Cirrus brakes drag

Thanks for helping out here.

My daughter has a 1998 Chrysler Cirrus and the right rear brake is
dragging. I go for 4mile drive around town and get home and it is too
hot to touch. I lick my finger and touch brake drum and it sizzles - so
well beyond 100c. Driver side is just comfortably warm and I can hold
my hand on it no problem.

Last week a friend of a friend replaced both drums and shoes and left
side adjuster. The left side shoes were gone and drum was zorched as
well. Right side was ok.

So assuming brakes were adjusted properly, what is/are likely cause(s)
of one side dragging?
I have read old post on this group that the hose can have a blockage
that results in a very slow release. I would also assume a sticking
wheel cylinder might be a prob - yes?

I am presently between jobs and am into her brakes for about $180.00,
so I don't want to keep replacing this that and the other thing until
we got it right.

thanks
Bob

 

Hi Bob...

Not a mechanic, so take this with a grain of salt...

Happened to a friend not too long ago; turned out to be as
simple as a brake hose that had deteriorated to the point
that it was collapsing inside, and acting like a one-way
valve.

Reading between the lines that you'd rather do a little grunt
work that waste any dollars, a simple test might be to
jack up the wheel first thing in the morning before she's
gone anywhere, spin the wheel to check for "freeness" (is that
a word? Then pump the brakes a few times, spin it again
looking for change. If it's noticeably tighter, then play
around with the hose a bit, see if you can't make it loosen
up that way.

Take care.

Ken

 

Hi Ken,

Took your advice. The hub was quite tight from the start. Car hadn't
gone anywhere all night. I'm going to ask the guy who worked on it to
have another look. Maybe loosen it up a bit and have another ride
around town.

thanks,
Bob

 

make sure the clamp on the rubber brake line is not clamping the hose close and
not allowing fluid return causing a brake drag
have seen this a bunch of times

 

This is a common problem on them. First I can tell you is imo the rear
system on this thing is junk pure and simple. I refuse to work on them any
more as they always come back to haunt me. What I can tell you I have
learned though is replace the rear hoses, use ONLY OEM rear shoes and make
sure the adjusters are on the correct sides of the vehicle. Also replace
the rear wheel cyls. By now I am sure that drum is scorched beyond repair
too so it may need replaceing again. In any case by oem parts at the dealer
(shoes and adjusters) and quality cyls and hoses (I'll suggest NAPA here) as
the other stuff comes from China and the NAPA parts are made by BREMBO in
Italy. Good luck!

 

Must be a regional thing.

Around here, the NAPA choices are Chinese or United Brake
Products, the latter mostly coming from Canada.

 

United Brake is NAPA's house brand made by Raybestos

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

funny napa didn't last 3 months here

 

Not sure what you mean.

The rotors didn't last 3 months, or the store didn't last three
months?

 

Perhaps? Sometimes brakehoses can become defective on the inside. The
rubber swells and creates a narrower diameter. You apply the brake and
the good side does the work until the defective side can catch up. The
defective side then doesn't want to release as fast as it should
either. I would pull the drums one at a time and have someone
carefully depress the brake pedal and watch/feel/listen what the wheel
cylinders are doing. The springs should return the pistons smoothly as
the fluid is pushed back to the resovoir. If it feels rough it will be
a cylinder. If not perhaps the hose?

Hope this helps,

Ian

 

the store didn't, no one knew why and it was a corporate store