2003 Camry rear brake plate "needs adjusting"

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- oconnell.jean
  
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posted
17 years ago

Thu, Jun 15, 2006 3:06 PM

Looking for information or your experiences: There is a fairly loud metal squeaking noise each time I take my foot off the brake (driving, parked, engine off - doesn't matter). The dealer said the "rear brake plate needs adjusting (not covered under warranty) and the problem does not affect braking in any way." I bought the car at the dealer less than 2 yrs ago as a 2 yr old Toyota Certified with 24K miles on it and have driven only 12K since I bought it.

Can you inform me about rear brake plates? What are they? What do they do? How did mine get to a point of needing adjusting--I haven't done anything unusual to cause the need for adjusting? This seems odd to me since all of my previous Chevys never had this problem. Would it really be several hours and several hundreds of dollars to make the adjustment? What would such an adjustment entail? Thanks you, Jean.

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- Daniel
  
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posted
17 years ago

Thu, Jun 15, 2006 9:03 PM

========================= Let's assume the rear brakes are drum brakes, not disc brakes. There is no rear brake plate. There is a sheet metal backing plate that holds the brake shoes and wheel cylinder but it is not adjustable. The only thing that happens with the backing plate is that some high temperature brake grease should be applied to the points that contact the sides of the brake shoes so they can more easily retract. Rear drum brakes last a long time, so it is unlikely they're worn out. More likely they just need to be cleaned of brake dust. Drum brakes really haven't changed in many, many years, and they're essentially the same across product lines so they should be about the same on a Chevy as a Toyota or a Dodge. Can't think of too many other items for which that holds true except maybe tires. Rear drum brakes on the Toyota are self adjusting. On mine they adjust when the parking brake is applied, so you might just first try applying the parking brake firmly, then release and re apply a number of times and see if you notice any improvement. It may also be, if anyone has been servicing those brakes, that one of the hold down springs is loose. Have never seen this happen, but could explain the noise when brakes are released. There is a small spring for each brake shoe that keeps it pulled back against the backing plate, then the shoe moves out to contact the inside of the brake drum to stop the car, and the return springs pull it back away from the inside of the brake drum when the brake pedal pressure is released.

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- David N. Makinson
  
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posted
17 years ago

Sun, Jul 9, 2006 12:49 AM

My '02 does the same thing. I opened mine up and all looks really clean and good. I am convinced that the shoes are simply rubbing on their mounting plate because, apparently, Toyota chose to not apply grease at the contact points. This is a low pressure, low speed interface, and will not wear appreciably. Hence I have decided to live with the noise, rather than go through the hassle of dis-assembling the shoes and adding dobs of grease (such as moly or silicon). I will wait for the first brake job, and make sure whomever does it (myself or my mechanic) puts some grease on the rubbing areas.

David