Avensis Handbrake

[steve-61]

Hi, Can anyone help me out? i have a 2001 Avensis with discs on the rear & drums for the handbrake in the middle of the disc's. I find the handbrake snatches on when applied & if i am parked facing upward on a bank i have to pull the brake on further & the car rolls back slightly before the brakes snatch & hold, i saw somewhere that i should try driving with the handbrake applied to clear any crud that has built up, i have tried that with no effect. I have replaced a sticking cable & the shoes which also has not made any difference to this problem.

Steve

[Q.S.]

Hi, Can anyone help me out? i have a 2001 Avensis with discs on the rear & drums for the handbrake in the middle of the disc's. I find the handbrake snatches on when applied & if i am parked facing upward on a bank i have to pull the brake on further & the car rolls back slightly before the brakes snatch & hold, i saw somewhere that i should try driving with the handbrake applied to clear any crud that has built up, i have tried that with no effect. I have replaced a sticking cable & the shoes which also has not made any difference to this problem.

Steve

New shoes might take a little use before they bed in. Did you clean the drum face with anything before reassembling? If not, remove them again and give the drum surface a good clean with some emery cloth and then wash off with brake cleaner. Refit drums and readjust the brake shoes.

Are you sure the shoes are fitted the correct way round? they might have a leading edge, not sure on this.

[Gooli]

"the car rolls back slightly before the brakes snatch & hold".

How much is slightly?

My car, also a 2001 does the same. It rolls back only a couple of inches, then stops dead.

I can also feel it when the car is jacked up when changing tyres.

[steve-61]

Hi

Thank you for your replies.

This all started with the car shaking violently when driving at any speed, I took it to the local garage & after test driving it the mechanic said that it was ether the drive shafts or gearbox (gulp). When I got back home I thought its not showing symptoms of drive shaft failure as they tend to cause shake under load so I jacked the car up & the drivers side rear wheel was red hot, when I spun the wheel it would spin for around half a turn & then lock on suddenly as if someone had put a stick through some bike wheel spokes, this was causing the shake, I had not replaced anything at this stage, I found the handbrake cable stuck on & the shoes worn.

When I replaced the shoes I cleaned the drums with a wire brush in a drill to remove the rust followed by wet & dry & a wipe round with Meths, I think the new shoes are fitted correctly as I replaced the old for new fitting them the same way as the old ones came off. The only niggle I have is wondering if I fitted the auto adjusters the right way round (should they face the front or rear?) the car no longer shakes & the wheel no longer gets hot but I am still getting this locking of the wheel when the handbrake is applied, the car will roll about two feet & then bang it stops dead, I think I will replace the discs next as they are getting a bit worn on the footbrake side of things anyway & see if that helps

Steve

[Q.S.]

Hi

Thank you for your replies.

This all started with the car shaking violently when driving at any speed, I took it to the local garage & after test driving it the mechanic said that it was ether the drive shafts or gearbox (gulp). When I got back home I thought its not showing symptoms of drive shaft failure as they tend to cause shake under load so I jacked the car up & the drivers side rear wheel was red hot, when I spun the wheel it would spin for around half a turn & then lock on suddenly as if someone had put a stick through some bike wheel spokes, this was causing the shake, I had not replaced anything at this stage, I found the handbrake cable stuck on & the shoes worn.

When I replaced the shoes I cleaned the drums with a wire brush in a drill to remove the rust followed by wet & dry & a wipe round with Meths, I think the new shoes are fitted correctly as I replaced the old for new fitting them the same way as the old ones came off. The only niggle I have is wondering if I fitted the auto adjusters the right way round (should they face the front or rear?) the car no longer shakes & the wheel no longer gets hot but I am still getting this locking of the wheel when the handbrake is applied, the car will roll about two feet & then bang it stops dead, I think I will replace the discs next as they are getting a bit worn on the footbrake side of things anyway & see if that helps

Steve

Steve, have a search on the forum for a thread on changing the rear discs. It has some good photos on it so you should be able to see the adjuster set-up. I will see if I can find it and post a link.

Try this one.

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=84814

Take note of the brake shoes too.

[steve-61]

Just a quick update. I have now replaced 1 stuck cable, both discs, shoes twice & pads & it is still not right! I spent most of yesterdaystriping everything down, the first replacement set of new shoes had worn down to the metal on one corner. I fitted new ones along with new discs & pads but it has made no difference, the disc's still get hot & when the handbrake is applied it still snatches on & the car rolls back in reverse. Something i have noticed when i remove the drums/discs is that the shoe retainers (the ones that go through the backplate & shoes) have slipped. they supposed to hold the shoes in position. there is a small metal bar that comes through the backplate & shoes fitted over this is a washer type thing, a spring & another washer that has a lug that goes into a hole in the brake shoe, when i strip the brakes down this lug has come out of the shoe. Everything is clean, fitted & adjusted correctly as far as i know & no cables are sticking, the only thing i havent replaced are the springs inside the drum, i will try this next. Any ideas?

[steve-61]

Hi

Another update!

If anyone else is having this problem i have found out that there are two different size brake shoes for this model, one has a smaller cam arc at the top which fits tighter & stops the car from rolling/grabbing. On most car accessory websites only one size shoe (the larger cam one) is listed check out the APEC brake manufacturers site for details. It has taken me a lot of time & money to sort this problem out, even the local garage did not know what was causing it & when asked Toyota said that i had the right (large cam) shoes for my car, they didn't say anything about there being two sizes grr

[steve-61]

It turned out in the end that the shoe's that fitted my car were for the estate & these had to be ground down a little by the garage to get them to fit, i own the hatchback!

Goodness knows what Toyota had fitted in the first place but my car being an early 2001 model was manufactured late 2000 just before a facelift so i wonder if they had run out of the correct parts & made anything that they had to hand fit it