Rear brakes (drums) grinding noise

[hayesbcajh]

I have an '02 Chrysler Voyager with drums in the rear. Everytime I drive the car and make my first stop or slow down, the rear brakes make a very loud grinding sound. It is sometimes accompanied by a squealing sound, like metal on metal. After the first complete stop it doesn't happen again until I leave the car and get back in, like when going into a store. The car seems to stop fine. Although I do notice that during the grinding/squealing phase, the rear brakes seem to grab stronger and if I hit the pedal hard during this phase the rears will lock up (front brakes don't). But after the first stop everything works normally until I get out and back in again. I had one of those muffler/brake shops inspect them and they said everything was fine. My next stop is the dealer but I was hoping someone could help give me an idea of the problem so I know what to expect.

[HeadlessHorseman1]

From what your describe, it sounds like your rear brake shoes are completely gone... which also means your rear drums are damaged and need to be machine-turned or replaced.

Replacing drums in a Caravan is a PITA and not for the unhardy... get it fixed IMMEDIATELY, because this may also mean that you are now wearing down your front disk brake pads faster than usual.

And since your front disk brakes are working harder to make up for the loss of rear brakes, they will run hotter and this additional heat will diminish their capacity to work as well as they should.

[hayesbcajh]

Sorry, I forgot to include this in my initial explanation. The drums and shoes were replaced shortly before this started. We initially thought it may be related to the broken parking brake cables. But after getting the cables fixed the problem didn't go away.

[Bear]

On my '96 it was leaking wheel cylinder that allowed fluid to pick up brake dust and act like grinding compound on the shoes. Replaced wheel cylinder and solved the problem. Take a look at the wheel cylinders.

[RahX]

This is going to sound weird but the brakes are probably over adjusted. When I replace brake shoes on Caravans I adjust them loosely then take it out and run it in reverse and stop several times until it feels like they're where they should be. They tend to get super grabby if they're over adjusted.

[hayesbcajh]

RahX is probably correct with the over adjustment theory. Brought it into the dealer and they said everything looked fine. Although I was a little concerned that they said they couldn't duplicate the problem. They adjusted and lubed everything and all seems to be good. I've had the car back for about 5 days and it is still working fine. I do notice that the parking brake engages quicker (one click instead of three) and the vehicle seems to stop better overall. There was supposed to be a $45 brake inspection fee and around $80 for adjustment and lube. They let me go with just the $45 inspection fee, so I'm happy and problem is solved.