I hate cars

I was out shooting temps on my rotors like I always do to get a large average. I started with the stock brakes to get a baseline so I could see the difference of the 13" Rotoras and now stock size slotted rear Rotoras with an ultra aggressive pad.

I remember when installing the Rotora rears that there was a ton of brake dust from the rear shoes of the drum parking brake. The shoe lining was nearly gone too but I remember people saying the shoes don't come with much material and it makes sense since it's not a primary brake.

The rears have always slightly dragged but I thought it was normal pad drag on the disk. However I when I shot the temps today I shot the hub where the drum parking brake rides and it went from 140 degrees on the disk to 260 degrees on the inner hub. This should be the coolest area. So it's obvious the parking brake is dragging. It's not the adjustment because the lever is actually too loose. Pulled up all the way, I could drive the car if I wanted to. In fact I was about to take some of the slack out with the cable adjustment under the center console.

I own a car with drum rear brakes so I'm pretty familiar with them. I guess my question is has anyone had a problem with the shoes dragging that wasn't a cable adjustment issue and is there a normal adjustment for the parking brake for the shoes themselves?

And yes, the brake was fully released.

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Remove the caliper and turn the rotor to see if the shoes are actually dragging. I've seen some that actually get bound up from the exposure to the elements, or just an adjustment is needed. I believe a couple of adjustment areas, the single cable for the lever and the dual cable for the shoes.

mc_holla

Did you ever resolve this issue? I think i'm in need of a complete overhaul of the parking brake on my 04 6spd. Brakes are not strong enough to hold the car still while in a drive way with any type of incline (only strong enough when used with the car being in gear), make a clunking sound when sometimes used to slow car and honestly feel like either them or the rear disc brakes are dragging.

What steps would you recommend I follow to confirm that they are in fact in need of work?

Thanks,
Mc

I hate cars

Actually, mine turned out to be normal heat soak in the hub area. The disk surface cools much quicker than the hub area so by the time I got around to shooting temps, the hub was significanlty hotter.

One thing I learned when driving with my front brakes nearly worn out and using the e-brake to assist..... You need to break the e-brake shoes in. Even if the car has 100,000 miles but you have never used it with the car in motion, they are not broken in. Mine was always weak even with the cable adjsuted properly. All it took was dragging it for a quarter mile to greatly increase power.

binhsterbinh

Experiencing major shake with the Racingbrake rotors when I engage the parking brake in motion. The drum braises the friction surface when I spin the rotor freely on the hub. It braises for about 1/3 of the full revolution. On Tuesday, I backed off the parking brake adjustment knob 10 clicks on both sides to eliminate the braising. The E-brake doesn't work very well at 10 clicks. It grabs 60-70% at best. Vibration when parking brake engaged in motion still exists. Yesterday, I reset the parking brake to the Acura service manual spec of 8 clicks from the drum's full engagement. Rubs slightly when I rotate the rotor around. Figure this wasn't enough to cause any major hickups. Drove car to work this morning and could audibly hear and feel a slight vibration from the rear wheels. To confirm my suspicion, I engaged the parking brake about 1 notch on the lever and low and behold, mad vibration/shaking. It got worse as I increased tension.

I checked to see if the stock OEM rotor braised the friction surface when I spun it freely after reinstalling it and setting the tension gear back 8 clicks. No braising of the friction surface.

I'm guessing my new rotors are out of round. Seems unlikely with Racingbrake but we'll see. I've emailed Marcus. We'll see. As for the disc portion of the rotor, it works fine. I'm going to go ahead and reinstall the stock rotors until I get more word. Adjusting the parking brake with RB rotors is a pain with the spacer cover the adjustment hole in the rotor. I have to pull the caliper, then remove the caliper bracket, pull the rotor off, spacer off, then put the rotor back on without the spacer, reinstall the rotor, add a couple lug nuts to hold rotor in place, then spin and adjust.