drum brakes lock

sometimes when i take the cav for a drive, the rear brakes seem to lock up and skid whenever i press the brake. i was just wondering what this could possibly be? thanx.

is there any noises or sound associated with this? does the rear end of the car squat down when it happens? is it primarily the first time or two you use the brakes?

is there any noises or sound associated with this? does the rear end of the car squat down when it happens? is it primarily the first time or two you use the brakes?

yeah thats probably the best way of saying it, it squats down. and yes it is usually the first or 2nd times when i use the brakes.

My car does that, and I have seen other postings on this and other sites about similar if not identical problems. When I had the rear brakes cleaned, it got better for about three months. Other postings say the same. I might try a high quality brake shoe.

I've been ASE certified in brakes for about a year now and this can be caused by a couple differnt things, one of which could just be bad shoe linings contaminated with grease or oil or something of that sort which would make them super tacky, this is one cause... another might be a bad proportioning valve... all this is, is a valve in the line to the rear brakes that only allows so much pressure to the back wheels because as you stop the front of your car becomes heavier meaning the back becomes ligther increasing the chance for rear wheel lock up check those 2 things out and keep me posted.

How far up can you pull your e-brake handle? If you are able to pull it up rather far, your pads are shot. What causes the problem with these brakes is the ratchet adjustment for the stationary side of the pad (oposite the cylinder) does not adjust properly. This is suppost to adjust when using the brakes in revierse. This procedure works only some of the time, you may have to remove the drums to make the adjustment manually. You want the pads to touch the drum equally at all times. GM actually has 2 different brakes sizes for the cavialiar, in what I feel is an attempt to fix the problem. You will quickly find that the brakes on this car are very POOR. I even consider them unsafe. As a side note, depending on the year of your car, it may not have a proportioning valve as mentioned in a previous posting. The new Delpi system uses "brake pressure modulation" to control braking. This is a terible idea since the rear brakes see the same amount of pressure until they lock, causing the ABS to kick in. I have a 2002 cavialier that I am thinking of selling just because i can't get the brakes to work correctly on this car. (I have driven alot of cars in my day and the brakes on this car really scare me, especially when it is wet out.)

i have a 91 sunbird and after i bought it it did the same thing. when i was fixing stuff inside of the car i pulled the e-brake and then when i went for a drive it would squat down. so i took it in and the brake had locked up a couple of times and he had replaced the piston and he said that sunbirds and cavaliers had a problem with the brake and the shock and when u hit the brake it would catch on the shock someplace and then squat down when in a forward motion and when i would back up and have to slam on the brakes the car would pop up in one corner.

I would check the piston and the shock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!mostly the piston!

My past '93 usually had overlly sensitive rear brake linings, especially after sitting for a while during damp weather. Someone once told me that it might be related to the non-asbestos lining material.