i am seconds away from line-locking my rear brakes. this pisses me off so much and i dont know what to do. i have searched multiple cavi forums. wooh. let me calm down and start from the beginning. my rear brakes, more so the drivers side, but both would lock up when cold. when i say lock up, i mean, i get to the end of my street, put my big toe on the brake pedal, and the rear tires would engage ABS. i did multiple searches on multiple cavi forums. i found that replacing the wheel cylinders is the solution to this problem. so after both rear wheel cylinders replaced(from the dealer, not autozone), drums, and shoes.......they still lock up when cold. i am seriously about to pull the fittings for the rear brakes at the abs module and put in plug bolts and only run front brakes. it pisses me off so much. does anyone have a remedy for this? i have already replaced everything there is for the rear brakes other than the brake booster itself. i am trying to sell this car and i havent decided what is worse to say to a potential buyer: "the rear brakes are brand new but lock up whenever they want when cold," OR "the rear brakes are brand new but are not functional because they lock up whenever they want when cold."
I am experiencing the same thing on my 02 cavi. I replaced my wheel cylinders as well and my rear wheel still locks up at slow speeds coming to a stop only when cold. So I dunno either man. I guess I just have come to deal with it.
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Welcome to GM's rear drums......
Did you adjust the drums, and is there a possibility there is water in the lines?
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Philly D wrote:Welcome to GM's rear drums......
Ive given up on mine. All the crap started when I changed the shoes.
There is this thing called an adjuster. But the drums still suck anyway.
Be cool and swap to discs like the rest of us
Philly D wrote:Welcome to GM's rear drums......
it has to be something other than that. its only cavi's and sunfires that do it. i dont know of any other gm with drum brakes that has this problem.
theres is definitely no water in the lines. and both were adjusted properly.
Have you tried cleaning the drum's hardware and all sensors on each wheel with brake cleaner (non flammable)?
When I pull out of my garage, stop and close the door... I hit about 5-mph and the rear brake will work too much, feeling like an impending lock up. Eventually as I drive off and go 10-mph the rear brake proportioning adjusts, and it is smooth again.
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its never smooth though. thats another thing. even after the brakes have heated up, when i go to stop at a red light, the rear brakes ar ebeing used so much that the back of the car sinks. when they heat up they just dont lock up as much. and i have tried cleaning everything....multiple times.
kyle wrote:its never smooth though. thats another thing. even after the brakes have heated up, when i go to stop at a red light, the rear brakes ar ebeing used so much that the back of the car sinks. when they heat up they just dont lock up as much. and i have tried cleaning everything....multiple times.
I had this problem and it went away when I changed my rear struts.
Could the abs sensor in the hub being going bad causing the ABS to proportion incorrectly? Try pulling the ABS fuse from the panel and see if it still does it. Yes you will have a light on your dash while the fuse is pulled.
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I dunno... I've had 3 j-bodies, a blazer and a s-10 and they have all done it on mentill the brakes warm up. Any mechanic I've talked to says it's just a gm drum thing... I changed every part and it's never helped.
Zs Z wrote:I had this problem and it went away when I changed my rear struts.
Same thing for me. My 03-05 drum doesnt have any problem at all.
Jack the car up so that you can have one rear tire up in the air at a time. Spin the tire and listen as to how much of a scrubbing sound you get from the linings touching the drum. If you hear a bunch or the tire does not free wheel nicely you need to adjust the brakes away from the drum slightly. Repeat on the other side of the car.
When the rear brakes lock as soon as you step on the brakes they are just adjusted to close to the drum more than likely. Or you could have weak return springs(have had that happen as it allows the shoe to drag against the drum), or a faulty parking brake system. A parking brake cable could not be releasing properly and allowing the brakes to remain somewhat applied. I had that problem with an old army cutvee( Chevy 3/4t truck).
Drum brake systems may look complicated but the majority, from what I have worked on, of problems arise from faulty brake hardware, improper adjustment, or seized parking brake cables.
I chased this same problem for a long time and it started after a complete rear brake rebuild, including new Bendix drums, shoes and hardware. What finally fixed it for me was installing some Delco shoes. I've not had a problem now in 2 years.
2.2 97 Cavalier......the "Crapalier"
Put the wrong shoes in the wrong spot? If forget where the big shoe goes and where the little one does. Supposedly having them flipped causes this too.
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Atleast im not the only one with this issue, I thought it was a weight problem.
I replaced all of the brake hardware today while putting on hub spacers. Lets see if I get lucky.
I just changed all my brakes and hardware yesterday and have had not problems at all. I changed to stainless steel brake lines, new calipers, new pads, stuck with powerslot rotors I already had on car, new drums, new shoes, new cylinders, and new hardware. Made sure to adjust them down before putting drum and wheel back on. Everything went smoothly during the change, with the exception of the old drums being a PITA ass to get off, and I've had no problems at all like what you guys describe.
