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Parking Brake (No) Adjustment

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adjustment brake parking
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#21 ·
I'm thinking the brakes will go back to the way they were before. Over time the linings will wear down and the free play will increas until it reaches the point when the self adjusters start working again. You'll be back at the same spot as you were before you made the manual adjustment. Let me know if the free play stays tight because my brakes could stand to be tightened up. The pedal is kind of low and the parking brake hits the console lid when the lid is in the forward position.
 
#22 ·
this is something I'm interested in too. My wife has a 2Lt with 4 wheel disc brakes and the pedal is much higher and not near as spongy feeling as my ECO. I can see where if you adjust them tighter they will wear and go right back to where they were. There must be a fix somewhere.
 
#23 ·
The fix is to re-adjust every second oil change. The OLM's on these cars have us go 8-10k miles or longer. Every 16-20k miles, or once a year or so, pop off the rear drums and re-adjust. I had to do that on my old Buick with rear drums. It takes maybe 30 minutes from jacking the car up to putting the tools away. That way you also can monitor the wear on the shoes. Doing this reduces wear on the front brakes since the rears are now doing their jobs.

Driving around today after adjusting, the pedal was much higher and firmer than before. The parking brake also stopped well short of the armrest.
 
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#24 ·
Brake dust

Its a good idea every 20K or so to pull the drums off and get rid of all the accumulated brake dust and dirt, this makes your shoes last much longer. Get a can of brake cleaner and hose everything down real good, drums, linings, everything. Thats a good time time to check the adjustment, just a very slight drag and then back off (as mentioned).

Jim
 
#27 ·
I know this is an old topic, but I have the same problem.
Since the rear drums are self adjusting, I presume that once adjusting them manually for the parking brake, they will autocorrect hydraulically to their prior settings. Though the parking brake does not readjust.
I saw a youtube vid, of a guy removing the whole arm rest compartment, to see the handbrake mechanism.
I was hoping to avoid having to do this, but if there's an easy way to remove it and re-install it, underneath the armrest, there are 2 screws connected to a plate that's connected to 2 cable wires.
Those 2 screws are (I believe) adjustment screws.
Although I never would want to uninstall my armrest compartment.

Another issue I'm pondering,
Though the brakes on the cruze are self-adjusting,
I remember on older volkswagen beetle drum brake shoes, that over time, tend to get out of alignment (the top would wear out more than the bottom).
So after a good 50k miles, the bottom needed to be adjusted (lengthened), to balance out the shoes again, since they only had a single hydraulic cylinder.

I wondered if on the cruze, they need the same adjustment, or if the brake shoes have a starwheel self adjuster system like in pic?
 
#28 ·
The drum brakes self adjust mechanically, not hydraulically. In the Cruze, every time you pull the hand brake it is supposed to adjust the drum brakes. Sometimes this doesn't work exactly as designed.

An easy fix is to put your thumb on the ebrake button and pull and release the brake handle a few times while carefully and slowly backing up. This is what I do in my Cruze when the rear brakes are obviously not as tight as they should be. My brake handle engages at about 1/2 way, and I can feel the rear brakes working. If the rear brakes are not tight enough then the car will dip a lot in the front when braking. If they are correctly adjusted then you will feel both the front and rear dip a little, but not nearly as much.

If that doesn't work, or if you just want to be extra sure your brakes are adjusted correctly, check out this thread.
http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/153-...orum/153-gen1-brakes-suspension-tutorials/6485-how-adjust-rear-drum-brakes.html
 
#29 ·
One kid had a 90 T-bird with an automatic adjusting temperature control, just move it to low than to high and was suppose to self adjust, worked for a couple of seconds, then was a mess again, tore all the crap out, standard cable with a clamp on the outside for a solid adjustment, never shifted again.

So much for automatic adjustment, Cruze parking brake is this way, when you pull it up, that dog is suppose to slide on the cable, if it digs in, or slips, won't adjust at all. Only cure is to completely replace the parking brake assembly. Can't quite recall the price, but think is was under 40 bucks.

Daughter purchased a 2015 base model Kia Soul with rear disc calipers from the same factory that made the Cruze brakes. Was getting brake dray, levers for adjusting and the parking brake were not returning to the home position. Didn't know if this was self adjusting or not, said if it was, will have to take it to your dealer. But I popped off the rear cover of her console and saw a nut, just loosened to enough to where both levers hit the home position and a tad more.

Never had problems with the automatic adjusting parking brake on my Cruze, if it sticks to tight, will get brake drag, if it slips, no parking brake at all, and doesn't make any difference if you have drums or discs. Anything to save production an adjustment, but at times, wished they had an aftermarket with a nut on it.

But others on this board did have problems. Just replace it yourself if out of warranty, labor will kill you.
 
#30 ·
Tried lifting a few times without success, but will try reversing.
If that doesn't work, I'll have to resort to taking off the rear wheel hubs, and adjusting the bottom star screw adjuster or something someone mentioned.
 
#31 ·
Major age old problem with drum brakes are at the lower shoes where they go into the anchor, corrodes and the shoes cannot self center. Really helps if you can find shoes that are plated, but have to cleaned and the very best lubricant I found was Permatex anti-seize.

If the shoes do not self center, the adjusters do not work. Another spot are on the backing plate where the shoes make contact and where they fit into the cylinder on top. Also the best lubricant I found is on the threads of the adjuster, again, anti-seize, any kind of grease dries up or melts away, have to be able to screw those in very freely.

04 Cavalier was not too bad, used a huge U-shaped spring to compress the shoes, took a strong man and a boy to put that spring back in. I feel too many mechanics complained about this, so Chevy went back to those tiny little springs exactly like was used on my 41 Chevy, they were also a problem. Shoes have to be able to compress after being release, small tab on the rear shoe advances the gear tooth adjuster of the gap is too large.

I always set my shoes loose, back up in a clear area, hit 3 mph, then tap on the brakes, if the pedal does not come up after so many tries, didn't do it right, but always have, ha, going back about 60 years on this. Yet another problem is that DOT 3 tends to gum up, if you open the bleeder and can't push the pistons back in with your fingers, you have more problems.

Only thing I have left with drums is my Chevy P-30 motorhome chassis. That was a job, had to remove the rear axle first to remove the drums, get my wheel cylinder hone out and clean them up with new rubber. Was surprised my machine shop only charged me 5 bucks to clean up the drums. Ha, couldn't put those back on by myself, with duels, could not hold those hundred pound drums with outstretched arms. On my back, couldn't see what I was doing, so had to call my son to guide it, but sure working fine now, even after ten years.

But still have to back it up and tap on the brake pedal to take up the free play. It's not driven on road salt. Sick of road salt.
 
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