Brake Question

As the temperature has started to drop I've noticed a strange condition with my brakes. This is for my 98 XJ 2wd. After leaving the XJ at work all day, or leaving 1st thing in the morning from my house the brakes grab quicker on the 1st or 2nd application. They don't lock and they don't pull at all. I do not have ABS and am wondering what may be going on. I recently replaced the front pads and the rear shoes have 40+% remaining. There appears to be no dragging at all, but if someone who didn't know the XJ were to jump in when cold and hit the brakes I feel confident they would lock up.

My 1st thought it to bleed the system as it hasn't been done in at least 2 years (as long as I've had it). The fluid level is good and the fluid is not overly brown, but I'm wondering if I could have air in the lines or just need a flush.

When I hold the pedal down while the engine is running it holds pressure and I hear no sound of losing vacuum at the booster.

Any thoughts? Thanks you

A little surface rust on the rotors or just condensation. Sounds normal to me.

Yea I get that right after it rains, even if the XJ was parked. The first few stops are really grabby then it clears all the rust off and is normal afterwards.

My 97 used to have this so badly that a tap on the brake would sometimes have people turning their heads to see what kind of road rage incident was happening, and the 95 developed it as well.

This is a chronic XJ complaint, and many solutions will be suggested, many of which might help. It seems to be made worse by certain lining materials, can be made worse by a weak spring, and is usually made worse by damp and cool weather. But the main thing I've found that keeps this at bay is to make sure the brakes stay adjusted. If one of your adjusters isn't keeping up, it will often cause this problem. I just assume these days that my adjusters are crap, and periodically hand adjust the brakes, and have not been troubled by grabbing since.

X2 what Matthew said. On mine, one rear brake would lock up for the first use or two until I manually adjusted it up tighter. At that point, I also saw that the length of the cable adjuster on one side wasn't even the right length to make it work.

Jack up the rear and reach in from the backing plate to bring the adjusters up until you only get the slightest drag when you spin the wheel.

Somewhat common. My backs lock up for the first application on my new 2010 Chevy express AWD work van. Keep in mind I live on a gravel road. I even have disk brakes in the back.

You guys are making me feel much better about this. I spoke with a trusted friend, who works on cars everyday and he was suspicious of the rear wheel cylinders. He said that if brake fluid had crystalized or gotten old it could be causing a slow reaction in the piston in the wheel cylnder. My brake fluid looks good though and the level is not going down. I think I'll just monitor it and adjust the rear brakes as suggested and see what happens. Thanks for all the advice.