I never seem to have time to check out my front brakes, With @32K, I would like to see the life left on the pads. I am sure mainly city driving is "wearing them down" and after a 1.5 years of driving, I would like to have my brake/clutch flushed. As always, when time permits. This summer I have been playing driver for son and cousins.
How to Adjust Rear Drum Brakes
How to Adjust Rear Drum Brakes
This writeup was inspired by this thread:
http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/34-1-4l-turbo/6326-brake-catching-sound.html
Why do my Cruze's drum brakes need adjusting?
The Cruze's drums are not adjusted very well from the factory. I believe the word "horrible" would describe it well. XtremeAaron and I had run into an issue where the brakes would create an audible and repetitive noise based on the rotation of the wheel when coming to a stop. The reason for this noise is that the brakes were only engaging during those noises, indicating that they were not adjusted correctly and were not even being used in most braking conditions to stop the car. They were only touching enough to create those noises.
Adjustment of drum brakes is very important for safe braking and stability. I highly recommend that anyone with a Cruze LS, 1LT, and ECO adjust their drum brakes.
This writeup will explain how to adjust these brakes.
Tools needed:
- Jack
- Jackstand
- Flathead screwdriver
- T30 Torx wrench/bit
- Lugnut removal tool
How-To:
To start, lift the car off the ground. Be sure that you have a jackstand as well as a jack. A jack is only intended to lift a car, not to hold the car up. This will need to be done on completely level ground as the parking brake will need to be disengaged this whole time. You will need to block off the front wheels to make 100% sure that the car doesn't roll). I simply left the car in 1st gear, but if you do this, be sure to take the car out of gear before starting it.
Once you get it off, you'll see something similar to this:
Using the T30 Torx bit/wrench, remove the screw that holds the drum in place:
Once the screw is removed, the drum should slide right off. If it doesn't, lightly wedge it with a flathead screwdriver in varying locations.
Once you get it off, you'll see the hydraulic piston and below it, the adjustment mechanism:
The adjustment mechanism pushes the brake shoes outward when the the adjustment nut is turned upward. I used a flathead screwdriver to turn it. It will only turn in one direction unless you pull back the locking plate.
On my Eco, I had to rotate the adjustment nut at least 7 clicks. Your needs may vary, so I would start at 2-4 clicks. Once you have made the adjustment, put the drum back on, making sure to line up the screw hole:
Lightly tighten the screw that goes in that hole, and spin the drum by hand. If you feel absolutely no resistance from the brake shoes, remove it and turn the adjustment nut a few more clicks. Repeat this procedure until you feel a small amount of resistance. You should still be able to turn the drum by hand without a whole lot of force. A small bit of resistance is fine, but if it's difficult to turn by hand, you adjusted it too far and will need to turn the adjustment nut in the other direction. To do so, you will need to lift the lock plate. You can do this either by lifting it directly, or pressing down on the opposite end of it.
Once you have a good adjustment, tighten the T30 screw. I highly recommend anti-sieze lubricant on the T30 screw that holds the brake drum. Place the wheel back on, lower the car, and repeat this procedure for the other wheel. Once all sides are done, take the car out for a drive.
If you hear the brakes rubbing while coasting, perform a few very hard stops from at least 40mph. If the rubbing noise does not stop, you've adjusted the brakes too far and will need to go back a few clicks.
Observations:
After adjusting my drum brakes, I noticed vastly improved braking performance and brake pedal feel. The car exhibited significantly less nosedive during harder braking, and felt much more confident and secure while coming to a stop. Engaging the handbrake was also more secure and required less actual height on the hand brake lever. The previously heard brake noise is also now completely gone.
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Nick, anti seize works great on fasteners and non critically finished moving parts. WRT brakes, one place that anti seize should never be used is on disc brake caliper pins; it has suspended metal particles that will cause abrasive wear on the finish of both the bore and pins, destroying the sliding fit. I found this out the hard way! 
Could have been more specific, for the guide pins only silicone grease is used. Should be water proof, but the boots don't last very long. But this is the only spot, anti-seize for all the exposed parts.Nick, anti seize works great on fasteners and non critically finished moving parts. WRT brakes, one place that anti seize should never be used is on disc brake caliper pins; it has suspended metal particles that will cause abrasive wear on the finish of both the bore and pins, destroying the sliding fit. I found this out the hard way!
NEVER WORKED ON CRUZE DRUM BRAKES!
With this aside, for that last 64 some years also have been able to back off the adjuster and here is the reason why. A ridge forms on the outer edge due to drum wear, and you cannot remove the drums until you back off that adjuster!
If you can't back off the adjuster, how are you going to remove the drums? Sure can't file that off because the backing plate is in the way, and can't remove that until you remove the drum! If this is the way the Cruze drums are made, Chevy should replace all these rear brakes so you can.
On vehicles that were so badly rusted, had to split the drum to get the darn this off.
Had two problems with my Chevy P-30 this spring, first when I hit the brakes, the pedal would not return. Uses a Hydroboost power braking system the spool was sticking that activates the master cylinder and darn near have to remove the body to get at that hydroboost.
So used a syringe to remove all of the PS fluid and poured in Lucas PS conditional, freed that spool up almost instantly.
Second problem that relates to the Cruze, brake pedal was going practically clear down to the floor. So I started the engine and backed it up at about 2 mph and kept on tapping on the brake pedal while doing so. After a short reverse trip, had a full pedal again.
Cruze should operate the same way, if the pedal does not come up while tapping on the brake pedal something is wrong. Ha, was glad this pedal came back up, takes a very strong guy with a boy to remove those rear brake drums. I did redo the brakes on this thing when I first got it, not strong enough to hold these super heavy drums at arms length so I can see what I was doing. But could lay on my back and lift them up, but needed help to guide them back one. Had to be perfectly straight, and laying on my back, couldn't see what I was doing.
Not a problem with the Cruze, two fingers can install that drum. Or other vehicles like it.
Oh, I do use anti-sieze on the threads of the adjusters, plus on the end cap, these have to be spun on effortlessly. Do have a tap for the right hand thread for cleaning, but not for the left hand thread. Cheaper to buy new adjusters than buying a left hand tap. Lower anchors are always a problem with binding.
Racking my brain for those stupid clips on the front calipers on the pad brackets for a long term cure. A blind spot where salt gets in and jams the pads so they can't return.
One solution I came up with is to trade my Cruze in for an older vehicle that didn't use them. Really a stupid idea. With rear discs, using that same bracket. Least you don't have this problem with drums, but apparently different problems.
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