The 1999 Oldsmobile sales brochure states that the Alero is engineered to keep you "glued to the road" with crisp and nimble handling. This makes the Alero fun to drive. Some customers who registered their comments about the car on Edmunds.com, however, complained about the car's braking system. Most of the complaints were for the 2000 model year Alero.
When Oldsmobile released the Alero to the public, its only braking system was a four-wheel disk anti-lock setup. The 2004 Oldsmobile sales brochure says this unit is available on the the high-end GLS and GL2 trim levels.
Specifically, the customers on the Edmunds.com site said they had to replace braking components several times before the car reached 40,000 miles. The brake rotors were the source of the problems, they said. The rotors would warp, even though the brake calipers had good pads on them.
The experts At RepairPal.com write that the front brake rotors of the Oldsmobile Alero may wear and warp. The indication of the presence of warp rotors are pulsation in the brake pedal whenever the brakes are applied. This problem affects all model years, 1999 to 2004. A technical service bulletin was issued in April, 2003 concerning the front-brake pulsation. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) number for this bulletin is 10001251. The bulletin number is 000523002B.
The brake calipers making a creaking sound whenever the brakes are applied during low-speed braking is another problem associated with the Alero. This affects the 1999 to 2004 model years and was reported on RepairPal.com as a common Alero problem. A technical service bulletin was issued concerning this issue in December 2004. The NHTSA number for this bulletin is 10010551 and the service bulletin number is 3169.
The speed sensors in the front wheels may send intermittent or hard failure codes to the computer system. A technical service bulletin was issued concerning this problem in September 2004. The service bulletin number is 4152004 and the NHTSA number for this report is 1009220.
Oldsmobile Alero owners have had to deal with some braking problems. Along with bad reviews on Edmunds.com and RateitAll.com, however, the car also received excellent reviews.
