gm forgot to put brakes in cars

CruisnGrrl

CruisnGrrl

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Now with less brakes

http://jalopnik.com/5872097/gm-admits-it-maybe-forgot-to-put-brake-pads-on-your-chevy-sonic


[h=1]GM admits it maybe forgot to put brake pads on your Chevy Sonic[/h] http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/12/2011/12/28602bb27066e3503fe08e08c9201cbd.jpgIf you purchased a 2012 Chevy Sonic you might want to check and see if the car's brake pads are all there as GM now admits they may have shipped as many as 4,296 of them without them. Also, they're not notifying anyone until mid-January. Happy New Year!
GM is recalling approximately 4,300 of the Sonics sold in the United States because they fear the vehicles may be missing an inner or outer front brake pad. The cars are all from GM's Orion Township assembly in Michigan (the company has been touting the car's American-built bonafides).
Customers are going to start receiving letters from dealers "beginning January 14th" asking them to get their car inspected.
We wouldn't wait that long without checking. Sure, your Sonic will still stop if it's missing one brake pad. Call us crazy but we like having all our brakes.
 
Wow, with jit inventory you think someone would question the growing supply of break pads. Interesting to find out if it was a robot or a ****** off employee.
 
Maybe they went smoking on the job?? :shock:
 
Does nobody step on a brake pedal at least once before it leaves a factory???? This is beyond sad ....
 
As I understand it, it is NOT that 4,000 cars were shipped with a missing brake pad, but rather that it's been discovered that about 20 or 30 of them may have a missing brake pad but they don't know which of those 4,000 they are.

My money is on that the inventory count didn't add up and they can't figure out what happened.

I have a hard time believing that the car got out of final inspection, driven around in the lot, driven around at the dealer, and through PDI without *someone* realizing that there was a problem.
 
My BS detectors are tingling.

These cars are roll tested, and driven several times before the owner ever gets in the vehicle. If the front calipers were missing a pad, the noise would be incredible. That's assuming the piston didn't come out of the caliper, and blow the brake fluid out.
 
Mine, too. I have a funny feeling that a wrong number crept into an inventory count somewhere, not that the car actually left the plant without brake pads.
 
shadowman said:
My BS detectors are tingling.

These cars are roll tested, and driven several times before the owner ever gets in the vehicle. If the front calipers were missing a pad, the noise would be incredible. That's assuming the piston didn't come out of the caliper, and blow the brake fluid out.
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I have to agree. There are too many checks throughout the process that the likelihood of this is very low. Although I don't deny that it is possible that between the factory worker, factory test driver, truck loader/unloader, dealer AND driver, all would be clueless and not notice a problem. I try not to underestimate the stupidity of people.
 
I used to work in an auto plant and I know of two cases on something somewhat similar happening (much smaller scale), in both cases it was the workers on the line who did it on purpose:

In the first case someone removed the nut holding on the steering wheel. It was the "QC" guy who was actually supposed to check the torque, instead he removed it. The line was stopped by the next guy who was to put the airbag in when he noticed there was no nut. They went back along the process ISO yada yada yada... and got a confession out of the guy, union fought and won protecting his job. The thing was there were three checks on this nut, guy who installed it, two QC checks.

Next, car was in for service at the dealer and the rear brake parts (drum) were missing, not just pads but pretty much everything--just the drums were there (not caught on a test drive because rear drums don't contribute much...). Because they were drums the guys mounting tires did not notice.The lines were capped and the inside of the drums had "something" written on them. Not sure if they ever figured out which DB did this one.

Not my experience, but my father (working in the bodyshop of a dealer) dealt with a case in the 60s where a car split in two, the car passed through the weld shop between shifts (the second shift thought the first finished when they did not even start). No ill intent here just a really bad mistake.

One offs happen more than we know. When they talk about 1000s I call BS. I can see bad batches of pads but no pads at all seems really fishy, specially with disk brake cars (too easy to see hey are missing, the guys mounting the wheels will notice).
 
SunnY S said:
Fire the guy that does the PreDeliveryInspection at the dealer that YOU PAY FOR when you buy the car to make sure the car is safe and ready to go.


.
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Good point how did this car pass inspection at the factory and the dealer.
 
backmarkerducati said:
I used to work in an auto plant and I know of two cases on something somewhat similar happening (much smaller scale), in both cases it was the workers on the line who did it on purpose:

In the first case someone removed the nut holding on the steering wheel. It was the "QC" guy who was actually supposed to check the torque, instead he removed it. The line was stopped by the next guy who was to put the airbag in when he noticed there was no nut. They went back along the process ISO yada yada yada... and got a confession out of the guy, union fought and won protecting his job. The thing was there were three checks on this nut, guy who installed it, two QC checks.

Next, car was in for service at the dealer and the rear brake parts (drum) were missing, not just pads but pretty much everything--just the drums were there (not caught on a test drive because rear drums don't contribute much...). Because they were drums the guys mounting tires did not notice.The lines were capped and the inside of the drums had "something" written on them. Not sure if they ever figured out which DB did this one.

Not my experience, but my father (working in the bodyshop of a dealer) dealt with a case in the 60s where a car split in two, the car passed through the weld shop between shifts (the second shift thought the first finished when they did not even start). No ill intent here just a really bad mistake.

One offs happen more than we know. When they talk about 1000s I call BS. I can see bad batches of pads but no pads at all seems really fishy, specially with disk brake cars (too easy to see hey are missing, the guys mounting the wheels will notice).
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Just proves my theory that unions are useless and cause more problems. They were great in the 1920's but not anymore.
 
Dahulk said:
Just proves my theory that unions are useless and cause more problems. They were great in the 1920's but not anymore.
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they have been very good for me.

How do you know it was a installer issue? I also worked at a auto plant, front susupension came to the plant assembled, basically all the parts came in assembled on the cradle, motor went into cradle, cradle went into car,

Wheel (on hydraulic arm) went on hub.

Gerry
 
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EngineerJoe said:
I have to agree. There are too many checks throughout the process that the likelihood of this is very low. Although I don't deny that it is possible that between the factory worker, factory test driver, truck loader/unloader, dealer AND driver, all would be clueless and not notice a problem. I try not to underestimate the stupidity of people.
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Oh thank god or whatever for that reassurance. For a moment there I thought this was another doomsday report of an imminent sky falling again.
 
backmarkerducati said:
Not my experience, but my father (working in the bodyshop of a dealer) dealt with a case in the 60s where a car split in two, the car passed through the weld shop between shifts (the second shift thought the first finished when they did not even start). No ill intent here just a really bad mistake.
).
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didn't most of the cars in the 1960's have frames? Which car was he talking about?
 
murf said:
didn't most of the cars in the 1960's have frames? Which car was he talking about?
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Many of the Chryslers/Plymouth/Dodge models, including the larger Imperials, started moving to unit body construction back in the early to mid 1960's. The front engine box was welded onto the passenger compartment box.
 
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murf said:
didn't most of the cars in the 1960's have frames? Which car was he talking about?
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60s is when the unibody stuff started to come out (also partial frame cars). Monster cars were still full fame, smaller stuff started to migrate over.
 
Why the hell was this not on the nightly news? When Toyota does a slight mess up, it is on every channel news.
 
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