[96 Cavalier] I'm not sure what this noise is but it's driving me nuts. Sometimes when I brake, I hear a loud clunk noise coming from the rear. It almost sounds like I have a basketball in my trunk and it's slamming against the rear seat. It doesn't happen all the time, and usually only when I brake hard. I'd say it happens 5% of the time. Some people have said it's my rear brake slipping, but I don't know. Anyone know what it could be?
i think it might be the rear brakes need adjusting - they're drums right??
I don't know the exact terminology, but theres some springs in the drum and a dial you turn to set the springs to push out the pads so it closes the distance they have to go to touch the drum when you hit the brake.
when adjusting turn the dial a bit then put the drum back on you should be able to feel how snug the drum is against the pads. you want it to be just touching the drum. before adjusting it move the drum around and see if you can feel if its touching the pads then adjust so that feeling is firmer.
mine did this as well and after cleaning/adjusting them it went away.
hope that helps.
- T
From your profile I know nothing about your car but I had something EXACTLY like that. It turned out that my front control arm bushings were chewed up. I put some of those prothane ones it and noise was gone.
Jay
One huge aluminum wing - $200
More vinyl graphics than your ride can handle - $150
Decals for products you don’t even have - $10
500lbs of Car Audio equipment in the trunk - $1500
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting slaughtered by a KIA - Priceless
Thanks for the advice. I'm getting new brakes and a custom exhaust installed on Thursday and I wanted to tell the mechanic to look into the rear brake making that noise, but at least have an idea of what it could be. I don't like going in there with the 'I don't know what it is' approach. Usually that approach costs a lot, haha. It's a 96 Cavalier Z24 J-Kub. I think the next thing I'll have to do is change the head gasket. I hear that the gasket in the 96 -98 Cavalier leaks around 100,000km... I'm at 98,000km... AHHH I'm worried! Thanks again guys.
