Emergency brake sticking

Since I've had my truck, occasionally when using the emergency brake, a rear wheel (usually the right side) would stick when the brake was released. I've carried a hammer with me since day one. I've found that if I just give a slight rap to the rear drum, the brake will release. This, while being less than ideal, wasn't too much of a problem because I just stopped using the e brake. Well, during this miserable winter, the truck is now occasionally locking up a wheel when I come to a stop with my foot on the brake. When I begin moving again, you can feel it release, along with a thud sound.

Yesterday I took it in to the dealer for the first time (I do all my own maintenance) and they say that I need new parking brake cables. I crawled under the truck this morning and they look fine. I'm wondering how they diagnosed this? Also, can they be lubed and free'd up? Dealer labor rates are $110.00hr for a total job price of just under $400.00. That ain't happening!

If needed, I'll change them myself. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this happen and if they found an alternative way to fix it.

Thanks

 

Doesn't sound like a parking brake cable to me. Sounds like one or both rubber dust boots on the brake cylinder have cracked and water got in. I've had this a couple of times over the years. A little rust will produce some sticking. However it would probably be good to first remove the wheel and drum and look around. See if anything else is rusty / sticky. Replacing a wheel cylinder is an easy job, if you know how to bleed the thing after you finish. You can replace the cylinder pretty cheaply, in the $20 range. Or you can go ultra cheap, get a rebuild kit, and use some elbow grease to clean up the pistons and cylinder and replace the o-rings and dust covers. For the price difference, a new cylinder sounds like the way to go assuming you don't see any signs of other problems that might cause sticking.

For the cables, I would not use the dealer. You can try some sort of penetrating lubricant if you can access the end, or you can replace the cable(s) if you want. They can be hard to find and might be a Toyota-only part depending on where you live. I'd suspect it is just the shorter rear cables, and from looking you ought to be able to worry some penetrating lubricant like liquid wrench or deep creep (by sea foam) into that cable. then pump the EB several times, and hit it again. If it gets better, the cable is the problem. But with it sticking when you use the normal brake, it really sounds like the cylinder is sticking. I've seen that more commonly on disc brake calipers rather than with shoes, since the wheel cylinder is fairly well protected assuming you don't drive it up to the floor pan in water and drench everything in the brake system..

Note that the deep creep fix is not really a permanent fix, if the cable is the problem, it has corrosion inside and really ought to be replaced. Replacing those two short cables in the back is not a bad job. Replacing the front one is a pain in the a$$ since the cable runs under everything in the cabin and then some...

 

Thanks for the reply. I'm digging into it tomorrow to see what I find. I'm guessing I can't buy the cables locally. Probably can get the brake cylinder stuff though.

 

I've owned 3 2nd gens, they've all done it. Best thing to do (IMO) is not press the e-brake pedal all the way down, just go halfway or so.

 

Don't engage your ebrake in winter. They freeze up, then "you can feel it release, along with a thud sound".

Typical, been there done that many times.

 

I had e brake cables fail on my 06 at about 120k and my symptoms were just like yours. In my case, I had the dealer replace them even though I too do my own maintenance. In my case it was an issue of timing and downtime. Yes, they were crazy expensive to have done at the dealer.

Lubing the cable with penetrant may or may not fix it temporarily, but imo once any protective coating on the cable or the sheath has been compromised, I'd think that penetrant may only provide a short term fix.

Take a look at your brake hardware too. At the time that my e brake failed, my brake shoe hold down pins were rotted away too. You cannot buy a hardware kit at the dealer, you will need to go to a chain parts store to get one at about $6 a side.

 

I just took off both drums and looked around. Everything inside looks like new. The rubber boots over the cylinder ends look like new too. The brake cables look fine but that doesn't tell me anything about the inside of them. The cables are a single unit that goes all the way up to and into the cab. I tried to price one locally and no part store has a number for them, not available. They have them for 2wd but not 4. I've got to go with Toyota cables. It looks like it's going to be a PITA to do this. More time consuming than really being that expensive.

