Design defect found on 05 aveo rear drums.

[wearl]

I have a 05 Aveo LS with 116k miles on it. For about a year now I have been having problems with my brakes. The pedal would go to the floor with very little stopping power. I keep getting the runaround from the dealor. Finally the dealor just said I need new brake pads on all 4 wheels. I did not trust them and took it to another local shopand they said I had 75% of my pads left the looked at the car and found the rear drums are not self adjusting themselves. They tested the auto adjuster and everything works fine. They found there is a design defect in the auto adjuster that keeps it from adjusting the drums. They don't know of a fix for it. So they just manually adjusted them. Guess I will have to get them adjusted manually every so often.

[Pontiac1976]

the cylinder and adjustment rod are on the top, only the ebrake is on the bottom which means when the pads push on the drum only the top pushes out. The bottom only pushes out when the ebrake is applied. (cant stay out because the rod is on the top.) That design also creates the adjustment rod and nut as a pivot point, and the pivot point mores out with wear. but your not using the whole pad, not really, so wear would not be very significant overall.

This is the norm for most drums it's sort of like a safety for people that drive with e-brake on. You will still have rear brakes if you do this a lot but your e-brake side will be tossed. If you use your e-brakes on when parking do not forget to take them off and keep them adjusted your rear brake side should be wore out before your e-brake side most times when your time to change the rear drum shoes.
One side or the other should have enough shoes to help stop you in a fast stop if needed. If not then they need replaced. I like to have then a little bit more than half wore out. But that just me.

[redpilot13]

Thanks for the info. My wife's 04 Aveo was having the same issues with the front pads being ok but low pedal and barely any stopping power. I did the reversing and stomping on the brakes method and now the car stops on a dime. This car was under-engineered in many ways. I can't believe there was no access hole in the back of the brake drum to adjust the rear brakes.

[petrified.rabbit]

Under engineered would be if they did not they self adjust, you must have to must grime back there. they should naturally adjust out slowly as you back out of parking spots, use the ebrake, etc.

technically having drums is kinds of under engineered for these days, but if you wanted a feat of modern engineering, you would buy a corvette, mercedes, audi, etc. Not a aveo.

[DinoDino]

The "reverse fast, then stomp brakes" technique worked for my 2008 Aveo sedan. After a rear brake cylinder replacement, my brakes were weak and wouldn't bite, and the pedal would engage only about halfway down to the floor. This was after a thorough brake bleeding. After trying out the technique, the pedal engages early, and stopping power has returned. Many thanks.