Rear brakes. A problem known by SAAB?
 

Hi all,
I'm new to this forum and want to start by saying the 2007 93 2.0T Combi my wifebought new in 2007is the first SAAB we have owned. We have previously owned Toyotas and Hondas exclusively. I still have my 98 Accord and I will say I enjoy driving my wife's SAAB. I am about to tell you all about the recent experience with rear brakes worn out at 15,000 miles. I am VERY unimpressed with this. My Accord gets at least 55,000 miles per rear set of pads. Iread onlinethat this is an issue with some SAAB 93 owners.

The history on this car is that at 18 months the GM labelled battery died. New one installed under warranty and it was stamped "SAAB". We'll see.

Now the rear brakes wore down to metal on metal last week. I pulled the calipers and found the outboard pads worn down to metal. The inboard pads had more than 1/4 inch of meat left. Not a good sign. I put them back on and talked to the dealer. Long story short, yesterday they replaced both rear rotors, calipers and pads under warranty. They said the calipers were sticking. Well the battery was "GM" and the rotors have a cast-in "GM" on them. I do remember saying to my wife when we bought the car that anything that went worng on this car would be GM related.

Reading between the lines when talking to the mechanic, I understand that the dealer now stocks a larger inventory of rear calipers and rotors among other subtle stuff that I picked up on while speaking with him. From my 4 decades of experience with cars and working on them I believe that SAAB knows it has a problem with rear brakes on the2007 93 and is just not saying anything unless you bring the car in and complain.

FYI, if youwant to work on the rear brakes yourself you WILL needthe caliper compression tool to retract the piston on this particular GM caliper.The tool is available for rent from some, not all,Kragen Autoparts storesfor$6 per 48 hours (at least here in California). If I ever have to work on the rear brakes out of warranty I will be buying that tool.

I must admit I am a little put off by the experiences of such early failures with the SAAB, but then the mechanic did tell me that to compare it to a Honda/Toyota is not fair. Over all it is a nice car with plenty of go power.

Sorry for the long post. The next will be shorter.

Kim

RE: Rear brakes. A problem known by SAAB?
 

I don't see why it has to be a "GM" problem. GM isn't in the business if making parts, they make cars. Companies like Brembo, Kelsey-Hayes, Visteon, Borg Warner, etc... make the parts for the cars and put the manufacturers logo on as requested. These companies are global parts supliers, so wether the car is part of the GM family or not, does not make the parts more/less inferior. You would be suprised as how many manufacturers like Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Ford and many many more use the same parts suppliers.

RE: Rear brakes. A problem known by SAAB?
 

What you say is what I say to others on a couple of other forumswhen this type of thing come up. And you are basically correct. The only difference can be when a manufacturer such as SAAB requests a quote from a supplier, i.e. Brembo, to produce a part for them to SAAB's specs. Then GM requests a quote from Bremboto producethe samepart for them to GM's specs. For sake of arguement, SAAB 's spec could be X and GM's spec could be Y, for the exact same part (say a caliper). Specification X is tighter than specification Y and yet the finished product is almost identical for all intents and purposes. GM now says to SAAB that they will use the caliper Y as it is more "economical" (cheaper) than caliper X. So caliper Y is used. Since caliper Y is built to Y specs the chances are that it will exhibit problems sooner than the X spec caliper, though they look exactly the same.

I have seen this over and over in my career as an engineerin the defense industry ibn the past andin for the wireless/cellular industry where cost of production takes precedence over reliability/safety/reputation. Not always but too many times.

Kim

RE: Rear brakes. A problem known by SAAB?
 

That too, may be the case. I just hate to see GM get drug through the mud without knowing the underlying cause. I have seen in many instances, GM switched suppliers on parts that have been consistant failures, like window regulators for example, which shows maybe GM does try to do right!

But FWIW, my '07 9-3 SS appears to have had new brakes put on the back, but since I am the second owner, I don't know what all has been done, but I will keep an eye on it, thanks!

RE: Rear brakes. A problem known by SAAB?
 

My wife's brand new suzuki had front brakes replaced in 15K miles twice. This happens with many manufacturers...

well i know my rear brakes seem to be dragging a bit.
the caliper is sticking or its the parking adjustment.
i just purchased my 03 linear 93 and they had put new pads on it at the place that sold it to me .,..... i wonder if its the parking brake adjustment, but its only one wheel, its hard to spin the wheel up on jack....

where the parking brake adjustment??

i actually still have factory saab extended warrantly but im assuming calipers are not covered?

I'm new here, so hello to all. My wife's 07 9-3 has rear brake grab as well and the rear wheels are covered in brake dust, while the fronts are clean. I have had them adjusted by the dealer on service #2 and will need to have them done on service #4, since we have 33,XXX miles and are fast approaching another service. Saab knows about it and you will have to ask for an adjustment. As for batteries, ours is 2 years old almost and we had the battery become unstable and fail. Our dealer sent a service truck out and within 10 minutes, had a new Saab battery in it and we were up and running.

The rear bakes use a different type of pad then the front tire. This causes the back pad to ware out quicker then the front. Normally the back brakes need to be replaced at or around 30k miles.

I want to say the fronts normally go around 40-50k. On a side note the Saab vs Honda on maintenance is not a good comparison. The Honda is a slow family car vs a Semi sporty semi luxury Car.

next time compare BMW or another car in the same class.

caliper compression tool?
 

Don't bother with caliper compression tools. Just borrow or even buy a good sized C-clamp. No need to throw money down the drain.

Rear Brakes
 

Our 04 Aero has the same problem on the right rear... pads all the way gone (2nd set at 60K) and left still had almost 1/4". The right rear has always dusted much more than any other wheel... they claim it needs an adjustment.

The brakes on the rear are about the easiest I've ever done... maybe 10 minutes. Use a c-clamp to compress the piston while using some channel locks or something like that to rotate the piston clockwise as you are compressing the piston. That's about the hardest part!

Is this solved with a bleeding, replacement caliper, etc.?