22 off-road rear brake came apart

Anyone ever had the brake spring that connects the bottom of the rear shoes come off? I was stuck in the snow when this happened and allowed the cylinder to push out past it's seals and soak the right rear brakes with brake fluid. My 2022 Tacoma off-road is at the dealership being assessed for a warranty repair.

 

I've seen it, not a normal occurrence, and haven't had it happen to me. Most likely was not properly installed from the get go. I wouldn't loose any sleep over it.

However,

 

I am trying to figure out how the spring caused the problem?
I think the spring came off due to a different problem.
The shoes would have to have dropped down/off the notches for the plunger to be pushed that far out.

 

Looks like they did drop a bit. I'm guessing you were rocking it back and forth... drive to reverse, and hitting brakes while wheels spinning. That most likely what caused this to happen. Just an guess.

 

As @TnShooter suggests, there is more to the story.

 

Correct about rocking back and forth, I wasn't on the brakes but the truck uses the brakes on its own for traction control, MTS, all kinds of reasons. The spring that came of holds the shoes together on the post at the bottom of the baking plate. When that came off, it allowed the shoes to come off of the post and move around, that let the cylinder over extend. I just heard from the service advisor, they are replacing just about everything inside the right brake drum and are filing a warranty claim. Getting the truck out was an epic, a couple people hiked 3 miles through 2+ feet of snow to the ski area I work at to get a snowcat to pull my truck out. I run the maintenance shop there. Then, I (slowly) drove a couple miles back to the plowed road with only the left side emergency brake working and the right side locking up and grabbing. I've worked at this ski area since 1989, been stuck a few times, but never like this. The wet layer of snow under the cold powder made for very tough conditions! At the end of the day, I left my truck at the bottom and drove the snowcats back up the road to spend the night in my shop. the plows showed up at about noon the next day.

 

I got my truck back today, since they couldn't figure out why the spring came off, my dealership went ahead and changed out just about everything inside the right rear brake drum, including the backing plate, brake hardware, cylinder, the wheel bearing, axle seals, resurfaced the drum and new brake shoes on both sides. This is the 5th new vehicle I've owned but the first time I've ever had to have any warranty work done, I've been lucky, and I am very pleased with how Toyota of Clovis treated me. When it became apparent it was going to take more than a couple of days to get parts in, I was given a loaner (SR5 4x4 Tacoma) truck and had great communication with the service department about the status of the repairs. The 2-3 weeks I was told it would take to get all the parts ended up being about 9 days. Hopefully this will be the only time I use the warranty.

 

Glad you got out and it's all fixed.
I still carry chains for the rears.
Lesson 1 is lock the rear (it's an off-road) and everything that hampers your getting out is turned off - ABS, traction control, engine control as the dash displays.
Lesson 2 is once you ride up on the skid plates in snow and get the bottom all packed with it you ain't going nowhere!
It was an adventure to remember.

 

I was definitely high centered and the camber of the road wouldn't let me get away from the snow bank on the inside of the curve. I have chains for all four wheels, but we were having a very hard time installing them once stuck as I couldn't move either direction. Then the brakes failed and it seemed the better option was going to be to wait for either a plow or the snowcat I knew would show up eventually. If this were a true backcountry situation, I would have gotten the chains on. In hindsight, a hi-lift jack would have been ideal for that and also to pull me out from the bank. I've been stuck on the same road a few times before, I've worked at the ski area for the last 34 winters, with better results at getting out. I've also successfully driven it in my WRX through snow as deep as the top of the wheel wells on a couple of occasions! When the snow is coming up over the hood, piling up on the windshield and blocking the headlights, you drive with the side window down so you can use the snow bank to stay in the road! All part of the adventure and just one more to remember. I'll also add that I'm usually better at making decisions that would have prevented this situation, but hey, sometimes $hit happens.