So, you’ve just taken well adjusted brakes and made them drag.
I will however admit I went too far to say the adjuster has nothing to do… (above).
If I adjust them to be within 1/10 of a millimeters clearance, then where comes the drag from.
1/10 will probably not be possible on used hardware, but 5/10’s should fit the bill.
I have a Corolla with rear drum brakes and I agree with you 100%. Pedal travel and e-brake travel are both affected if the rear brakes goes out of adjustment.I use the trial and error method to adjust my drum brakes by turning the star adjuster until drum drags a little. Brake pedal travel should decrease when everything is done correctly.
Perfect, keep up the good work 
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Is the parking brake working properly now?
Trial and error? Why not let the automatic adjuster do its job? If it can’t, you haven’t maintained it correctly.
Even with proper lubing and cleaning of the automatic adjuster it will eventually get stucked. This is especially true if you live in the rust belt.
I have found that cleaning the Star wheel threads on the wire wheel , and coating them with anti-seize helps greatly to keep the adjuster from rusting up.
I live in the rust belt too (Wisconsin) and I never find a seized up adjuster if I do that.
Yosemite
Yes, it will work for a while on my Corolla but the adjuster will eventually seize again.
Are you using anti-seize or just brake grease.
There is a big difference in the two.
Yosemite
My goodness, did I start some discussion. Thank you all for getting my head straight. Here is status and synopsis.
Parking brake is working fine; a little toward the top end of the acceptable number of clicks. Brakes work fine.
My 2004 Camry LE has rear drum brakes. (I wonder what models have discs, or if it was an option.) Procedure is to release p-brake (and slack off cable if needed); adjust rear brake shoes with star wheel; adjust p-brake cable.
(Maybe that takes only 15 minutes if you are well equipped. I would have to go into my house’s crawl space to get the jack stands, clear stuff out of the trunk, dig out the jack, jack up the car, set the stands, take off the wheels with the cross-arm lug wrench, figure out how to take apart the center console, etc. etc. etc. IMO, going to the mechanic was the best 0.5 hours book rate I ever spent. And I got a nice 40-minute walk each way, one way shared with my wife.)
Best advice here was from Volvo_V70: “Your mechanic has said the cable is adjusted as much as he can… [t]ake his advice or get another opinion.”
On the 2002-2006 Camry, all XLE models have rear disc brakes, and all V6 models have rear disc brakes
The star-wheel has EVERYTHING to do with the parking brake adjustment.
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I use copper anti seize on the treads.
I’ve run into this situation on my Corolla. They all have to have a way to access to the star wheel, just the drums with the hole you can access the star wheel from the front with is much easier for a driveway diy’er. the drums w/o the hole in the drum, you have to access the star wheel from the rear. There’s a hole in the brake backing plate for that. I don’t get the impression you are planning on doing any adjusting yourself, but if you do, you’ll probably notice there’s two other holes in the drum. They are threaded, used to insert a couple of bolts and press the drum off. If you have the drum version w/out the big star hole, removing the drum is the easiest way for a diy’er to adjust the star wheel imo. The star wheel is supposed to self-adjust each time the parking brake is used, so it should never require adjusting in most cases. I’ve never had to adjust it on my 27 year old Corolla. If it does require adjusting, there’s probably some part that has failed or stuck.
Not if the adjuster is is operating correctly. To use the star wheel to adjust the parking brake in this case is a band-aid and basically negates the value of the auto adjuster.
The auto adjuster does use the star wheel either by actuation with the parking brake or when turned manually. According to the Toyota Factory Service Manual. The parking brake cable is connected to the “Parking Brake Shoe Lever” which is connected to the “Automatic Adjusting Lever” which turns the star wheel on the “Parking Brake Shoe Strut”. So if the auto adjuster is working correctly it is using the star wheel.
Correct! I’m saying that when the auto adjuster is working properly, then manually adjusting the star wheel to take up parking brake slack overrides the operation of the auto adjusting feature, making it, in effect, non-operative.
The star wheel IS THE ADJUSTER. The auto adjuster turns the star wheel - thus adjusting it.
You do need to adjust the star-wheel manually when installing new shoes.
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Captain Obvious strikes again…
;-]