[pkennethv]

Hi all,

I understand the handbrake in these cars can be manually adjusted in 2 ways:

1) Turning the star adjuster wheel at the drums (either shrinking or enlarging the diameter of the drum brake pads)

2) Adjusting the slack/tension of the handbrake lever cable by removing a couple trim pieces along the center console.

My question is regarding the “self-adjusting” functionality.

If during the installation of new rear brake rotors the drum brakes were manually adjusted to their smallest diameter setting, but the star adjuster wheel was never readjusted after installing the new rotors (leading to the hand brake lever needing to be pulled up really high in order to engage the drum brakes), the car was driven like this extensively, leading to the self-adjusting feature “tightening” things up over time…

…does the self-adjusting feature accomplish this via method 1 (expand the diameter of the drum brake pads), or 2 (tightening the handbrake lever cable)?

I’m willing to share the backstory / why I want to know this if it helps you answer this question (or are just curious), but I thought I’d keep the post more concise to respect everyone’s time.

Thank you!