 

I just went through this on my 08. I fixed the issue by disassembling both of my rear brakes and cleaning everything. I bought some dry graphite lubricant spray which was recommended by bamatoy on here. I sprayed this on all the parking brake contact and pivot points, as well as the cable where it enters the drum assembly. It's not a hard job, but it was challenging until I figured out how to remove the rear drums. I bought brake spring pliers and also a brake hold down washer tool. Made the job easy. Check the rear drum removal thread for more info.

 

The cable goes from one single and splits into two, one for each side. Have a friend engage your park brake with the cable disconnected in the drum and see if there's resistance. Those cables are expensive. Graphite lube them up. It won't attract dirt like an oil based lube.

 

The cables corrode where they enter the drum. There is a cast aluminum piece that connects the steel cable surround to the drum. It rots on the inside and wont let the cable travel freely. Will look like new on the outside. Toyota only part. I paid $80 a side for mine. The worst part was I blew my ring and pinion trying to rock it free when the brake got stuck on.

 

Offgrid, should you not be able to pull on the cable and separate the rubber sheath from the back of the drum? I thought the rubber just rested up against the drum, protecting the cable. Seems like a crap design.

 

On my 05 6spd the cable ran into the cast aluminum piece that was attached to the drum with two screws on the inside. I am not positive if other years or automatic transmissions have the same set up. I would get a pic for you but I havent seen it in 3 1/2 months because of frame swap.

 

This hasn't happened to me in my current 2nd gen but in my first gen it happened all the time. Lubing the bell crank was the temporary fix. Had to replace them every couple of years.

Edit: both of mine were and are manual trannys so not too sure about autos

 

Yes Rosskopeeko, that is a weird design. You can pull the rubber boot away from the aluminum piece. This seems like the weak link in the chain. Although, now that I lifted the boot away further, I see that the aluminum housing under the boot has oxidized away, enlarging the boot with all the loose debris and the cable is press fit into the aluminum. I just squirted some CLR on the cable inside the backing plate and ran the brake a few times. I picked up a pair of Xcountry ski racing boots at a ski swap a couple years ago. The aluminum zippers were immobile, frozen solid. I soaked the zippers in CLR and in maybe a half hour, they were working like new again.

I have the manual trans as well. The last thing I want to do is blow the ring and pinion like offgrid!

 

I thought about sealing that mating surface with sylicone when I got my truck back together. I might do that before next winter. So far it works perfect again.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JuVrd5pUbA

great mechanic who makes the repair look easy

 

Well, for an update. I replaced both parking brake cables. Still had the same problem. So, I took Roberthyatt's advice and replaced the brake cylinder on the right side. There is still something funky going on.

Today, I turned around in my dad's driveway, (a full right with wheel and 360 degrees), shut the truck off and when I returned to leave, again with the right rear wheel locking up. Just a slight movement in reverse, releases it. A somewhat slight movement forward will release it too. Stop again and try to take off, it did it again. I repeated this in his driveway at least four times. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the locking differential? It also did it last night after backing up a steep grade while turning sharp to the right.

I tried a full turn on blacktop and that had no effect in both forward and reverse directions. There was no locking up. At least none that I could sense. It seems to only happened on dirt. During typical driving, it's a very rare occurrence. You could drive it a week without having it happen, then suddenly it happens again.

 

Watching the video posted by jmich 2001. Very funny. The guy suggests cutting off the driver cable at the top of the frame and zip tying the new in place. Well, that's exactly what I had to do. That drivers side bolt is a real bear to get at and I stripped the head off. You only have one try and without a six point wrench, its likely to happen. I spent at least an hour trying to get that one bolt out. The rest of the job was pretty straight forward. I'd like to know what that frame has on it for undercoating. It looks like great stuff.

 

Another note, I bought one cable through the Toyota dealer at $95.00 and found one on Amazon for $10.00! I don't know if there a close out and they're trying to get rid of them or what but it was a OEM part. They had two available but only one side. The left and right also have an L and R stamped in the aluminum housing that bolts to the backing plate.

My original drivers side cable was broken at the backing plate, just like on the video. When I cut the cable at the frame location due to the stripped bolt, water came out everywhere. The cable was full of water. The right side seemed fine but I changed it out anyway.

 

Did you ever find out what the problem was? My Tacoma has been doing the same thing. Tried a couple of things, but still locks up from time to time, mostly after its driven and then sits for a couple of hours.