# 2004 nissan frontier parking brake adjustment.



## hipster dufus (Mar 16, 2012)

had the rear brakes done on my nissan. afterwards the parking brake would not hold. went back and they adjusted it.it works but iam not happy with it. the only adjustment is at the pedal, a bolt on the side of it. there is no adjustment where the 3 cables come together it seems to me to be a design flaw. anyone have experience with this? is there a tsb on this or a silent recall? any advice would be great. i did go to the nissan forum and someone was nice enough to post the service manual page, and it only shows the bolt at the pedal. thanks


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## shakey gizzard (Mar 16, 2012)

Can you take a pic of the adjustment?


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## mattech (Mar 16, 2012)

Not sure how it that one works, but older ones would adjust when you hit the brakes in reverse.


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## southernboy2147 (Mar 19, 2012)

not sure about nissans but on my old ranger there was a little whole in the back drums that u could stick a flat head in and turn this wheel like thing that would tightin to E break. dont know bout this one though


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## zedex (Mar 20, 2012)

The first step is having the rear brakes replaced or properly adjusted. If the pedal seems too low afterward, the first thing I would look at is drum wear. 

 Inside the drum is like the inside of a bowl. If you rubbed it enough, the inside diameter becomes too large and the shoes must travel that extra distance. 

 To most folks, a little drum wear of, say, 0.030 is nothing. And for most things, that is right. But, the brake systems work hard and have very little allowable wear. A brake drum with thin walls can easily fracture and cause brake failure.

 Most brake drums allow for .060 or 60thousandths of an inch wear. Some go as high as 0.090 or 90thousandths.

That is less that 1/10 of an inch and the drum is junk for two reasons: thin metal walls and the inside is too large, allowing the shoes to travel too far. Now, once this happens, the wheel cylinders can come apart and leak or wall failure resulting in fracture.

 As for the parking brake, it, too, relies on proper drum diameter. If the brake shoes have to travel too far, they become ineffective and many misguided souls will resort to adjusting the cable system first. They do this because they do not realize the importance or relevence of the drum wear or because they would rather save the money instead of buying new drums. 

 While jumping straight to the cables will save a buck or two today, the result come be horrible tomorrow.

 All said, you should have drum wear checked by someone who will give you the straight scoop and not juts what you want to hear.

 If the drums are within specifications, then do adjust the cable. And, before doing so, be sure that the cables are clean and free of debris and that they function normally. Use some spray oil and lube the cables and be sure the self adjusters inside the drum are working properly


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## crackerdave (Mar 20, 2012)

Sound advice from zedex!

I've got a '98 Frontier,and I finally spent the twenty-some bucks for a Chilton's repair book.If you're mechanically inclined,you can save a pile of money by doing your own repairs/maintenance.


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## BlackKnight755 (Mar 20, 2012)

What Zedex said... Usually the drums dont cost that much to replace. Maybe they are within the specs to adjust the cables but if not, replace with new ones, BK.


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