Whoops: GM Recalls 4,296 Chevy Sonics For Missing Brake Pads
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General Motors has issued a recall for over 4,000 2012 Chevy Sonics that have rolled out of GM’s Orion Township, MI assembly plant. The problem? Some may be missing something fairly important to their assembly: brake pads. According to The General, some 20 to 30 Sonics out there could be missing either an inner or outer front brake pad.
So if you’re the owner of a new Sonic, expect a letter in the mail beginning January 14, 2012. Owners will be instructed to take their Sonic to the nearest Chevy dealer for inspection for missing components, and to install new pads, if necessary.
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Gotta love that union labor.
I’d venture a guess there was a problem with the supplier of the brake unit assembly or the actual design of the production line — rather than the work at Orion Township, itself.
Either way, I’m glad GM is issuing the recall.
These are built up onsite by a sub contractor so this is not the time to blame the union guys this is the second tier jobbers. hope this helps
Ah yes, that’s what I had in mind. No way such small components are installed on a production line.
Thanks for clarifying, JD!
So who are the bone head(s) that installs the brake assemblies on the Sonic? The sub contractor or a union worker? Blaming it on a sub contractor/supplier sounds like something Toyota would do.
Well, regardless of who built the brake unit/who puts the car together, there’s something wrong at Orion Township if final quality control allows something like that to leave the factory. You’d think someone would have noticed it during final testing, that is unless Orion Township doesn’t check all vehicles for quality before sending them out. I hope they do a better job in the future, the Sonic is very important for GM and if necessary they should check every inch of that car before loading it on the truck. I would hate for this incident to make Sonic the next Corvair. You know this will be all over Fox News.lol
I guess we should count our blessings. It seems to only affect a few units, not every car sold, no incident has been reported, and no one has died.
Is the subcontractor LINC? Arent’t they involved with an ongoing contract negotiation or something? I thought the UAW was trying to unionize them. Perhaps they were a bit distracted by all the hoopla. And I agree, though they may have put the unit together wrong, the person on the line doing should have easily noticed it was missing a brake pad, assuming that part of the process is to inspect the unit before installation.
Can’t wait for more details.
Brake pads are optional equipment
This makes no sense. If I own one of these Sonics I have to wait until January 14th to find out whether or not I have all my brake pads? Isn’t GM the home of OnStar? What bonehead failed to enable the collection of that data off of the CAN for the purposes of remote diagnostics? You mean I can get an emailed vehicle health report from OnStar and NOT KNOW if I am missing a brake pad? Instead of using the OnStar system to turn this blunder into a triumph this announcement merely serves to point up the limitations of OnStar.
Funny, last I checked they, and by they I mean everybody, don’t make a sensor that integrates with the ECU or the OBD system that can check your brakes… And that is the info OnStar uses…
We dealers have a list of potentially involved cars that are still in inventory (and the ones on our list were all ok), but not those delivered to customers. Its’ pretty easy to check out so we are doing so on all Sonics for our customers right now. No need to wait until January 14th.
http://www.onstar.com/web/portal/systemdetails#brake <- Link for OnStar diagnostics report. It does report on status of anti-lock brake system and Stabiliitrak. If it does NOT monitor brake pad EXISTENCE (let alone depth) it should. GM should adopt the same strategy as Ford in monitoring the status of vehicles AS THEY ARE BEING MANUFACTURED using the OnStar system or at least Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. It's 2011! (for another 16 hours anyway)
Thank god a voice of reason! My thoughts in a blog: http://blogs.strategyanalytics.com/AMCS/post/2011/12/31/Telematics-systems-ought-to-help-car-makers-avoid-embarrassing-recalls-such-as-the-Chevys-recall-of-2012-Sonics-that-may-be-missing-brake-pads.aspx
Allowing Neanderthals to build cars might not be the best idea, especially low paid sub-contractors. I hope GM reviews the company involved fines them and sends the workers involved packing.
At least it has a stealing wheel, oh did I go there sorry, something about union workers and uh anyway…
Let’s try this again at least it has a steering wheel…
it’s only 20 or 30 cars w/o brake pads the total number of 4000 car is to be on the safe side