I bought a set of brake shoes for the rear brakes of my 99 I4 Camry, figuring that after 125k km of 60% city driving they were due for a replacement. When I took the hubs off, I found that there was still 4mm of material left, and the minimum service specification is 1 mm.
I know the rear brakes don't wear as fast as front brakes, but the wear rate I'm seeing seems very slow. Is this normal?
They seem to last forever I have 105000 miles and am not sure if they ever were replaced, Replace them you will get better brake response.
The front brakes do most of the braking for a good reason ie weight shift under braking moves onto the front wheels. The rears would lock-up if there wasn't a proportioning valve to direct hydraulic pressure away from the rears. So its normal.
Jason
As the others have said, rear drum brake shoes last a long time. Because there is weight transfer forward during braking, the proportioning valve in the brake hydraulic system delivers higher braking force to the front brakes, less to the rear to balance braking force. There's also less weight on the rear wheels to begin with, so you don't want too much braking force back there. If the Camry is apx. 3000 lbs.,
60/40 F/R, that leaves 1800 lbs. front and 1200 lbs. rear, actually only 600 lbs. per wheel. Of course, passengers and luggage add weight, but then it still shifts forward under braking force. Bottom line. Rear brakes can last three times as long as front.
Oddly enough, for my '99 Solara, after 95K miles I am still on the original set of front pads, but am already 50% through my first set of replacement rear pads.
They wear fairly slowly, but check their adjustment. My '91 needed fairly heavy pedal pressure and I found one rear shoe was not adjusted up to the drum. The automatic adjusters are rubbish... as they are on most cars which have them.
yes you should check them although you should be able to go 100+ K miles on a set of rears. No guide for how long on the front depends what foot you drive with. Always keep them adjusted, not a hard service to do for the do it yourselfer.
I have 220,000 miles on the original rear drum brakes! I just clean them with brake cleaner once in a while and adjust the tension.
Yes, a lot depends on the driver's ability to operate the vehicle.I've seen some knobs wear front pads out in 20,000ks. They have what I call 'digital driving' ie ON with heaps of throttle, OFF with heaps of brakes for the next set of lights.
Jason
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