Talk about your "whoops" moments

[CAP1]

 apparently someone forgot one leeeeeetle detail........

It turns out that Chevrolet let a few Sonics built between June 2 and November 21 leave its factory in Orion Township, Michigan minus a brake pad. General Motors claims that of the 4,873 Sonics built during that time, some 20 to 30 may be missing either an inner or outer front brake pad. The company says 4,296 of the potentially shoe-less Sonics were sent to the U.S., while 577 migrated north to Canadian customers.
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/30/2012-chevy-sonic-brake-pad-recall/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl7|sec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D123924

[RTHolmes]

amazing that the guys fitting them didnt notice. or their boss. or the QC guys. or the guys who drove em on and off the transporters. or the dealers.


btw that article really underplays this - no braking on one front wheel is about as dangerous a defect as there is.

[morfiend]

  It says it's missing a pad,inside or outside so the brakes may function somewhat,but you'd thing they'd make a heck of a noise!

  I can see this happen,a reliefman covering for a break,a new guy on the job,many different things could have caused this.  I once had a stockman mix up the stock on the assembly line,left motor mounts in the right bin,rights in the left.They looked almost the same and were marked with a dab of green paint on the left mount. However the mistake was made and didnt show up until they tried to mount the engine and the bolt were only a half an inch off location.

  It all about building those 60 cars an hour! The only things that stop the lines are major things that cant be solved after the fact. There was about 150 engines that needed the swap,they took four guys and tasked them to it while the line continued,3 or 4 cars had to be pulled from the line to have the mounts swapped because they could continue to build that way.

  I could tell you alot more but wont,things have changed since then!



   

[RTHolmes]

they wont function somewhat, you will have almost no braking on that wheel! even a single badly worn pad can make a car veer badly under hard braking.

the main problem seems to be people fitting brakes, who dont know how brakes work ... 

[icepac]

A missing brake pad on a brand new car will still have plenty of braking..........and noise.

It would easily last long enough for the guy who did the pre-delivery inspection to find or the customer because it will make huge amounts of noise.

[CAP1]

amazing that the guys fitting them didnt notice. or their boss. or the QC guys. or the guys who drove em on and off the transporters. or the dealers.


btw that article really underplays this - no braking on one front wheel is about as dangerous a defect as there is.

 yea..it doesn't really make sense....there had to be a perfect order of mistakes made for this to get to this point.

[icepac]

A missing brake pad on a brand new car will still have plenty of braking..........and noise.

It would easily last long enough for the guy who did the pre-delivery inspection to find or the customer because it will make huge amounts of noise.

I've driven plenty of cars missing brake pads.

[morfiend]

I'm not disagreeing with you RT,but was merely pointing out why the problem wasnt discovered before shipping.




   

[CAP1]

presuming it made it to the dealer, there is absolutely no way it should have made it through pre-delivery inspection, especially considering that they are test driven before the customer gets it. if it had enough braking power, it is pretty much guaranteed that it would make enough noise that the pre-delivery guy would flag it for a check.
 i can also see the caliper piston being given enough room to remove itself from the caliper in some instances with a missing pad. this in itself would indeed cause a near total loss of braking power.

[PAKFRONT]

Maybe they were assembled by the guys they found on TV gettin stoned at lunch break, huh??
Is that UAW control and Govt Oversight hard at work??? Oops

[Dago]

It's like I always say 'Chevy Sucks!".   

[MaSonZ]

It's like I always say 'Chevy Sucks!".   

+1.

never really liked the Bowtie, and now I do have a reason to not like. 

[CAP1]

Maybe they were assembled by the guys they found on TV gettin stoned at lunch break, huh??
Is that UAW control and Govt Oversight hard at work??? Oops

 was more than likely more on the order of what morfiend said. the problem is i would think that there was some form of "failsafe" in place to prevent these types of mistakes.

 

[icepac]

presuming it made it to the dealer, there is absolutely no way it should have made it through pre-delivery inspection, especially considering that they are test driven before the customer gets it. if it had enough braking power, it is pretty much guaranteed that it would make enough noise that the pre-delivery guy would flag it for a check.
 i can also see the caliper piston being given enough room to remove itself from the caliper in some instances with a missing pad. this in itself would indeed cause a near total loss of braking power.

No mention of any of these making it to the customers.

I doubt a piston would fall out unless the rotors had been cut multiple times and the other side pad were low.

This means someone would have to drive the car many thousands of miles.

Not gonna happen.

[dentin]

 
  I could tell you alot more but wont,things have changed since then!

   

  "no matter how much things change, they remain the same". To wit: I just received a recall to FIX the previous recall, on my 2010 Dodge 3500.