brakes without pulling them, they may need to be replaced.

I would also start your own thread to get the most responses.

Don't forget to introduce yourself and your Cruze here.

Remember to vote:

Spring 2021 MOTM Voting Thread
Spring 2021 COTM Voting Thread

and then consider running for either or both in the next run!


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