Grinding from left rear...drums?

[OttawaGeorge]

Hi gang,
once the freezing drizzle stops I'll be heading out to pull of the LR wheel and see if I can find the source of a grinding that started a couple of days ago. I hear it mostly when I drop below the regen threshold in 2nd gear i.e. 20kph to zero.

I've only ever changed drum brakes on motorcycles so to educate myself I've gone through the old posts but strangely Insight drum brakes seem pretty much trouble free based on the paucity of posts.

Can anyone give me a headsup what else to look for if the shoes are fine and there's no obvious corrosion buildup? Car has 220,000km/136k miles.

Thanks,
George

[AbCaRed00]

You may wish to check your parking brake setting of the adjustment nut at the back of the e-brake handle.

A simple tightening cleared up the noise when my car made sounds on braking, [and just at point of brake release], where there was sometimes a "chuffing" sound from the right rear.

It turned out to be a loose brake cable after inspection with the drums removed. The rear brakes were appearing virtually brand new and the cable had a bit too much slack.

Tightened the cable according to the manual procedure with the car on stands and noise was gone.
fwiw: I think i provoked stretching the cable a bit with a couple 'having too much fun' e-brake turns through some icy corners just before it occurred. After tightening, no noises.

[talonmike]

it could be a worn bearing also