I have a 22 High Country that I purchased with 10k miles on it. I recently had the Service brake sensor message. I took it to the dealership for what I thought was a warranty issue with the brake sensor.
What they told me was that the brakes and rotors were shot and needed to be replaced. The pickup currently has 22k on it.
I do pull a camper with the pickup with a GVR of 7000.
I havn't inspected the brakes myself yet, and I assume the dealership is telling me the truth.

My question is What would cause the brakes to fail so quickly?

 

The first thing I would do is to get a second opinion on the worn out brake pads and rotors from an independent shop. Also, a decent the shop will have a high level diagnostic device that they can connect to your Silverado to see what is going on with the brake system and determine why the "Service Brake System" message is showing up.

By the way, what exactly does the brake system warning message say? Does it specifically mention a brake pad wear sensor?

 

Thanks for replying.
The message is "Service Brake Pad Monitor". The tech at the shop said the pickup was driven too hard (hard braking) or pulling a heavy trailer. I don't ride the brakes or brake hard, and my trailer is 28' UVW 6000 GVWR 7500. It has working trailer brakes. Another tech talked about "lot rot" and sais if the rotors get rusty from no use the pads will wear out quickly, He also talke about the sensor getting out od place and destroying the brakes. Sometimes when the sensor works usually when I start it, it shows the pad left on front and rear. I dont remember what the numbers are but they were both higher than 70%. I purchased PowerStop heavy duty pads and rotors, and plan on putting them in. I should find a brake shop that will give me a second opinion, and I will be disappointed if they tell me something different about the state of my brakes.
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OK, thanks for the additional information.

I would definitely get an opinion from a brake shop.

When we had our 1999 Silverado 1500, we had premature brake wear of the disc pads (under 24000 miles), and in doing some research on it, I discovered a number of complaints about premature brake pad wear in the 1999 and 2000 Silverados being caused by a combination of bad friction material, "soft" rotors, and poorly built calipers. I even found a recommendation from someone who worked for a Chevy or GMC dealership to replace the pads, calipers and rotors with premium aftermarket products rather than using GM parts and the dealership where he worked would have customers who needed new brakes sign a waiver to allow the service personnel to use non GM parts in order to provide the customers with decent, long lasting brakes.

So, perhaps your Silverado's brakes might have ended up with some sub-par brake pads.

To me, it sounds like the shop techs are trying to blame the problem on something other than the legitimate cause (which could be poor factory brakes to begin with). I only have about 5000 miles on our 2022 Silverado 1500 LT, but as soon as the weather warns up, I intend on measuring the thickness of the friction material on all 4 corners of the truck and then do so again around 10000 miles. I figure if poor brake pads happened once from the factory, it could happen again.

Good Luck with your PowerStop install!