# Drum Brake Adjustment Issues



## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

I reached out to another contact I had in GM a little while back to find out more about this, as many people were reporting this as an issue. The common reports complained primarily about the height of the handbrake when pulled as a direct consequence of improperly adjusted rear drums, but as one can expect, premature front brake wear (and perhaps even warping) can result when the rear drums are not doing their jobs, in addition to compromised stopping distance and stability during hard braking. You guys will be quite relieved to hear what he had to say:



> For the park brake adjustment, we had a spike in April-May builds (38 cars repaired in the field so far). The issue drops off in June but around mid-August we also made changes to the tool/process at Lordstown to further improve the consistent setting of the brake.


Check the build date of your Cruze, and you'll know if you need to have your rear brake drums adjusted. From what I'm understanding, any Cruze manufactured on or before June 2012 may be affected, and some are affected up till mid August, after which the consistency should be very good.


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## AutumnCruzeRS (Sep 10, 2012)

Can rear drums be adjusted by going in reverse and applying the brakes? They are self adjusting rear drums right?


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

AutumnCruzeRS said:


> Can rear drums be adjusted by going in reverse and applying the brakes? They are self adjusting rear drums right?


They should self-adjust, but I don't think they will do so when the adjustment is so far out of spec out of the factory. I know for a fact they didn't self-adjust on my car, but the car has been just fine since I adjusted them. I adjust them one click every time I rotate the tires (3,500 miles), and the last time I adjusted them one click, I had to go back and undo that adjustment by one click because they were dragging a bit, which to me indicates that they're adjusting on their own now.


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## silverls (Nov 12, 2011)

AutumnCruzeRS said:


> Can rear drums be adjusted by going in reverse and applying the brakes? They are self adjusting rear drums right?


I may be wrong but I am gonna say now. I know the front disk is self adjusting, but i do not believe that the rear drums are. 

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using AutoGuide.Com Free App


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

silverls said:


> I may be wrong but I am gonna say now. I know the front disk is self adjusting, but i do not believe that the rear drums are.
> 
> Sent from my DROID BIONIC using AutoGuide.Com Free App


I think the rear drums are self-adjusting. That is, I think. I'm not 100% sure though. I know they _should _be rear-adjusting, but I don't know if that system works correctly. Time will tell.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

They are. Reverse at 15-20 mph and stomp your brakes to the floor. 

My pedal tightened up nicely. Hitting the ABS in reverse will help with the self-adjustment since it's pulsing them multiple times.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Thanks and good to know.


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

They "should" self-adjust. Meaning, they'll do it in the lab, but need manual adjustment out in the field, er, driveway.


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## NYCruze2012 (Jan 16, 2012)

sciphi said:


> They "should" self-adjust. Meaning, they'll do it in the lab, but need manual adjustment out in the field, er, driveway.


I'm with you sciphi but I've never had a set self-adjusters that actually did self-adjust. Why don't they just call them manual adjusters instead? After 20,000 miles when I took my car in for its last oil change I asked the technician to adjust my rear brakes. What a nice difference that made.

Sent from my DROID3


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## evo77 (Sep 5, 2011)

jblackburn said:


> They are. Reverse at 15-20 mph and stomp your brakes to the floor.
> 
> My pedal tightened up nicely. Hitting the ABS in reverse will help with the self-adjustment since it's pulsing them multiple times.


Anyone else confirm this procedure works?


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

I can confirm it didn't work on mine since the brakes were so far out it didn't make a difference. I tried that. The drums still needed 12-15 "clicks" of the star adjuster wheel to get tight. I did that pretty quickly after getting the car, and in the year I've had it they are pretty good. I might have to re-do it when swapping to winter tires since it takes 10 minutes per side after the car's up in the air.


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## coinneach (Apr 10, 2012)

I've done the fast reverse and stomp the brakes thing a couple of times this week. The ABS is definitely doing its thing, but the brakes don't feel any firmer. Guess this is as good as it gets.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

coinneach said:


> I've done the fast reverse and stomp the brakes thing a couple of times this week. The ABS is definitely doing its thing, but the brakes don't feel any firmer. Guess this is as good as it gets.


It's still squishy compared to cars with 4 wheel discs, BUT my pedal has a good inch or so less play til the brakes engage after doing that. Not sure how out of adjustment mine were. Mines an Oct 2011 model.


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## coinneach (Apr 10, 2012)

jblackburn said:


> It's still squishy compared to cars with 4 wheel discs, BUT my pedal has a good inch or so less play til the brakes engage after doing that. Not sure how out of adjustment mine were. Mines an Oct 2011 model.


I manually adjusted mine about three weeks ago, so there probably wasn't much slack (if any) to take up.


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## ctrider (Sep 9, 2012)

I manually adjusted mine twice. It was built in August 2012. I pulled the drums and turned the adj wheel 5-7 clicks each time. They seem to be fine now.


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## Dale_K (Jul 16, 2011)

I think the brakes are supposed to self adjust going in either direction. Here is a cut & paste from the owner's manual shortly after a section talkiing about rear brake inspection. Old style drum brakes adjusted in reverse only. FWIW my brakes never seemed to change adjustment on their own. I had to perform a manual adjustment on mine to get a good pedal. 

*Brake Adjustment
*Every time the brakes are applied,
with or without the vehicle moving,
the brakes adjust for wear.


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

They're "supposed" to. That doesn't mean they in fact do. Mine sure didn't, at least not the large level of adjustment they needed.


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