I have had some issues with the rear brakes lately. I never use the hand brake - just put the car it in 1.st gear. Still I have had some issues with the rear breaks. They get stuck over night, and are so tight that the car lifts its rear end up when I try to back out of the garage. Then I hear a "bang" and the breaks loosen up. Still, the breaking pads might cause the rear wheels to stop turning on ice and snow - not good.
I talked to a technician at the dealer, and the rear breaking system is suppose to be cleaned every 30 000km. My car has ran for 81 000km now without any cleaning. So I guess we've addressed the problem.
Today I tried to disassamble the breaking system, but could not remove the drum (I removed the torx screw). I hit the drum and the shield behind it (where all the springs and mechanism is fasten) several tims with a rubber hammer. The drum was clearly loose becaus I could turn the hub and hold back the drum.
Is there an adjustment screw somewhere I can loosen up so the breaking pads are fully released from the drum? I just could not remove it - not more than 0.5mm or so.
So instead removing the drum, I used high pressure air and blew into the bolt holes. The garage was instantly filled with brown dust, so I though it migh be a god idea using a vacuum cleaner near by while blowing. That helped a lot.
Anyways, I slammed that hammer into every spot I could find, and soon enough a pile of dirt and breaking dust was growing on the floor. Suddenly the drum was free to rotate, tested the hand break, and the wheels released when putting the hand break back into normal. The problem is solved for now, and hopefully it will last for a while.