Whenever you go car shopping, you usually heard about the rear wheel. The rear wheel is the wheel that receives the power from the engine and locates at the backside of the motor vehicle.
Friction is used by brake pads to slow the rotation of the rotor thus slowing the wheel and tire speed and ultimately slowing the car. If enough friction is applied to the rotor to stop its rotation or slow it to the point where the tire loses its traction and slide across the racing surface, This situation arises when the rear wheel locked up while driving.
Table of Contents
Why Does Rear Wheel Lock Up?
The rear wheel locked up the problem is widely categorized into two parts. Firstly, due to mechanical problems and secondly due to Hydraulic problems in the system. Follow the symptoms and know the reason why the rear wheel locked up while driving.
1. Parking Brake Adjustment Or Drum Brake
Either due to parking brake adjustment or drum brake service can be the reason for the issue. First, always check the parking brake adjustment properly. This can engage any one of the rears as the parking brake is very sensitive. The most accurate method of checking the parking brake is to check the strut bars anti-rattle spring. If the anti-rattle spring is in the form of a relaxed and compressed state, it is normal otherwise it leads to lockup conditions.
Brake shoe adjustment is another reason for the rear wheel locked up while driving wheels.
2. Rear Brake
The rear brake is another reason for the locked-up issue. Many of them think that the return spring only functions to release the brake but in reality, they also decide when the rear brake has to be used. If the return spring becomes a week, it engages the brake which leads to the locked-up of the rear wheel.
3. Shoe Lands Worn
Shoe land keeps the brake shoe square with a drum and provides a friction surface for the shoes to move against. Over time the shoe lands can be rusted. Thus, the rear wheel locked up while driving. Shoe lands are also known as bosses.
4. GM Clip
GM clip is used in the style wheel cylinder. The braking plate mounting hole keeping the wheel cylinder from rotating. If this system becomes rust it can alone responsible for effect the rear wheel locked up.
5. Brake Drum
Braking drums usually vary from diameter to diameter. It is important to fix the correct size of the brake drum because it can be the reason behind the rear wheel locked up.
6. Brake Shoe Contamination
Brake shoe contamination can be one of the reasons for the rear wheel locking wheel because it changes the coefficient of friction. If there is little contamination, the friction is increased. I there am severe contamination, the friction is reduced.
7. Brake Valve
This is a vast majority mechanical problem of the car in brake valve. If you don’t notice any problem with the rear brake, you have to ready for the problem with the brake valve.
What To Do If Rear Wheel Locked Up While Driving?
Where there is a problem there is a solution. The same case happened for the case of the rear wheel. When you find that your rear wheel locked up while driving you should immediately solve the problem without interrupting driving.
1. With A Wheel Lock Key
If you have the wheel lock key, it becomes much easier to solve the problem.
- Before starting the process you required some tools such as a wheel lock key and car’s lung nut wrench.
- Make sure your car is in the park to engage the parking brake.
- Line up the splines on the wheel lock key and the wheel lock on the wheel. Turning slowly until the design lines up.
- Now place the lug nut wrench on the wheel lock key and it should match the same size as the wheel nut on your car.
- Turn the lug nut wrench in the clockwise direction to loosen the wheel.
- Once the wheel lock gets loosen, you can remove it easily by hand.
- If you are installing the wheel lock again, perform the same procedure.
2. Without A Wheel Lock Key
This procedure will mostly like damage the wheel lock which you won’t able to reuse.
- Before starting the procedure make sure you have the required tools such as the car’s lung nut wrench, wheel lock removal kit, heavy rubber mallet, and screwdriver.
- Make sure your car is parked and apply the parking brake.
- The wheel lock removal kit will need to fit so that the teeth on the inside of the removal socket will be stuck properly into the wheel lock.
- Hit the end of the wheel lock firmly with the help of a mallet.
- Lose the wheel lock by turning it into counter close direction with your lug nut wrench tools.
- Once the wheel lock is loosened, you can remove it by using your hand.
- Put the screwdriver in the hole of wheel lock removal tools against the wheel lock and hit the screwdriver with the mallet.
- After several hitting the wheel lock will pop out. You can perform a similar step for another wheel lock.
Apart from the steps you should follow to protect the rear wheel brake, you have to go for a car check-up with the technician regularly to prevent this problem. If necessary change the parts of the rear wheel such as the rear brake, brake valve, brake drum, parking brake. If needed to add the lubricant to the brake area.
How Much Does It Cost To Replace The Rear Wheel?
If you go for repair to the mechanics, the cost will vary from the mechanics to the mechanics. The cost will be between 50$ to 80$ along with labor cost. So it is recommended to change the lock by yourself after following the steps mentioned above. If there is any severe problem or you do not have any type of knowledge, go to mechanics immediately.
Conclusion
If you hit the road with your car and find that your car’s rear wheel is locked up while driving, it will be very scary and terrible. However, if you know what to do in such a case you won’t have to worry.
All you need to keep patient and check the car’s rear wheel. You also can take bits of help from the technician if you don’t have any knowledge related to the car part.
