A few months ago I read a comment on the Facebook HHR page about rear brake adjustment. The author stated that if the emergency brake is used each time the car is parked it will keep the rear brakes adjusted. I decided to try that on my HHR. Ive been religously using the parking brake for over a month now and I can report back that it does work. I now can feel the rear brakes working well every time I stop. It makes sense when you think about it because every time you engage the parking brake it moves the rear brake shoes to the rear brake drum. Hope this helps someone.

 

 

The "using the Ebrake technique" to keep the rears adjusted will only work IF the self adjusters are functioning correctly. Sadly, many of those self adjusters on the HHR's don't work as they should. AND, there was a hardware change on the rear brake system sometime during the production years. It may depend on your year model as to if the Ebrake thing works or not.
Best bet is to manually adjust them or at least check them.

 

 

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If that was the way the self adjusters work on drum brakes, I would say OK.

They don't work by simple contact between the rear shoe and the drum. They work when the rear shoe is pulled downward by the drum when they are in contact while backing up.

Disc rear brakes do adjust by setting the e-brake.