ebradford

Hey all-

The good news is that our '03 (200,156 miles!) is back on the road after an 8 month hiatus. She's sporting new tires/rims, brakes/calipers all around, new (used) headlights, and a shiny new bumper cover (after my 16 year old slid it into a tree at 5mph last winter).

The bad news is that she failed MA state inspection today for, of all things, a non-functioning parking brake and an inoperable license plate light. The latter is easy enough to fix. But way more annoying is the parking brake since I don't actually ever use it anyway.

A couple of question for the class. For some of you that are running with older, higher mileage GXs:

1. Have you had to repair/replace the emergency/parking brake?
2. How involved was that process and what exactly did you need to do?

I'm just trying to get a sense of how much this is going to cost me to remedy and whether or I can try and tackle the work myself or turf to my mechanic.

-Eric

chiph9

The parking brake is strong enough to prevent the vehicle from rolling away, but not strong enough to stop you from driving off with it still on. Is that how they "tested" it?

Chip H.

Htony

Maybe it is rusted frozen for lack of use.

ebradford

chiph9

The handbrake is there because you can put the transfer case into N, and the vehicle will roll away even if you're in park, because it disconnects the transmission (where the parking pawl is) from the wheels.

Chip H.

DiabloX22

Unzip the boot, there is a gear in there, with a small screwdriver, push it down. The parking brake needs to be "exercised" when you get new rotors, they also need to be broken in, I cannot remeber the term right now, but there is a procedure. It is a MUST to use it a couple times a month! Meaning, from a slow roll 15mph pull it 2x a month. This gets the corrosion off the inside of the rotors/shoes and ensures proper use of all the other parts. There is a spec to how many rpm its supposed to hold to, I want to say 1500, dont quote me! But do some research!

ebradford

Update (and looking for some help). The brakes were fully replaced last summer. This week, the shop replaced the shoes and the parking brake cable. It's obviously a lot tighter at the handle. The problem is that per the MA spec, the parking brake is supposed to hold to 1,100 RPMs. It doesn't want to hold much past 900 RPMs before the truck starts to creep along. I never thought that I'd been looking for /less/ torque!

Any ideas? The guys at the shop were kind of at a loss. What am I missing? It seems like there must be an adjustment or something that I'm overlooking. All of the related parts are brand new.

Benjam1n

There's an adjustment to make the parking brake shoes grip the drum harder. There is a hole in your rotor for this adjustment, you need to get the hole to the 6 oclock position by rotating the rotor. Put transfer case in neutral (chock your wheels)! Then you turn the star with a flathead to make the brake shoes rub the drum harder. Then go get your inspection and adjust it back to normal. I am working on my parking brake at present. I destroyed a shoe hold down spring trying to force off a rotor awhile back ... and it kept working just not as well. Chip -- do you know if that is hold down spring on the parking brake is vital or very unsafe not to have installed? Or can I just tighten back up and keep cruising?

chiph9

Are you talking about p/n 46550G?

https://www.lexussouthatlantaparts.com/showAssembly.aspx?ukey_assembly=766884&ukey_make=1082&ukey_model=15663&modelYear=2004&ukey_category=21744&ukey_driveLine=8091&ukey_trimLevel=19100

That spring keeps the shoes from dragging on the drum when the brake is off. You sort of want it.

I would ask your dealer to do the inspection. Either they'll know that the GX won't hold at 1100 rpm and hand-wave that part of the inspection, or they'll know to spin the adjuster for purposes of passing the inspection. Take a few dozen doughnuts along.

Chip H.

Benjam1n

These are the parts that are gonesville. Going to get a parking brake parts kit for $13 on Amazon Prime. Didn't really have plans this weekend anyways. Thanks Chip. Will report back.

Benjam1n

Finally got the e-brake fixed. Took several attempts where I gave up over the past two years.

Here's some tips on what finally worked to install a missing pin, spring and hold down cup:
1) use wood shims behind the head of the pin to hold the pin taut. This was critical. This allows you to have all other springs fully engaged with the pin being the last step. The pin slides into the slot--you are not trying to get it through the hole!
2) use the hole in the hub to push hold down cup onto pin. The bowl shape of hold down cup sits inside the spring, not the other way around!

Then I tightened up the nut under the cupholder using a 12mm wrench and my parking brake is now 100%.

Lexus4321

Shoed brakes should have auto-adjust at the brake location, hence a few action of the brake lever should tighten things up. That's how my Tacoma was. I have 2006 GX which is disc brakes.
This forum is bit confusing, the GX sub forum title says "1st Gen (2004-2009)" but the description next to it says "Discussion topics related to the 2003 -2009 GX470 models"