When to replace drums?

When is it time to replace drums and/or shoes?

I've seen this question come up several times, but rarely do I see pictures. So here's one of my rear drums after 13 years and 178k miles. I took the drum off to inspect because the truck makes a very loud squeal when moving cold. i.e. when the truck hasn't moved in a while. The noise goes away by the end of the driveway usually. I honestly figured it was some kind of wear indicator letting me know that they were close to needing to be replaced. That said, these look like they have plenty of life left to my novice eye.

I failed to take pics of the actual drum, but it was smooth and shiny. No noticeable notches or grooves.

Top pic is after spraying with brake cleaner. All others are pre-cleaner.










So do I need new shoes?

 

not an expert but maybe this?

"If your car has drum brakes, the squealing may be caused by a lack of lubrication at the contact points between the shoes and the drum. Without lubrication, the shoes start to scrape against the backing plate, causing a squeal."
https://nubrakes.com/blog/6-reasons-your-brakes-are-squeaking/#:~:text=If your car has drum,backing plate, causing a squeal.​

 

Do NOT put lubricant there.

Im overly obsessed with making sure my fingers don’t touch the brake friction material. If I do touch the drum or rotor braking surface, I clean it thoroughly with brake cleaner, gasoline or rubbing alcohol.

What the quoted material might have meant to say: a lack of lubrication at the contact points between the shoes and the backing plates.

 

The ideal time to replace your drums and shoes is when your rear disk conversion arrives on your doorstep.

 

The noise could possibly be caused by the drum surface. When they get polished smooth and shiny like that they could squeak.

A couple things to solve this. Get them machined. Or take some emery cloth and scuff them up. Try to do it evenly. I like to first go with the grain. Then at a 45 degree angle. Either way, after you should clean them. If the shoes surfaces also look shiny, you can very lightly scuff them up too. Not relevant here but for pads I scuff them against my concrete driveway.

Another thing that could make squeaking is excessive brake dust. Since you cleaned, you might have solved the problem.

Always, while I’m where you’re at, I pull the rubber caps of the wheel cylinders away just enough to peak and see if brake fluid is in there. If yes, replace them.

If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll take it all apart, clean with brake cleaner, then relube the places that need it. Where the shoes touch the backing plate, where the parking brake lever attaches to the shoe, (spring, pin, cup thing) where the spring touches the shoe. I could be missing something, I’ve looked but haven’t done the Tacoma drum brakes yet.

It’s hard to tell from the pictures. It looks like the shoes are getting worn thin around the middle, but the upper and lower areas look good. If the middle is thick as the upp and lower areas I think you’re still good.

If you decide to replace the shoes, do the hardware kit & wheel cylinders too. That is if you like to do it once and not have to mess with it again later because a spring broke or the wheel cylinders started leaking.

 

It's never that easy for me, but fingers crossed.

 

I'd be glad to help I've done many over the years 68 camaro's etc...but honestly never done one on my own car. Wife's Corolla had 268K when it was wrecked never had a rear break job done. I have a 2500 hd with 186K same no rear break job ever done. but if you need help I'm there. I have done this about a dozen times on friends cars. It's not that complicated. LMN!

 

Am wondering the same thing. Similar miles never pulled rear drums off to inspect drum inside, pads, clean, lubricate if needed, scuff up, and replace such as drums and pads.
Machining is hard to find
Like someone said scuff with Emory cloth may work. Even also scuffing up the pad.


What I have trouble finding is BG stop squeal. Black anti squeal chemical you soak into pad material.
Don’t really wanna pay $10 for that tiny thing online because we used to accumulate boxes full for free that BG gave out with every brake job. Shouldn’t have thrown out my stockpile that every other tech there also had.

moved to an area where nobody seems to use it or have it.

 

I did a quick search and found that 5mm is the standard new thickness of the material on the shoe and at 1mm the shoe should be replaced.

Looks like you've more than 1mm.

 

My 2013 Tacoma has 520K km on it, I replaced the drum and shoes on drivers side last year as the axle seal was leaking. Replaced that as well. Grinding sound on passenger side recently, so I just did that side. Drums are pretty cheap so I replaced, got them from Rock Auto.

 

I changed mine when when they got thin.
I didn’t measure the pad material, but it was thin.

I changed ALL 3.
Pads, Shoes, and Hardware.

Buy OEM Hardware. Or risk having poorly fitting springs.
Mine were not bent correctly and prohibited me from getting a proper adjustment.
The spring was pressing out on the adjuster wheel lock bar.

As for shoes and drums. Pick your poison.
They don’t matter too much. They are all about the same.

The drum backing plate is usually the cause most issues.
The little “groove” the drum sits in when installed.

 

so far, cleaning seems to have reduced or eliminated the noise. I've only cleaned the passenger side so far.

I have not heard the noise when I normally would....i.e. right after starting the truck and moving for the first time of the day. I did, however, hear the same noise another time, but to a lesser extent. I'll do the driver side soon and see if that remediates all noises.

 

How's the parking brake? Does it set and hold?

Oftentimes rear drum noise is caused by shoes that are dirty and out of adjustment. When the shoe to drum clearance is to much the shoes have room to wiggle around and vibrate resulting in noise.

Clean the brake dust out of the drums, reinstall the wheels and adjust the shoes through the slot in the backing plate. Spin the wheel while adjusting and you'll be able to feel the shoes dragging. A little drag is OK. And go up to the cab and check the parking brake too so you can feel how things are snugging up.

Keeping the rears adjusted also helps out the front brakes so they're not doing all the work

 

Parking brake holds just fine.

I will report back after I clean the driver side. Other than the once, I haven't really noticed the noise.

 

Did you do this conversion?

 

Also forgot to mention in regards to the original question, the drums can get glazed over on the braking surface. Like others mentioned scuffing them can help, or resurface if you can find a place that does it. Also check for a lip on the edge where the shoe wears in. The lip can make it hard to get them off and on

 

I have parts sitting in the garage, im going to do it in the next week or two. Been busy with the engine swap lol.

 

Take some 80 grit sandpaper and sand the glaze off of the drums. Everything else looks fine.

 

I’ve eyed up the 3rd Gen conversion kit a bunch of times. Not sure if it will be totally worth the expense in the end. So let us know?

 

You will probably never NEED to replace the drums. Mine have 239,000 miles on them and I've only replaced the rear pads once. The drums have never been turned.