954 Camry breaks dragging

[nmikmik]

May be someone already had this kind of a problem. Just don’t want to “reinvent the wheel”…
I did rear breaks on my 95 Camry, drum looks fine so I did not have it turned. When I reassembled the breaks I checked if there is any dragging and there wasn’t any. Then in acouple of days I just checked all the wheels and noticed that RR was hot, jacked up that side and drum was not locked up but sure was dragging a lot. So I removed the drum readjusted the self adjusting wheel, put the drum back on and drove around the block, used parking break (I think that’s how that little self adjusting wheel gets rotated to move the shoes closer to the drum) jacked up the right side again and checked drum for dragging with the wheel off, everything was fine. Yesterday I noticed a little noise while breaking, checked that wheel – it’s dragging again!
Any ideas are sure appreciated.

[Brian R.]

Did you replace the return and hold-down springs with new ones when you replaced the shoes? If not, this may be the cause of your problem.

Could also be a bad master cylinder where the pistons are not returning properly.

Could be the brake lines were restricted in some way to prevent fluid back-flow.

Also, the parking brake cable may be sticking or out of adjustment and not allowing the shoes to retract.

[yotatechie04]

Check all of the things that Brian has listed. These are the most common elements that cause this sort of problem. I'd say that most probable cause is the return springs. Then again, it could still be all the other listed problems. Check through the list carefully, your brakes are the most important part of your vehicle!

[nmikmik]

Thanks guys!
I will check all the things you’ve mentioned. One more interesting thing to mention;
When I was replacing rear breaks, both left shoes were cracked , I did not check if it was dragging before. The funny thing is; when breaks were almost gone in the front and I had this cracked shoes issue in the back, breaks itself were working great. After I replaced front pads, front started dragging, so I had to replace the calipers, after I replaced the back – this dragging problem and even after break flush they still feel a lot spongier then they felt before I touched them….? I’d hate starting to replace the master cylinder only because I decided to replace pads and shoes. I told my wife to leave the parking break alone for now, darn it took me so long to teach her to use it in the first place.
Oh yea, I did replace all the springs when I bought new shoes, and Bryan, wouldn’t that self adjusting mechanism feel lose between the shoes if the master cylinder was not returning as it should or parking break sticking, mine does not….

[Brian R.]

I would think so, but I have never seen this problem before, so it is hard to picture.

With all this brake dragging going on in independent wheels, sure sounds like a central problem to me - master cylinder. I guess you could have contaminated brake fluid and the wheel cylinders/pistons are getting pitted from rust and binding. You might consider replacing the wheel cylinders in the back and flushing all the brake lines.

If the two wheels that have had a problem are on the same circuit in the proportioning valve, it might be a problem with the proportioning valve sticking.

[nmikmik]

Thanks again Bryan,

I already flushed whole system twice, and the front calipers were pitted to the point where I was unable to rebuild it without honing the cylinders, which I can’t do.
So my next move will be to replace the wheel cylinders, I am sure they are in just as bad of the shape as the front calipers were. Meanwhile I asked my wife not to use the parking break and we’ll see what happens. Assuming if it’s a wheel cylinder problem, it will still manifest itself one way or the other, if it’s a parking break sticking (by the way it catches on very low, since I bought the car) I should have no dragging if parking breaks are not used….

Thanks again,

And all you DIYers … PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do the break flushing at recommended intervals or at least every three years. It should eliminate half of you/someone else’s “breaking” headaches. My systems was so contaminated that even after two break flushes I found a bunch of gum like rusty substance on the bottom portion of the caliper’s cylinders.