zomart

alright, i've searched and i can't figure this out. my brakes are acting up lately and i can't figure out what's causing the problem.

i hear a slight dragging sound all the time while driving and a loud grinding when i depress the brake pedal. i'm almost positive the sound is from the rear. a few days ago something weird happened with my parking brake. i was disengaging it and when i got the lever to the bottom, the button all of a sudden just went loose and felt funny. this makes me think it might be a problem with my parking brake.

today i raised the rear of my car and tried to spin the wheels with the parking brake disengaged. my assumption is that the pads should not touch the rotors at all (?), but there was dragging and you could hear the pads sliding across the rotors. i adjusted the parking brake in both directions and the lever got stiffer and looser, but the dragging in the brakes was always the same. with one click of the lever the wheels would not move at all. could this be a problem with the parking brake cable or where the cable connects to the caliper?

i also thought about frozen pistons, but i don't think it's very likely that both of the rear pistons would freeze up at the same time. any help would be great. thanks.

King_j

the pads will "touch" the rotor at all times, this is normal.
remove your wheel, and when looking at the caliper, you will see a metal loop looking thing on the right side of the caliper. make sure this isnt rubbing against your rotor.
my car had the same problem, and it turned out it was that metal loop thing.

zomart

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by King_j &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the pads will "touch" the rotor at all times, this is normal.</TD></TR></TABLE>

are you sure? i'm not doubting your knowledge, it just doesn't make sense to me that the pads would always be touching the rotors (basically the brakes always being in effect). this seems like a big waste of power, gas, and pads.

my manual says that when the lever is brought up one click, the brakes should just start to drag and when the lever is all the way down, the brakes should not drag at all. i take that as "the pads should just touch the rotors when the lever is up one click, and they shouldn't touch at all when the lever is all the way down". am i just taking this to mean the wrong thing?

also keep in mind, when my brake lever is up one click, the wheels won't even move.

purplevtec

your pads will slightly touch the rotors all of the time but the wheel should spin freely as they just graze it. You need to isolate the problem. You could have a brake pad frozen on the slides, you could have a frozen slider pin in the pad carrier bracket, you could have bad calipers or a ebrake cable that is not releasing all the way. Put the car in the air, if one or both rear wheels are dragging disconnect the ebrake cable from the caliper on the wheel or wheels that are dragging. If the wheel frees up with the cable disconnected then you have bad cable or cables. If it does not free up then it is most likely a frozen caliper. Remove the caliper and make sure that the pads are not frozen solid in the carrier bracket. Also check that the slider pins in the pad carrier bracket are free and slide in and out. If the pins slide and the pads aren't frozen you have bad calipers. Replace them as a pair you will thank me later. Also while you have the cables off operate the ebrake handle and make sure that both cables are moving freely. Once you figure out the problem your ebrake should fully engage in three to five clicks. Adjust it as necessary only after you have solved the problem. Hope this helps.