'99 2.2 Cavalier

After coming to a stop, immediately after I release the brake pedal, I hear and feel a sharp 'POP' coming from the right rear. We had the rear brakes serviced less than six months ago by a mechanic friend of the family who has now moved out of town. I would have done the work myself, but I couldn't get the drum off after spending an afternoon of wailing on it with a BFH.

The pop is intermittent, I drove the living piss out of it yesterday, getting the brakes nice and hot, and it never did it. But just this morning as I was backing out of our driveway, it popped.

Is this a common problem with the rear brakes? I'm going to tear into them in a while and wondered if there was anything specifically I should look for.

Thanks guys!

i get the same thing. ive ripped the ass end apart so many times to figure it out. and i cant. i just gave up and accepted it.

i had the same issue when mine ran , it started after i swapped the brakes and the e-brake piece inside the drum broke i did a crappy repair job and it started to pop ever since i got new pieces but my car craped

ive had the same problem i think that when the brakes engage the shoes push out inside the drum and then dont relaese exactly when the pedle slash brake cylender does do to rotation and when the shoes release becuase the springs pull them back it makes a pop noise. Usually do to improper installation even something stupid like one spring is hooked over the other wrong. Not sure but thats my input.

I think I found the problem....my wife!

Unbeknown to me, she had a TON of crap in the trunk! Books, folders, posters, empty boxes, packs of pens, pencils, markers, etc etc (she's a teacher BTW). She also had about 4 cookie tins she had received over the Christmas break; I think these were rolling around, whacking each other causing the popping sound.

I only found this out after I had gone through the trouble of jacking up the car, taking off the wheels, and popping the drums off. I compared the right side to the left non-popping side; everything looked 100% A-OK, all springs accounted for and in proper position. I buttoned it up, and decided to check the tire pressures since I was already dirty, and when I went to check the spare, I found the junk. SHEESH!

I took all the junk out of the trunk (ha!), and went to an empty parking lot and drove like I was a stunt man. No popping. I drove around town, gassed up the car, ran it through a car wash, still no popping.

So, the problem was, my wife!

Thanks guys!