when I put my brakes on I have to be careful to do it surely, if I do it to quick when I get to the almost stop point it feels like the back brake is slipping and makes the back passenger side only of the car kind of dip and makes a clunk sound, if I brake slowly nothing like that happens. This has been happening for a while and the car always stops fine just annoying. I am not worried the brakes will not work(yet), I think it is a wheel cylinder but cannot get to it yet because of mud season here in new england. Does anyone think it could be something else? 1994 2.2 4door cavalier 135000 miles, brake fluid good tires good drum brakes--shocks original. thanks for reading

 

sounds like the rear brakes are locking up prematurely. most of the time its from contaminated shoe linings.

 

thanks, I removed the drum and noticed the shoe wearing lopsided so change just that one and also did notice much contamination on brakes cleaned it all off and put back together, everything was going fine for about 300 miles then the problem started again so I guess the wheel cylinder is causing most of the problem since I did eliminate the worn shoe, I did spray the bleeder and screws holding the w c on. I think I will have a problem with the bleeder, probably original.

 

Replacing one shoe is a bad idea, dangerous and will not fix the problem. Not sure what you mean by lopsided wear. If the shoes show bellmouth wear you will have to replace the drums.

Look under the rubber seals of the wheel cylinders. If it's leaking that is the source that will contaminate the shoes. The bleeder would leak down the back of the backing plate .

 

thanks tech2, just changed one to see if that would fix plus only had 10 minutes will change the other one probably this weekend. What I meant about the lopsided was if you look at the shoe from the side the top part was worn more than the bottom part of the shoe. The problem with the kinda clunking sound when braking just about to a stop from that side is not there at the moment. Also, will check behind the rubber for leakage, pretty sure the bleeder is not leaking, I hope I can loosen it if I do have to change the wheel cylinder. Can not tell by fluid res cause it is getting time to change the front pads. thanks

 

Do a full rear brake job with rear spring kit....those springs get worn out.. and replace your wheel cylinders if they are looking bad/leaking/not functioning while you are in there.