Hi all,
was asked to look at a friend's Nissan Xterra (rear drum brakes) with a non-specific brake complaint (don't you love those?) Apparently her brother in law replaced the front pads recently and she was told by someone that her rear brakes needed attention. Well I pulled them apart and they looked great but the drums fell right off in my hands after pulling the wheels so I cleaned them well (didn't take long, they weren't dirty) and reassembled and then adjusted them as I am used to for drums. Only difference I saw between these and the old school drums that I'm used to is that these have the star wheel integrated with the parking brake strut not at the bottom (there's an anchor plate there) as I'm accustomed to seeing. I adjusted them a little on the draggy side (I like a firm pedal) but I did not think excessively so. I then drove the vehicle about 50 miles and by the end of the drive I was smelling hot linings. Got it up in the air today and the brakes are way tighter than I'd adjusted them, as though they were in proper adjustment and then the self adjusters tightened them up even more.
I'll back them off for no drag, or maybe slight drag with a couple clicks on the parking brake, but what gives? How can I prevent this from happening again? And why were they so loose before and after I adjusted them the self adjusters all of a sudden started actually working?
nate