I took my car to get the alignment fixed recently, and just as I had suspected I found out the parking brake was stuck. The guy that did my alignment was nice enough to pop the brake loose. Well, I guess the brake had been dragging for quite some time and the brake pedal has quite a bit of travel in it now. I have a couple of questions:

1) The parking brake only operates the back two brakes correct?

2) If the parking brake had been dragging what would I need to do fix worn out brakes? (I have the DX, so the back is drum) Just new brake pads?

I'm not looking for anything performance, not even sporty. All I want to do is fix my worn brakes so I don't kill myself going down the road expecting them to work, and then they don't. I don't really want to rely on a set of worn out pads any more than I have to.

Any and all suggestions are welcome and much appreciated...

 

for #1 yes - the rears only

for #2 sorry....i'm not familiar enough with drum brakes. maybe just a rear 'brake job' would do the trick??

bty: the parking brake did this on mine as well - they wouldn't release. thanks to a friend i was able to get unrusted calipers from another pro - the parking brake is working fine now.

 

just replace the pads. most likely your drums are alittle worn but will still work. it might be hell getting your drums off tho. Remember before you take the pads off. look at them on the car. remember which way they are. if so take a pic. They also make a nice tool to work on drum brakes. makes life alot better.

 

got a chiltons or haynes repair manual. If not get ONE!

they come in very usefull when ur working on ur car. and give u a complete ground-up rebuild of ur total car.

they tell u step by step with brakes and other repair stuff