Here’s how to service or change the parking brakes on a Toyota or Lexus with rear disc brakes.
Behind the rear rotors are a set of shoes that contact the inside of the drum for the hand-brake. Depending on use, the shoes may wear out or the assembly may seize up from lack of use.
Periodic servicing of the brakes is essential to keeping them working in top shape.
This video shows step by step how to change or refurbish the rear parking brakes on a Toyota Solara. Procedure is the same as the Toyota Camry, Sienna, Highlander, RAV4 and Avalon and the Lexus ES300, ES330, ES350, RX300, RX330, RX350.
The parking brake drum, which is part of the brake rotor, must first be removed. There are some springs that keep tension on the shoes that need to be removed using a needle-nose pliers, or a special drum brake tool.
Once the parking brake shoes are free, the cable spring is compressed to remove the cable from the shoe. A non-reusable C-clip must then be removed to free the shoe from the horse shoe bracket.
Replace shoes when the thickness of the pad material gets below 1mm, or you can see the rivets in the metal below.
There are several lubricating points where the shoe grinds up against the backing plate that need to have some lubrication. The video calls out these six points with a diagram from the service manual.
Post time: Oct-10-2017