Hi,

I am new to this forum and not to familiar with how forums work. So please let me know how I am doing.

I pulled off the rear drums today. The right rear backing plate was covered in rusty coloured dry brake dust. The shoes where glazed. the drum came off easy. The wheel cylinder was not stuck nor any sign of leakage. The wheel brg was smooth with no noise.

I put on new shoes and the brakes seemed to work fine. Oh, I happen to jab myself with a needle nose as I was trying to put on the bottom spring. Off to see the doc. clean the wound and tetanus shot.

Where did all this rusty brake dust come from ?

The shoes were more worn on the front. The rear shoe seemed to be worn quite a bit less than the front.


Brake pedal is a little soft on the first 1/4 part of the travel. After this the brakes feel solid and stop straight.

thanks for any help here.

 

Hi! Welcome to the forum.Its good to see you here.I am sure you'll get lots of information from here.

 

welcome to the forum. You did great except for the finger poke. the rear brake is less used then the front, most times it will go up to 120k miles depending on city or hwy driving. the front goes out about 40-60k. the rear brake has different color type of dust depending on what make or brand of rear brakes are used. my brakes were black and gray in color accord, civic, fit. I will normally at 30k jack up the car front and back, remove the drum and shoot it down with high pressure water to clean the dust out. blow dry with air compressor air or air dry ( eat lunch inbetween ), check for proper lube on the rub bumps ( brake lining metal back to backing plate so it does not squeek when applying the brakes ) and close up. First brake application usually goes to the floor, so before moving the car, start engine, apply brakes a couple of times and then test drive. Adjust the rear brakes approx ea. 30k not much to adjust, mostly the self adjusters take care of the clearence. Sorry if it got to muddy in explanation.

 

Thanks for the info. Good explanation. The brake shoes were brown. The glazing of the shoes made me suspect some leakage fromthe wheel cylinders. I pulled off the boots and only a little moisture/seepage was present. Also the Backing plate was covered, I mean covered with brake dust. Never seen this before. So. I guess I will keep an eye on it, as suggested. How many K's can this engine go before imploding? There is 280k on it now, and it sounds like a brand new engine. Impressive.

 

I have seen civics to go 380k, using 1 qt of oil per 3500miles compression above 110. i have seen accords go to 500k using 1 qt per 2500 miles, engine is tired and in need of some attention, ( car was repainted and looks like a lexis color.) my 02 civic has 280k and strong.