REAR DRUMS LOCKING UP 05 Tacoma!

REAR DRUMS LOCKING UP!
Hello I have a issue with my 05 Tacoma. If I drive down the street let’s say 10mph and pull my e brake half way it will roll another 10 feet or so then the rear drums will lock up!! Then you have to push the brake pedal to release the stuck drums. Then another scenario is when I back down my driveway that’s on a slight grade and stop with the brakes on then pull the e brake, let off the brakes then release the e brake the drums stick until I tap the brakes then it will release. I’m afraid to pull the E break in a emergency if I’m going fast down the road.

 

Its a parking brake

 

I guess my first question is, why are you pulling your e brake when you are driving??

 

Just to check/feel how it would slow down in case of a emergency and your brakes don’t work.

 

I'm trying to figure out the problem. Your parking brake which only engages the rear drums actually stops the vehicle?

It is a parking brake, not an emergency brake. If your brakes go out, start with engine braking--read as downshift.

 

I thought emergency brake or parking brake will do the same thing, stop your vehicle in a emergency.

 

You’re gonna have to pull the drums to look. You might find a broken spring, or excessive brake dust.

Some people us the parking brake to sorta cheat taking off from a stop going up hill, so you don’t roll back into the idiot who pulled right up to you at a light.

Another problem I’ve seen cause weird issues like you’re having is grooved backing plates. The shoe will get stuck in the groove. But the issue that causes is, as you progressively depress the pedal, instead of even braking, you’ll get nothing, nothing, nothing, then suddenly it’ll grab as the shoe comes out of the groove.

 

Potato potatoe. Same same

 

In scenario #1. Don’t do what you are doing.

In scenario #2. I have not experienced this.
My parking brake will release after I am stopped on a hill.
I do set my brake BEFORE I let my foot off the actual brake pedal.

Something like this.

Come to a stop and KEEP my foot on the brake pedal.
Shift to park.
Set parking brake
Let my foot off the brake pedal.

I also apply the brakes BEFORE I release the parking brake.

 

Yes I will have to pull the drums off and check it all out. I know something isn’t right because in my driveway sometimes it will stick and other times it won’t in the scenario I mentioned in the first post.

 

The way you’re operating it won’t hurt it and it shouldn’t do what you’re describing.

On the other hand, some cars with 4 discs have a mini drum for the parking brake along with mini shoes. Riding the parking brake will wear those shoes so they’ll need replacing more often.

 

That’s exactly what I do in my driveway.

Come to a stop and KEEP my foot on the brake pedal.
Shift to park.
Set parking brake
Let my foot off the brake pedal.

then without putting your foot back on the brake pedal I release the parking break and it will stick/not roll back until I tap my foot on the brake pedal then it releases. Sounds like I just need to take it apart and look. Thanks!

 

If you think of it as your owners manual describes(parking brake), you won't try to use it as an E brake without actually going through a deliberate process to slow your vehicle.

and YES---it works as an e brake to slow the vehicle.

Good luck with the adjustments once you get the drums off.

 

Be safe. As I always tell people, gravity is unspent energy that can kill you.

 

I can honestly say, I don’t think I’ve ever tried to release the parking brake with out putting my foot on the brake pedal. Mostly because I come from driving a manual transmission where you needed to press the clutch in to start the truck. And by habit, I’m still pressing the brake to start the truck. And the fact you have to press brake to shift out of park in the Auto trucks.

I don’t believe it should ever stick.
But I can’t say mine doesn’t, since I honestly have never tried it?

 

Yeah, you’re probably right. I still call a facial tissue a Kleenex. An adhesive strip a bandaide. A woman’s thing a Kotex.

 

You may find that you have leaking axle seal, allowing gear oil into your drum. You can often see evidence of this before you pull your wheel off; check inside the rim from the backside or on the sidewalls of the tires that are under the truck, not the sidewalls you see when you walk past your truck. Contrary to what one would think, oil in the drums and on the shoes will make the shoes seize in the drums. Alternatively to differential gear oil from leaking outer axle seals, you could also have a brake cylinder that is leaking brake fluid inside the drums and that has saturated the shoes which will also tend to cause the shoes to freeze to the drums.

Yeah, it's counter-intuitive that a lubricant oil would cause seizing rather than just slippage, but I've seen this, fixed on various vehicles over the years.

Tell us what you find.

 

With the incline of my driveway sometimes I will get in with my M/T leave it in neutral and just release the parking break and it will back me out of the driveway without putting it into reverse.

 

I had a similar issue on my 2016. Started happening a few weeks after going through some nasty mud. I pulled the drums and cleaned all the gunk out of there and haven't had a problem since.

 

The Tacoma and many other vehicles use a "simplex" (also known as a "lead follow" setup) style drum brake. As you can see in the image below the shoe that is leading in the same direction as the trucks motion (fwd shoe, fwd direction or rear shoe, reverse direction) will have more force applied to it. Hence why the fwd shoe will wear out sooner than the rear shoe and why the shoe liner tends to wear in a wedge shape. This is likely why it locks up while moving forward and applying the parking brake. What it is doing is touching the fwd shoe to the drum and essentially wedging itself in, like a cam roller lock that allows movement one way but not the other.

In your situation you should ALWAYS apply the brakes when activating or deactivating your parking brake. Also while parking, come to a full stop, put it in park with your foot still on the brakes, apply the parking brake and then let go of the brakes. This will relieve stress on the parking brake cable when deactivating the parking brakes which will help alot. There is no set way the parking brake "should" work while moving, so thats a mute point. Vehicles with rear discs and parking brakes should not be used while moving. If it is a drum inside the rotor style parking brake (the shoe liner is maybe 1mm thick) it will disintegrate the shoe upon application and the ones that use the pads just do not provide much clamping force, just enough to hold the vehicle while not moving generally. Hence why many cars now have electronic parking brakes that cannot be activated while the vehicle is moving.

In your case, you probably have a lot of brake dust build up inside the drum and need to clean it out. You may have to loosen the adjuster before removing the drum if there is a rust lip on the inside of the drum where the shoe does not contact. While you are in there you should lube the contact surfaces (3 per shoe) of the backing plate where the shoe rest as well as taking some sand paper and sanding the shoe lightly to remove the glazing on the shoe. DO NOT get the brake grease on the brake shoe lining, if you do, just spray with brake cleaner and wipe with a shop towel. I would suggest at least 2 cans of brake cleaner, 3 to be safe, one can per side. After cleaning, reinstall the drum, put the wheel/tire back on, tighten the adjuster while spinning the tire until you hear it just starting to make contact (usually like a faint scratch), lower the truck go for a drive and find a spot that you can get up to some speed in reverse. Next you will get up to maybe 10mph in reverse and SLAM on the brakes! You will/should lock up the front tires when doing this. Do this a few times. What you are doing is using the "self adjusting function" to adjust the shoes out to the correct amount. You should do this last step every once in a while to keep them adjusted correctly, maybe every 3-6 months or so. You'll notice after doing this that the brake pedal engagement point will be higher after performing this too as you are not having to push the shoes as far to make contact with the drum, which means you moving less fluid to engage all the brakes on the vehicle. If your curious how much of a difference that last step makes a difference, try it before doing the cleaning or on an older car with drum brakes that you know hasn't been serviced in a while. It's pretty crazy how much it can make pedal travel shorter and remove the spungy feeling.



Please don't take any of this as me calling you stupid. Just trying to educate anyone reading this no matter their skill level.