2023 Tacoma, 32k miles, rear wheels locked up, snapping noise

On a trip this weekend and I seem to have some binding in my rear axle, see both attached videos below:

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZALKYyqq_10?feature=share

https://youtube.com/shorts/Kv9AbOE2JOc?feature=share

In drive or reverse and I'm not able to move until a snap is heard. Then I'm driving normally after the snap. This has happened twice now. The truck is at 32k miles. Maybe a rock in the drum? Maybe my rear locker? Seems to be the rear driveline that is locking up. The front is spinning freely. No codes / lights. Just had the transmission fluid flushed, no issues there. Rear dif on the first change did have some metal shavings back at 15k. Still in the warranty (I think?) so I'm headed to the dealer this week. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

Driving back from nor cal this afternoon and the truck is driving 100% normally on the highway headed to San Diego.

 

Drums not releasing maybe ? Fluids good ?

 

Rear drum locked up for sure
Something must have got stuck in there

 

rocks in the drums?

 

2nd and 3rd gens do this shit. Take it all apart and there's a "reaction bar" across the bottom that has sort of a flat version a ball and socket joint...file/sand/polish the contact surfaces and lube it with good moly grease. Carry with you a big punch (chunk of 1" or so round steel bar) and a mini sledge....next time it does this, release the parking brake, put a couple rocks/blocks of wood/whatever to chock the tires, put the punch through the spokes against the drum and beat the shit out of it. The shock will eventually free them up.

This ONLY happens after using the parking brake...because of the dumbass linkage that actuates the bottom of the shoes (as well as the top) and the linkage at the bottom binds and sticks.

Try to avoid putting it in 4lo and torquing the hell out of it...I got stuck in the middle of the damn desert and tried that before I pulled the wheel and found some rocks to beat stuff with and I ended up destroying the backing plate/shoes/etc...not a cheap fix

It's not the shoes rusting to the to drums...it's the linkage for the parking brake jamming up. I've been dealing with it on 3 different trucks since 2005

 

Do you use the parking brake?
Water crossings?

It's probably the drums stuck from the parking brake,,, common.

 

Sounds like it's the drums, I'll do a thorough check around and see what its looking like under there. Thank you all for helping me figure it out.

@Chew yes I did go through a water crossing maybe a foot deep just before it happened lol and I had set the parking break as well @lbhsbz

 

You should have 4K miles left on your warranty.

https://support.toyota.com/s/article/What-warranty-coverag-7683?language=en_US

 

I've seen this maybe half a dozen times, or more, while off pavement.
If the rear brake system gets wet then the parking brake is engaged, it can flash rust to the drums.
We've had success freeing the system by dragging the rig with another, putting it in 4low in first or reverse, or a few times we had to get under the rig with a ball-pen hammer and bang on it. The fellas I wheel with have stopped using their e-brake altogether in the winter/spring months because of this.

Cheers

 

I don’t think it’s the shoes flash rusting to the drums…that would be visibly evident. In 25 years in the brake industry, I’ve seen that plenty of times, but in the multiple cases I’ve personally experienced this, the drums are spotless…not even a ghosted outline of a shoe imprint on the friction surface.

Toyota went down a different road with this brake system….every drum brake system until this one only actuated to tops of the shoes when applying the parking brake…much like the service brake. For whatever reason, likely because they shrunk the drum diameter and felt it was necessary, they used a pivoting arm to actuate a reaction arm at the bottoms of the shoes to spread both the tops and the bottoms.

the result is too much linkage to bind and stick. This is all driven by CAFE standards that made them reduce weight where they could…and this was one spot.

the brake system they used from the ‘70s through 2004 worked perfectly.

 

In the drums, not something to "worry" about, however, it needs addressing and fixing for sure. Isnt good to bind the driveline like that and have it release from the pressure breaking loose. Also in the video it did sound like your locker was on when turning, could be just the sound but make sure that isnt acting up too.

 

As I mentioned in my first post here…I locked the rear and put it in 4LO…and up bending the shit outta the shoes, stretching the rivets and tearing up the anchor block on the backing plate, etc…made it home, but ended up spending $200 on an axle bearing, $50 on a bearing retainer, and $150 on a used bent axle assembly to steal the backing plate from because it was a week out and I needed the truck. I fucked up the axle bearing a few times because I didn’t notice the seal stuck to the back of the hub but we don’t have to talk about that or the extra $500 it cost me.

btw…manual trans axles have bigger splines than automatics…learned that the hard way too

 

Is the lesson here NOT to use the parking brake after a water crossing?

 

Has nothing to do with water...I've had mine stick after parking in the driveway overnight...without rain.

 

In your first video, was your left rear the only locked wheel or did both lock up?

Looks like you have plenty of input from others as to the cause.

 

Wow, had no idea this could be an issue. I religiously use the parking brake even on flat surfaces. I read somewhere else that
engaging the e-brake while brakes are hot can cause this as well. Should I discontinue my ingrained habit of using the e-brake?

 

Both my trucks have been manual trans...so I apply the parking brake hard enough to hold it in place. I imagine folks with the auto trans trucks just sorta apply it a bit but not hard enough to jamb shit up in the reaction bar linkage. That's the only thing I can think of. After polishing/cleaning up the reaction arm and it's socket and lubing things up will with a good moly grease...no issues thus far. We'll see how it works going forward. I rarely park on hills so I don't need that much parking brake most of the time.

 

Any pictures of this "reaction arm" available so I can picture it for reference whenever I have the rear apart. I'm not picturing it. Haven't had the problem the OP posted yet.

 

Good information.

Cheers