Weak Rear Brakes

[Mbriggs]

My 98 neon has an issue. The rear brakes are much weaker than the front. On sand and snow, the front brakes lock up without the back breaks helping out causing instantaneous skidding. Rears are drums without ABS. Have replaced both cylinders, blead them well, checked everything else but no go. When on a lift, the wheels won't turn with the pedal depressed but on the road somethings still screwed up.

Any ideas?

THANKS!!

[das2123]

The rear brakes only do about 15%-20% of the braking.

[denisond3]

I dont have a high opinion of the self-adjusters on the rear brakes of our 97 Neon. If the self adjuster is stuck (in my experience this is fairly common on a ten year old car), then the rear brakes wont be adjusted up to even do their 15%-20% of the stopping.
We have annual safety inspections in VA & TX, and before each one I pull the rear drums, remove the self-adjusters and clean/inspect/lube the mechanism. The first time I did this (right after we bought the car in 2004) I found both of the self-adjusters were not advancing.
P.S. Some of the inspectors never look at the rear drum brakes, which leaves it up to me to check on it.

Im glad to see that das2123 has electricity and internet access. Our friends in that area are still w/o power.

[inafogg]

hello,could be the linings themselves have they been changed lately??like said above self adjusters dont really work well but adjusting them manually would take care of that.if linings are low replace if there ok try cleaning with brake clean & sand the linings.the drums also could be the problem they can get a glazing due to heat.Good Luck, Mike

[angus10]

Before you bled them you should have adjusted them so that you feel a slight resistance when you turn the drum.