2 years, 25K mi on the shoes, self adjusters still fully rertracted? 15 Mirage DE CVT

[thx1138guy]

My daughter's 2015 Mirage has almost 91K miles on it. I (barely) replaced the shoes (DIY) on the rear brakes two years and 25K miles ago. I had an extremely difficult time getting the Bosch aftermarket shoes to fit. Couldn't get the drums back on until I ground away some of the bottom ends of the shoes. Even then, the drums still barely fit over the new shoes. A one hour job ended up being a five hour one.

I needed to take a look at them because the rear brakes were definitely squeaking and my kid was complaining about it. Gen Z is so picky. Yeah, they squeak but it was tolerable in my opinion. Of course, my 64 year old hearing is not as good as a 23 year old's hearing.

I dreaded having to do this because I surmised correctly that I would have difficulty getting the drums off, luckily only the driver's side was challenging which took 30 minutes of patient spinning and pulling by hand to get the damn thing off. The passenger side drum took only 2 minutes to remove. There's no hole in the backing plate in this car to insert a screwdriver to fully retract the self adjuster. Not that it would've mattered as you will learn in the next paragraph.

Anyway, as many here know, the 2013-2015 Mirages have this weird silver bar adjuster instead of a star wheel. The self adjusters on this car didn't seem to have budged after two years and 25K miles (both were still fully retracted or sure seemed to be). The shoe linings appeared to have worn some. Should have taken some photos but it was 90° F in my garage today so I wanted to repair this thing as quickly as possible and also didn't think of taking pics any because I did not remove the shoes (this time).

Couldn't find a root cause for the squeaking noise via visual inspection of the brake assemblies. However, there has been way too much slack on the parking brake cable for the last two years which I corrected today. It seems that the parking brake cable slack might have been the issue. No more squeak after the adjustment- at least for now. Got to wonder if the self adjusters on this car have ever worked properly.

Fortunately the drum lining running surfaces seem okay - smooth with no grooves. Is it possible that the drum running surface itself wears more where the shoe contacts the drum than at the innermost edge of the drum which could be a no contact area which is what makes it a struggle to get the drum off as its diameter could be smaller there? Even a silly millimeter would be enough to ruin my Saturday afternoon. Doesn't explain the driver's side to passenger side difference though unless the passenger side shoe linings just wore more than the driver's side. Hmm....

[foama]

Sorry I can't help you there, but maybe the following picture from the FSM for the American version 2015 model might help getting the drums off.

My 2014 European has a star wheel adjuster and 180mm drums with original everything after 8 years. There is no ridge worn on the drums, and so it is very easy taking them off, at least on mine.

[thx1138guy]

If there's a hole in the backing plate to insert a screwdriver to release the self adjuster it is really difficult to find. For the life of me I can't find it. Does anyone have a photo showing the access hole in the backing plate?

It seems my post was TLR for you foama. I did get the drums off but it was a bear on the driver's side.
Long story short: Getting the drums off of a 2013-2015 Mirage could be a nightmare for some DIY mechanics. I have blisters on both of my thumbs to prove it.

[Top_Fuel]

If there's a hole in the backing plate to insert a screwdriver to release the self adjuster it is really difficult to find.

I don't see it in these pictures (this is on my 2015)...





I haven't had to do this yet.

[thx1138guy]

I looked at your photos again before attempted to remove the drum yesterday Top Fuel. Nothing obvious from the inside of the backing plate. A guy with a 2014 Mirage posted a youtube video where you can sort of see that there isn't a hole in the backing plate after removing the shoes.

[Top_Fuel]

...you can sort of see that there isn't a hole in the backing plate...

Right...that's what I'm seeing.

I've had my drums off a few times in the last 6 years (I'm still on my original brake shoes at 110K miles). Every time I take them off, I grab some sandpaper and clean off the ridge of rust that forms on the edge of the drums where they don't contact the brake shoes. That seems to help the drums to slide off more easily the next time...



I know people run non-OEM brake shoes on these cars, but after reading some issues with people getting them to fit, I spent the extra money and picked up a set of Mitsubishi brake shoes to (hopefully) save some headaches when it comes time to change them.

Edit - Maybe Cobrajet will see this thread and chime in. Here's a quote he made regarding this subject...

When I went to remove the rear drums tonight to replace them, I could not get them off without fiddling with the adjuster release. I had to dig around with a screwdriver through the tiny hole in the backing plate before finally getting them to disengage enough for me to pull the drums off. Removal would have been IMPOSSIBLE without the release mechanism and this access port. Mitsubishi's diagram says to simply go straight in from the back to release the adjuster, but this is comical since there are brake lines, brackets, wires, etc in the way. I was finally able to do it, but it was literally blind luck.

Source: THIS post

[mohammad]

isnt this a removable rubber plug(ive never disassembled my drums before);

This is the logical spot for the hole as Foma's diagram depicts the scredriver hole being on the very end of the auto adjuster.

[thx1138guy]

Good catch Mohammad. From the opposite side of the backing plate I wasn't able to find the rubber plug (or just hadn't been looking in the correct location which is probably the case). Nevertheless, it wouldn't have helped me to find and use the hole, the self adjuster was fully retracted.

[Top_Fuel]

Ahhh...so this is a rubber plug...



It may be making more sense to me on how that adjuster release works.