I noticed the other day after I had to slam the anchors on that the back of my car had stepped out a bit.

After slamming on again on a quite road I noticed my back brakes lock up before the fronts? Obviously this isnt right and I need to get it sorted!

The car is a MK1 Focus estate. (So it will have the usual thingy on the brake lines towards the rear if I remeber) unlike the hatchback.

Its recently had new pads in the front, new handbrake cable, new rear shoes and rear wheel bearings.

They are automatically adjusting at the back and the drums come off and go on pretty easily. One thing I did do with the rear shoes was I sanded them with 60 sandpaper to get a bit of grip as the handbrake was pretty much pointless and the shoes were glazed, after a sanding the handbrake now works spot on, should I be doing the same with the front ones?


I should also add this was done about a month before the MOT, which came back with the brakes being spot on, apart from the handbrake being unbalanced ever so slightly, but it didnt fail.

 

Does it have a load compensating valve on the rear beam? if so it might be seized and not working properly

 

rear load compensator not working. I have the same issue on my kit car as it has huge rear drums and little front discs with no compensator at all !
I had to put in a manual valve to balance my brakes out.

 

Yes! thats the 'thingy' I was on about, it was late and I couldnt be bothered remebering the name of it.

Thanks il have a look into them, im sure ive heard its a common thing.