clunk, clunk clunk in rear brake on braking - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Scottie4343 · 05-27-2010, 11:40 PM

I have a 1993 toyota camry sedan 2.2 SLX. Over the last six month I have had a clunk, clunk, clunk noise coming from the rear drivers side wheel on medium to heavy braking. I'm thinking it's coming from the brakes. I tried reversing and stopping in the same manner and the noise is not there. I have drum brakes on the rear. Car has done 230k. Can you please help.

touringcamry · 05-28-2010, 01:40 PM

When driving, try pulling the parking brake handle -- this will ensure it is your rear brakes.

If this is the case, your drums need to be resurfaced. I had a similar issue a few years ago.

Camry LE 94 · 05-28-2010, 02:17 PM

I had this same noise after removing the drum from my right-rear hub to replace the bearing. I purchased new drums for both sides, however, the noise faded but didn't completely disappear on that side.

Scottie4343 · 11-08-2010, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottie4343

I have a 1993 toyota camry sedan 2.2 SLX. Over the last six month I have had a clunk, clunk, clunk noise coming from the rear drivers side wheel on medium to heavy braking. I'm thinking it's coming from the brakes. I tried reversing and stopping in the same manner and the noise is not there. I have drum brakes on the rear. Car has done 230k. Can you please help.

The problem was a failed driver rear shock absorber. Replaced both rear shocks. Noise gone! super

cheeba · 02-22-2011, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottie4343

The problem was a failed driver rear shock absorber. Replaced both rear shocks. Noise gone! super

Hi everyone,

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I am suffering from this same issue. I had my rear drums, shoes, and hardware replaced, but now there is a loud clanking on the rear passenger side whenever I hold brakes. They tried replacing the hardware again, but the noise is still there.

The OP mentioned that his issue was a bad rear strut. How does a bad rear strut cause this type of noise that happens only when braking and how can I determine if this is my issue as well?

Thanks.

l2edLine · 02-22-2011, 10:10 PM

I had a similar problem on my '93 Camry XLE. It ended up being the rear right hand Lateral Arm, i had to go to Toyota to buy it cause nobody else carried it and it cost like $120 all I had to do was get the car in the air and remove it and replace it took like 5 min total. this was after doing a number of things that I believed would fix it....control arm bushings, rear brakes, and struts......good luck and i hope this helps!

pmesfun · 02-22-2011, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by l2edLine

I had a similar problem on my '93 Camry XLE. It ended up being the rear right hand Lateral Arm, i had to go to Toyota to buy it cause nobody else carried it and it cost like $120 all I had to do was get the car in the air and remove it and replace it took like 5 min total. this was after doing a number of things that I believed would fix it....control arm bushings, rear brakes, and struts......good luck and i hope this helps!

do you remember if the lateral arm had a 2 piece bushings like this?

cheeba · 02-23-2011, 09:24 AM

Thanks for the info. How would I know if it's the arm? How do I troubleshoot this? I took my car to a suspension shop yesterday and they said it's probably the brakes but I am thinking it's only because the noise only happens when I brake and not because they have conclusive evidence.

l2edLine · 02-23-2011, 07:44 PM

when the car was on the lift you could easily move the lateral arm causing the wheel to wobble.

cheeba · 02-28-2011, 08:34 AM

Thank you for the information. I will have to look into this. I changed my drum again and the hardware, but the noise is still there. I am running out of ideas as to what this could be and I figured that if it were the lateral arm, the mechanic would have figured that out by now.

chevyduramax2500hd · 03-01-2011, 08:53 PM

I just bought a 1992 Toyota Camry LE Sedan 4 cylinder with rear drum brakes for my daughter. The brakes did not make any clunk, clunk sounds before having the drums machine turned and all new brake shoes. The car has 206,000 miles on it and i know the struts are bad because they squeak & bottom out over speed bumps. My question is why did the clunk, clunk sound start after just doing the a complete rear brake job? I have done several drum brake jobs over the years with no problems.

cheeba · 03-02-2011, 07:02 AM

This is still driving me nuts as well as it doesn't make sense. How can you perform work on the drums, shoes, etc put everything back together, hear a ridiculous sound when braking and it NOT be the brakes, when that's the only thing that you touched. If anybody else has insight into this, I would surely appreciate it.

chevyduramax2500hd · 03-05-2011, 01:18 AM

Hey cheeba, tonight I finally got rid of the clunk, clunk, clunk sound when braking. I thought when I did my brake job 2 weeks ago that I adjusted the brake drums perfectly, by having the brakes just barely drag and back off a few clicks of the adjuster so I would not hear the brake shoes touching. The parking brake handle came up about 7 clicks and I thought every thing was perfect till I went for the first drive. I researched here and googled this problem for hours today. The only way to get rid of this to back up several times at 15 miles per hour and step on your brake pedal hard with almost locking them up. Do this in safe place like I did in a empty parking lot late at night so you don't hit a car, anything or even worse a person. After I did it about 15 times I drove forward and hit the brakes hard and the clunk, clunk sound was starting to go away. I went overkill and did it about 50 times and now the sound it completely gone. The rear brakes are self adjusting when you brake in reverse only. I am so glad to this awesome website for the great information about everything that I have done to this car including being able to pass the smog test 2 weeks ago. Good luck to everyone with getting rid of this anoying brake clunking.

cheeba · 03-07-2011, 09:50 AM

Thanks for the help chevy, this was good information. I didn't get to try braking in reverse but since I already had an appointment to get my brakes checked again, I told them to check the adjusters. They said they were loose so they tightened them and cross my fingers, the noise has been gone going on three days now. One of the mechanics there was trying to convince me I had bad struts (which I do), but I was very doubtful that was the cause.

1. So to recap, I had my brand new drums machined and brakes recleaned and adjusted. Noise still there.

2. Had the drum moved from one side of the car to the next and the noise did not switch sides. Hmm, we're onto something. It's not the drum.

3. Each time they adjusted the brakes, the noise would stop and then return the next day. Maybe something is coming loose?

That was a few things we tried in getting to the bottom of things. I hope this helps someone and thanks again to chevy.