Rear right brake noises & heat

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

Hi

I've had my dad's 120 for the week (4wding in SE NSW with a hired Tvan - one of the best holidays we've had).

The day after we picked it up I noticed a weird noise after starting to drive. The noise sounded like "clunk clunk clunk" with the frequency being proportional to the vehicle speed. As I sped up or slowed down the noise did the same. There are two distinct clunks as it goes around.

It would be ok for 500m, then make a noise for 500m then be ok. Sometimes it happened the first time we drove it in the morning, sometimes after it had been driven 15 mins then parked for 4 hrs. Then the noise went away for 4 days.

Today when we tried to drive off this morning the car really didn't want to move but seemed ok once we got going (more power! After checking everything seemed ok). Then when we were on the tar the noise came back - louder and it didn't stop for ages. I then noticed that the back left wheel hub was very hot - much hotter than all the other wheels.

Dd gets it regularly serviced by Traction 4 in Sydney so I rang them - they suggested backing off the handbrake pads on that wheel. This seemed to work... Until we stopped at a town 30 kms down the road. When we started up again the noise was back...

We kept going to Cooma where I went to all the auto places and only Toyota could take a look at it. A few hours later the diagnosis was that the parking brake was adjusted too tight, so they checked it, lubed something in there and put it back together. It was fine till Canberra - I stopped to wash the Tvan with the parking brake on and 500m after I started again the noise was back, worse than before!

I'm now in Canberra with no idea what to do.

Can the parking brake "readjust" itself? Should I try winding it off again? Any other ideas on what is going on? I need to get back to Sydney tonight so I can go to work and the kids to school.

Peter

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

I tried to start off again after repacking the car after dropping off the Tvan and it wouldn't move... The handbrake was locked on. So... I took the wheel off again and readjusted the parking brake which fixed it.

Looks like something has broken in the auto adjust mechanism. Hopefully with the adjustment it will be ok to get me home tonight!

[SWR Banned Find all posts View Profile Close SWR]

Pm'd you

[sunny120 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sunny120]

Sounds like one of the retaining cups/spring holders for the handbrake shoe might have fallen off. You'd need to remove the rotor to inspect.

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

Sorry about the missing update - we made it back very late Monday night and I've had a busy time since catching up on 2 weeks work stuff.

I spoke with Skywalkerrun on the drive back - thanks for the PM.

sunny120 - I'll add that to the list of things to check. It was pulled apart and checked by a Toyota mechanic in Cooma on Monday afternoon - he "fixed" it until I used the handbrake a few more times - so I'm not sure that something has fallen off. But then nothing really makes sense with it...

To me it sounds like the self-adjuster has broken and the handbrake winds the adjusters "on" each time I use it. It could be a while before I find out what it was - it's my dad's car and he's away for a few months. He said he has an extended Toyota warranty and wants to see if they will cover it - I doubt it but it's his car so... that's what we'll do. Unfortunately for me it means I can't borrow it again :-( - which is a shame because we had a great time in it! Can't wait till we get our own one...

[sunny120 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sunny120]

Make sure that the pins for the spring retainers are bent in their original shape, I've seen them straighten out when guys try to pull rotors off when the handbrake has been adjusted pretty tightly or the inner rotor has a lip on it catching on the brake shoe. This normally leads to the shoe flapping around inside the drum of the rotor causing all kinds of noises and can lock up a wheel.

I'd doubt it'd be the adjuster as its not really self adjusting. It can only self adjust if the spring holding tension on the adjuster is missing/broken (from memory it sits in between the star wheel slots). Sorry about the crappy explanation, but when you finally do pull the rear rotor off you'll see what I mean. Also make sure the shoes aren't bent in any way, seen that as well a few times.

[peter_mcc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close peter_mcc]

An update! I didn't get time to pull the brakes apart before Dad came home - I've been buried with work - so he took it to Chatswood Toyota a week or so ago - see here for a bit more info.

The problem turned out to be a frozen handbrake cable on the right side. They changed both of them and so far it seems ok. But it seemed ok when we picked it up too... so I guess we'll wait and see what happens!

Thanks for everyone's advice & Skywalkerrun's offers of help.