Cause of brake clusters going bad - 2016 XRT 800

[Pepe30269]

Hello Friends:
I have a 2016 Club Car XRT 800 Electric Cart that recently would not come to a complete stop even when nearly standing on the brake pedal. Adjusting the cable did nothing to change this. That put it in the "above my head" area so I took it in to a trusted shop and here is what he put on the invoice. Again, this gentleman has done lots of work for me over the years and I trust him.

We had to replace both brake clusters (brake backer plates) and the driver side brake cable. The backer plates, as you know, host the adjusters and receive the brake cables to actuate the brake pads. The adjusters were spinning in place and upon depressing the brake pedal the cables slightly pulled the plates out of place while leaving the shoes at rest.

Question: 5 year old cart - what would cause this to happen? At $550 for the repair I want to make sure I am doing my part in preventing this in the future. Thank you.


Pepe

[Fairtax4me]

I'm not familiar with the brake setup on the XRT carts, so I can only speculate.
I'd say the only reason to replace anything is if it was rusted and seized. If everything was moveable, then the adjusters were just so far out of whack that they couldn't work. Proper adjustment goes a long way.
Cables fail all the time. I've had people ruin brand new cables (literally days old) just from doing stuff with the cart they shouldn't have been doing. Possible that got kinked or the rubber dust boot got damaged and it got a bunch of crud in it. A seized cable will make it very difficult to stop, since it will also prevent the brake on the other side from getting enough tension applied.