Rear passenger wheel locked

Huh, good thought I'll definitely keep that in mind if it ever happens to me. I've never had this happen or even thought about the fact it could happen, even after 5 winters with rear drums in a 2nd gen 4Runner and then my Tacoma as an avid skier living in Oregon and Washington making ~30 trips per winter to Hood, Baker or Snoqualmie and one snowy winter with the 4Runner temporarily living in Pennsylvania(if you think they salt the roads in Eastern Washington... bro it's a state with little to no salt use. Every road surface in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York is literally white from all the caked salt from December through March. My decent condition but not especially pristine by any stretch 2nd Gen went from a truck you see all over the place to a unicorn that got almost weekly compliments in gas stations and parking lots just by driving it 3000 miles east).

But I can totally see how it could with the rear drums, especially because my truck(and the 4Runner before it) is an MT so I pretty much have to use the parking brake no matter what. Locker makes sense to dislodge it, it's not like it'll hurt anything. Because of ATRAC or CRAWL/MTS the brakes are literally designed to drag in low range under full throttle.

 

Call Toyota, go to a different dealership. Stories like yours make me not trust Toyota dealers anymore and laugh at people who pay a nickel extra for an extended warranty. I've had my own bad experience but this is ridiculous, who do they hire to work at these places

 

All you need to do to get the wheel rolling again is grab the rubber sleeve that goes into the drum and give it a good wiggle when the park brake is disengaged. this allows the cable to release and you to drive free once again.

i have had to do this a few times over last day or two thanks to the snow and cold temps in CO

 

The brake shoe freezing to the drum is caused by the factory using a high organic matter brake shoe (think green). It absorbs much more moisture than a shoe with a high metallic content. The high metallic content shoe also stops better when hot and is less susceptible to fading and freezing to the drum.

A stuck (frozen) emergency brake cable is due to a water leak into the cable and/or poor maintenance. Gotta clean and grease the cables.

 

Cold snap out here, seems to be an issue every winter where it'll lock up. Dealership blamed my lift (surprise) but it definitely is due to the cable freezing up. I give it a few tugs and it releases right away. I'm thinking I'll try the lubricant solution that Joisey recommended earlier on.

 

So disconnect cable at wheel to get lube in there?

Interesting challenging lube application.

 

I think its been said but I lightly ride my e-brake down a long hill a couple times a year. Don't really use it otherwise. I imagine it knocks any surface rust off and keeps things from jamming up. Happened to me once, I started doing this and it hasn't happened since. It happened to my neighbour's TRD OR as well a couple times.