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Please Help! Replacing the RR pads and rotor. Cannot remove rotor as shoes for parking brake have fully expanded and I can't get them to release. A bottom spring has come off as well as 2 round clips. The more I pull on the rotor the more the shoes are yanked outwards. Tried engaging and releasing parking brake several times. Even went as far as shooting WD40 onto shoes in desperation. My wife is glaring at me while I type this. She doesn't appreciate us saving $600 on a complete brake job if I run into a dead end. Thank you so much for your advice
It sounds like you have inadvertently released the springs that hold the shoes in place by pulling the rotor.
There is a rubber plug on the rotor that you can remove with a pick or a small screw driver. Once removed, you can spin the rotor to get that hole to line up with the bottom of the drum brake mechanism. That’s where you should see the drum brake adjustment screw. You can use that adjustment screw to bring the shoes in or out from the rotor hat.
Look up Lexus Parking Brake Adjustment and you should find more info.
Attached is the parking brake assembly section from my HS250h service manual because my RX350 service manual on CD no longer wants to work. The parking brake assemblies should be the same or very similar and it may help with your brake job issues.
Awesome folks! I was finally able to get the rotor drum off. Now to survey the damage and somehow prevent it from happening on the other side. I got all the brake parts from Rock Auto but maybe a local auto parts store sells the complete kit for the drum brake assy.
9/10 times you don't need to remove the drum and mess with the parking brakes [unless there is a problem]. For a typical brake job, you just deal withe the disc and pads.
In the 1/10 times, you need a mallet [and hammer when things do not budge] and never pull the the drum till the thing is spinning freely. Trick is toe turn the drum and strike with mallet on the exterior of the drum and spin again .. till the drum spins freely.
When you assemble. again use the mallet and spin the drum. This action centers the floating pads. Use the star nut to expand [keep banging with the mallet] till you get a slight drag. If the drum has no drag, most likely the brake pedal travel will be too much and if you have too much drag the parking brake may heat up and seize.
9/10 times you don't need to remove the drum and mess with the parking brakes [unless there is a problem]. For a typical brake job, you just deal withe the disc and pads.
In the 1/10 times, you need a mallet [and hammer when things do not budge] and never pull the the drum till the thing is spinning freely. Trick is toe turn the drum and strike with mallet on the exterior of the drum and spin again .. till the drum spins freely.
When you assemble. again use the mallet and spin the drum. This action centers the floating pads. Use the star nut to expand [keep banging with the mallet] till you get a slight drag. If the drum has no drag, most likely the brake pedal travel will be too much and if you have too much drag the parking brake may heat up and seize.
Salim
The parking shoes are inside the rotor. There is no separate drum.
The parking shoes are inside the rotor. There is no separate drum.
Yes .. the drum shape contains the shoes. When I talk about wacking the drum, I mean the drum portion and not the rotor. [rotor -> rotating disc]
Incidentally, the drum brakes predate the disc brakes. For a while the rear were drum and the front were disc for many vehicles. The "star" nut was automatically adjusted based on the travel. Before I opened mine up [first Gen], I assumed the auto-adjust existed in the drum and couple of members corrected my mistake.
03-18-21, 03:20 PM
2012 RX 350 AWD parking brake shoes frozen
