Wondering if anyone else has experienced this ? I'd posted in July about the 'need' (?) to replace the rear brakes on my '07 GLS at 18,600 mi...I know . We began to hear the tell-tale metalic squeel primarily when turning the steering wheek to the right. Took it in and the mechanic and service guy indicated that the rears were worn down, mainly on the left. Being that I was hearing the noise too, which I knew to be the wear indicators and that my 19 yr old was driving the car mainly to her Summer job, I decided to have them replaced and the rotors turned. Since I'd had the car for 18 months there was little hope of having them replace under warranty. Between this and the 2 other Hyundai sites, I found a few other posts about this problem which seemed to indicate that in fact it might be a caliper or piston or rear pad issue needing an adjustment.
Today I took my '08 GLS, in service 8/15 last yr., in for the 34 point inspection, thanks HMC for the freebie coupon - and asked that they specifically check the brakes. Well...they found that the "rear brakes were sticking in slides causing glazing" they "freed the pads and machined the rotors" this time on the house
I insisted again that this wasn't normal especially for rear brakes and that there was some chatter on the internet message boards about what the problem might be.
The service guy, who seems to be a genuinely decent sort pulled up the brake job on the '07 from July, printed it out and offered to discuss the problem with the
RSM who comes in periodically to see what they "can do for me" I made sure to reiterate that I have 2 Sonatas and not just a 10 yr old Accent! He did acknowledge that the wear war on the low side of normal, I told him that he needs to look up to see the low side of normal for rear brakes.
So - has anyone experiences anything like this from either of these years ? or have another idea of what might be going on here ? On both cars the driving as about 75/25 city/hwy the 08 is garaged the 07 outside and I'm in W. PA w/4 season weather if it matters. We like both cars but this has me concerned.

We also have 2 Sonata's, both 07's. The brakes on my wife's GLS feel much better as far as stopping power compared to my Platinum Edition brakes. I also notice the rear rotors on my car look scored as the rear rotors on the GLS are perfectly smooth. I will have to contact the dealer regarding this. Do you have the sites where you have read about other Sonata owners having this issue?

I don't know how the Hyundai's are set up, but on the 88 - 91 Grand Prix, Buick regal and Chevy Lumina, If you did not use your emergency brake or parking brake as some call it, the rear calipers would lock up on the slides. I found this out when I had to have the rear brakes on my Grand Prix replaced at 20,000 miles. So maybe on the Sonata's it could be the same problem. I will start using the Emergency brake more ofteten now and see if I have any problems as I am at 18,000 on my 07 Sonata.

The Sonata has a separate rear brake drum just for the parking brake.

I found this while looking for more info on our Sonata rear brakes:


Re: 2006 Sonata Rear brake failure
"How'd the backing plates of the old pads look? Were they rusty? Most
premature rear pad failures I've seen on Hyundais with rear brake systems
similar to yours are due to the pads binding in the caliper bracked due to
rust. I had one last week where I actually pulled the wheel and removed
the caliper from the bracket, but the pads were seized enough in the
bracket they were still applying pressure to the rotor."

I am going to pull the rear wheels off this weekend and take off the calipers to see if the pads are rusted in place.

07 Sonata

Well 1 thing I have found is that Hyundai is not willing to do jack! Typical of dealers. There is a very obvious problem with these Hyundais. The pads fit so tight into the holder they will never move position. Like having your brake on all the time except it is a slight drag not a total hold. Enough to wear them down in a 1-2 month time span. Running a reapir shop I took it into my own hands to customize the pad tabs. I ground them with a cutting wheel on my air grinder bits at a time till they fit snug as not to rattle but yet slide back n forth with my hands. When they come into the shop you got to pry them bad boys out with a pry bar way to tight. I mean pry with some muscle behind that bar. Normally pop them out with a screw driver. No rust simply a bad design as to what I have seen on anything I repaired.

This post has been edited by micinic: Nov 4 2008, 06:00 PM

I have the same issue with rear brakes. While braking it has a chirping sound - caliper (when pressed) meets the rusty surface of a disk. AT the dealer they cleaned the rust a bit, but sound is still there. Said I can drive safe - no issues until disks are to be replaced. The pads are not worn yet. These disks are made from really fast rusting metal!

must not be a issue with the '06 models? my rears don't make any noise and I have about half the pad left with almost 50k miles... (and the rotors are smooth, no grooves)

We're lucky to have 06's (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)