Brake maintenence questions..

- S
- Seth Graham
  
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posted
20 years ago

Thu, Oct 9, 2003 3:10 PM

Gonna try to give these things some much needed attention this weekend. I've bled and adjusted my brakes before, but this will be the first time I completely opened things up and replaced the shoes (they getting pretty worn down from what I can tell).

Any common gotchas I should prepare for before doing this? I can handle screwing up my engine because if the engine is broke I just don't move, but screwing up my brakes is a lot more scary because not being able to stop is harder to deal with. ;)

How worn can the drums be before they're an active hazard? This is all hypothetical as I don't know what their condition is right now, but if they end up tehcnically out of spec but my car still stops fine (it does), how much could I squeak by without a drum replacement?

Not trying to cheat death here, but if it's okay to postpone a bit and save a few bucks in the meantime that would be handy.

Armed with muir's book and the newsgroup archive I'm pretty clear on the proceedure, I just need to know if there's any "tips from the experts" or whatever to make it all go down easier, and leave the car in a state it's safe to drive in.

thanks,

- J
- Joey Tribiani
  
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posted
20 years ago

Fri, Oct 10, 2003 12:18 AM

On 9 Oct 2003 15:10:47 GMT, Seth Graham ran around screaming and yelling:

okay Seth...first and foremost read what you wrote here...

now read what you wrote just before that statement:

you answered your very own question...the drums should have a "max diameter" cast or stamped on them...if the diameter is larger than the specs allow you lose contact area with teh shoes...(just imagine a basketball(shoes) inside a hula-hoop(drums) and you get the exaggerated picture....

Seth I'm no expert, but i have common sense...and common sense tells me there are two areas in a vehicle you *never* skimp on to save some pennies...those are brakes and tires...your life depends on them...

J

- S
- Seth Graham
  
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posted
20 years ago

Fri, Oct 10, 2003 2:39 PM

That's fair, and I agree.

But the way I see it there's three numbers involved with "specs": The official (cautious) number, the "good enough for now but fix it soon" number, and the "don't drive that car near me because you're gonna kill someone" number.

I'm not saying I want to push the drums as far as I can get, I just wanted to know where those boundaries lie.

I run under a rather limited budget, and if I open up the brakes this weekend and discover the drums are all worn, it will be at least a month before I can resolve the problem properly.

I know what the BEST solution is, but ye olde realite sometimes calls for a different plan of attack.

- T
- Tim Rogers
  
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posted
20 years ago

Fri, Oct 10, 2003 3:14 PM

..................If your drums are badly grooved, you could just put in new shoes. They're not that expensive and you'll be OK for awhile. Just remember that they'll be worn down again before you know it and getting new drums has to be budgeted sooner or later if you don't want to be pulling those bad drums every month or so and spending more money on shoes until you've spent as much on them as you would've spent on the new drums. My oldest kid puts about 5k mi./year on one of my vanagons. I recently did a quick and dirty front pad replacement on rotors that need to be turned because I didn't have the time or money to spend more on it right now. They work just fine and I bet that they'll last through the winter months until I can fix them properly next spring.