Hey,
When i press the brakes it seems like the driver side rear brake grabs harder then the rest of my brakes. The car pulls down to the left rear, and sometimes it sticks and then has a loud clunk like it was stuck. you know how people tap the brakes and it makes the car bouce to the front? well mine does it to the left rear. wtf, do i just need to replace the back brakes? its not the booster, or the master cyl. I have checked those.
When's the last time you had the brake lines flushed with new fluid? Brake fluid accumulates water, period. If not renewed, water in the system will wreak havod with ABS components. I'm not saying that is the source of your problems, but could be a likely cause.
Have the system blead. Probably air or something in there.
I have never had the brakes lines flushed, sounds like a good idea. could it be the return spring? i took it to a just brakes and they said it may be some kind of fluid leaking onto the drum, I would think that "oil" leaking on to my drum would make it slick not stick.
my 97 when i had it did that some days and my 02 does the same.... its worse when its raining... who know what it is...
YUP, exactly. when it is raining and i brake the drivers side rear will "lock" and the tire skids. it also does it on loose gravel.
Sounds like you have a wheel cylinder sticking. I would do a complete rear brake job, replacing or reboilding the wheel cyls. and the return springs. Good advise is to bleed the brakes every year as preventive maint.
God bless America.
cavaleer2002 wrote:Sounds like you have a wheel cylinder sticking. I would do a complete rear brake job, replacing or reboilding the wheel cyls. and the return springs. Good advise is to bleed the brakes every year as preventive maint.
^im with him.
kid had a older gm buick century at school, passenger rear wheel would lock up and he would spin.
turned out the wheel cylinder was frozen.
-Borsty
you should have a check inside the drum before planning anything. also check out your top mount for the rear strut. if the sleeve is going though the mount then there will be less resistance on keeping that wheel to the ground, which is why the whell will lock and the vehicle will sag
first thing i would do is to clean and adjust the rear brakes.....This solves my problem many times. And yes when its raining, moisture collect in the drum and make the linings stuck a bit.
Patrick's idea of cleaning and adjusting the brakes for the "first
step" is good advice.....
This will allow you to carefully pull the end-boot away from the
wheel cylinder. If brake fluid drips out, the cylinder needs to
be honed and a new wheel cylinder cup and spring installed.
A kit to do this is cheap, as well as brake cylinder hones.
A can or two of brake parts cleaner is also cheap.
Thanks guys, i really appreciate your quick response
Leland Sparks wrote:Patrick's idea of cleaning and adjusting the brakes for the "first
step" is good advice.....
This will allow you to carefully pull the end-boot away from the
wheel cylinder. If brake fluid drips out, the cylinder needs to
be honed and a new wheel cylinder cup and spring installed.
A kit to do this is cheap, as well as brake cylinder hones.
A can or two of brake parts cleaner is also cheap.
Or you could buy a new cylinder for $15.
^^Home made sig^^ ghetto, I know.
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why would u buy a wheel cylinder when ur not shure that this is the problem. I've done this many time with my cavy and the wheel cylinder is still good.
Ok... so what solved this problem? Anyone know? My girlfriend had the same problem... kept on cleaning and adjusting, the problem would be gone for 3 months and come back. Then the fronts needed to be done... I didn't fool around and just bought reman calipers, loaded them up with new pads, threw new rotors on along with the loaded calipers, then swapped the lines over, bled the fronts and checked the adjustment on the rears. The pedal came RIGHT up, and the brakes are touchy as hell.. awesome brakes now.. the wife loves them..
Now I bought myself a 96 sunfire gt... spitting image to her car funny enough. Anyway, I pulled all 4 corners apart today... found a bad rotor on one side, have yet to replace it, tomorrow probably... one side, the caliper pins were a bit sticky, took them out, cleaned them, lubed them with specific caliper lube, then put them back together, same with other side (although, the pins came out easy on this side) And on the backs, I notice the one side (the side that's been locking up on me), the shoes were shiney, they were glazed. I've heard this before, working in shops. So, I sanded the shoes, bevelled the ends of the shoe linings (figured that may prevent the shoes from hanging up), sanded the drums and ground away the ridge to make for easier adjustment. Now.. the pedal came upa bit, the fronts came alive again... and all was great until the backs got up to temperature and the one side started to lock up on me again... ugh... My next thing to try, tomorrow hopefully, is to install a new spring kit since the ones on there now look pretty rusty and old. Figure maybe the springs, when hot, don't have the tension to pull the shoes back quick enough, so they stick. So I'll try that... after that, I notice there may be a slight out-if-round on the one drum... so maybe get it turned, or new ones, depending on cost. And some new shoes, maybe these ones have been overheated too many times and are garbage now.
So... does it sound like I am on the right track... I'm leaning toward the spring kits as the problem.
Oh... the wheel cylinders are not leaking.
Put new rotors on the front, lubed up the pins again. Put new spring kit in the back and lubed up everything. So far so good, I can still hear a clunk in the back, but the one wheel isn't locking up like before. I'll leave it for a day and see what happens. The pedal is still pretty low though. I think it's time for new calipers, these look original and are in rough shape, not to mention I don't think I'll be able to free up those bleeders to bleed the system. As for the wheel cylinders... the one side seemed weird, the side that was locking up actually... iff you push one side of the cylinder in, the other came out and visa versa, and they wouldn't spring back into place until I put the shoes on and the return springs were applying pressure to the cylinder.... is the cylinder bad?
On the cylinders, when you push one in and the other comes out, thats normal, the fluid being displaced from the one you are pushing in is taking the easiest route out of the bore, which is into the bore of the other one, hence the other one comes out. Wouldn't be a bad idea at all to replace both cylinders, especially if they are the originals, I would imagine they are very worn being that old.
Also, sometimes when a brake job is done on the rears, the shoes can easily be installed backwards ie front shoe facing rear, and rear shoe facing front. That will definitely cause rear brake issues. Its always a good idea to pull both drums off, but then replace the parts on one side at a time, so you have a reference.
Thanks Greg Z... the wheel cylinders didn't look 12 years old in my opinion, so I think they may have been done before.. but not sure. I knew about how the pistons work... they just seemed a little loose from what I am used to.
As for the shoes being installed wrong... I ALWAYS forget which shoe goes where, so I am not sure if they were installed wrong or not. right now, the shorter lining if facing the front of the car, is that right?
Nathan Blanchard wrote:Thanks Greg Z... the wheel cylinders didn't look 12 years old in my opinion, so I think they may have been done before.. but not sure. I knew about how the pistons work... they just seemed a little loose from what I am used to.
As for the shoes being installed wrong... I ALWAYS forget which shoe goes where, so I am not sure if they were installed wrong or not. right now, the shorter lining if facing the front of the car, is that right?
Don't make me lie, but I believe the short shoe goes in front, rear shoe faces rear. Thats how it looks in my GM service manual, I don't remember from when I did my brakes, or I could be more certain.
i actually checked online and another site says short shoe on the front as well... so you're right.. and it is correct on my car. We'll see what happens the next few days and see if it starts locking up again. The clunking I hear now might be something loose in the suspension from all the locking up before.
D'OH, I just noticed I said "rear shoe faces rear", well no s**t. I meant to say the longer shoe faces rear. haha.
LOL.. I knew what you meant!!
