Drum brake issue...

[Ozzwoman9]

My rear passenger side brake has been acting up for months now. ALL new parts, new drum, new shoes, wheel cyl. To best describe it, when coming to a stop the cars slows and when almost stopped it feels like the brake skips or drags (like when your brakes get wet).

At first thought the new drum I got was bad, replaced it and it was fine for about a day then started again. Checked brakes and the adjuster seems to keep backing off. Readjust, and it's fine for a short drive then starts in again. Tried new adjusters with no luck either. Someone suggested that it was the e brake hanging up, and it did look as though the e brake was partially applied, so that was fixed. Took car for a drive and it STILL does it!!

Seriously at wits end with this and it really has me considering selling the car because everything is NEW and it is not safe to drive the way it is!!! I have had about 4 mechanics look at it and no one can figure it out.

Any ideas on wtf it may be?


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[SummitBalt08]

I had the same problem with the 97 Z24 I had a long time ago. The Cobalts rear brakes were never the same after I replaced them either (it had 89k on it). That's why when I bought the Malibu I made sure I got a car with 4 wheel disc lol.

I hope you get it figured out .. with the cavalier I tried replacing them again with parts straight from the dealer instead of Autozone and it still didn't fix it.

Good luck, that was a great looking Beretta at Bfest.

[scannerman]

They probably need adjustment. They are supposed to self adjust but we all know that doesn't work like it's supposed to.

[Ozzwoman9]

Yeah it's got me so ticked off!!! I drive the Mustang every day now, so I rarely drive it. My man is a mechanic and he drives it to work every day, so you can only begin to imagine how many times the car has been on the lift with the wheel off!! And he's had so many other people look at it as well. He's been a mechanic for 10+ years and knows what he's doing, plus other mechanics have looked at it too. If it were a person's error, then both sides would be doing this, but the drivers side is fine!


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[Ozzwoman9]

They probably need adjustment. They are supposed to self adjust but we all know that doesn't work like it's supposed to.

Been done every time the wheel has been off!


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[heavywoody]

Have you tried driving in reverse to about 20mph, then hitting the brakes relatively hard? Not slamming them, but about a medium-high pressure on the pedal?

[Ozzwoman9]

Have you tried driving in reverse to about 20mph, then hitting the brakes relatively hard? Not slamming them, but about a medium-high pressure on the pedal?

what exactly would that do anyway?


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[SummitBalt08]

Have you tried driving in reverse to about 20mph, then hitting the brakes relatively hard? Not slamming them, but about a medium-high pressure on the pedal?

what exactly would that do anyway?


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It's supposed to adjust the brakes. From my experience if you do that 5 or 6 times it will fix it temporarily. I did that with the Cavalier and the brake problems just kept coming back. I still miss it. It was a good car otherwise...

[Money pit Beretta]

Thought I read somewhere that our cars adjust when going forward.

[DTMAce]

No, they rear adjust, mine does anyway.

I have always had these problems in wet weather, but that was it. I find it hard to believe that it still happens, even after replacing every part on there. Was the backing plate replaced? Maybe its bent or out of shape somehow, causing things to mis-align.

I doubt a bearing would contribute to this, but who knows. Have them check the rear bearing for play.

[Barry]

I had this issue. Wheel bearing.

i was swapping everything left to right and the rear right would still lock. With abs it would pulsate the other wheels and make stopping really unsafe.

Replaced bearing and its all good.

[berettaboi]

my car had the issue when i first got it, and i have heard of this solving the sticking issue for others before as well.

swap the front brake shoe for the back... just pull it all apart and swap them around. sounds weird, but it has worked at least twice for me... 2 different cars. also make sure your shoes still have meat, and not digging rivits into the drum, and also drum thickness is still with spec... they edges usually rot and crumble off near time for replacement anyways...

[Ozzwoman9]

I'll try to double check the wheel bearings this weekend. Everything else has been checked and fine already. If those seem good, then I may go back and upgrade to different/better drums/shoes to see if that helps.


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[Ozzwoman9]

Ok. Looked at car again today and it would appear that the hoses on the drivers side are bad, which might be causing the pass side to lock up. Gonna try to get them replaced tonight and see if that does the trick!


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[Money pit Beretta]

Get on it and quit skydiving.