Rear drum brake removal/replacement: An introduction

[funkydpunk]

Hello All,

I stumbled upon this forum and didn't realize that I probably should not be here. But I am DESPERATELY needing help! It appears that you all are probably the most knowledgeable and trustworthy group.

I have a 2015 Mirage with around 55,000 miles. I live in Austin, so lot's of braking. My front breaks have now been placed 3 times. 2 by my dad and 1 just last week from a company that comes to the house. My dad lives in PA, so he could not help this time. The mechanic informed me that I need new drum brakes and shoes in the rear and that they are unsafe to drive. Now - I knew that the front needed to be replaced due to the constant grinding, but I never really noticed a grinding in the rear.

The mechanic told me that he was not able to change out the drum brakes for this particular model due the drum brakes and the bearing being one solid part. When I called my normal mechanic, they quoted $1,300 due to this. Urgh! The Mitsubishi shop, over the phone couldn't understand why they would need to be replaced anyway. From reading this forum, it appears that this is a common thing with these cars.

I now have another mechanic coming out and at this point my greatest fear is that I will be taken advantage of as far as cost and work that ACTUALLY needs to be done to my car. This new mechanic said they he would simply need to remove and repack the seals and bearings. From research and this - I am not certain that that is the case.

Any advice is soooo welcome! Please help!

[Cani Lupine]

That's an insane amount for the rear brakes.

The new drums come with the bearings already installed, so there's no need for the shop to charge any labor for pressing them in. You can order new drums from RockAuto or other auto parts places for around $100 each.

There's no need to repack the bearings/change any seals on the 14/15 drums. When you remove the old drums, the bearings come out as a unit with the drum. Dealing with the springs and adjuster is the hardest part of these.

[Top_Fuel]

...front brakes have now been replaced 3 times
...mechanic informed me that I need new drum brakes and shoes in the rear and that they are unsafe to drive.

If you have gone through 3 sets of disk brake pads, then your rear brake shoes probably are shot...and I'm not surprised that the drums may be trashed as well. So my guess is these guys probably aren't lying to you.

I never really noticed a grinding in the rear.

You could always drive slowly (10-15mph) in a parking lot and then slowly pull up on the parking brake handle while keeping the brake release button depressed. This will apply the rear brakes without the fronts. Listen for any grinding then. Again...based on how many times you have replaced the front brakes without servicing the rears, you almost certainly need new rear shoes at this point and probably drums as well.


Let's talk about parts pricing...

You could easily spend close to $800 (list price) if you called a local Mitsubishi dealer and said "I need 2 new brake drums and brake shoes for a 2015 Mirage". Ummm...so don't do that. I assume that's what these guys may be doing to price this job. But even at that...I'm not sure where the rest of their estimate is coming from. For $1300, I'll drive to your house and do the job myself. I'll even give you a $20 Mirageforum discount.

You can buy the brake drums (bare) from AutoZone or O'Reilly...but you will have to remove the wheel bearing, wheel studs and ABS ring from your old drums and install them in the new drums (not super-difficult, but not trivial either if someone is doing this in a mobile operation). See this post to see someone actually doing it. This may be the absolute cheapest way for a DIYer to do rear brakes on a Mirage...but a hired gun mechanic coming to your driveway won't want to deal with all of that crap.

The easiest thing to do is to buy a set of complete brake drum assemblies...that include the drum, wheel bearing, wheel studs and ABS ring already installed. You can just take these out of the box and throw them on the car. At this point it looks like RockAuto.com is the only place to get drums like this...



At least one person (this guy) has purchased these complete drums from RockAuto and installed them...and he said they worked fine. Unfortunately he never told us exactly which part number he ordered from RockAuto. It's one of the 2 Centric drums pictured above.

Be careful... AutoZone will show you pictures of a complete Mirage drum assembly on their website...but when you get it, it's a bare drum with nothing included. More info on that here.

HERE are Raybestos brake shoes that will fit on your Mirage. You should be able to find these at almost any local parts store for less than $40.


So just figure out where to buy the drums or tell the mobile mechanic guy where to get this stuff from. Or better yet, just show him this thread.

[Eggman]

Any advice is soooo welcome! Please help!

Hello funkydpunk and welcome to the forum.

You got some solid advice. One more thing to point out is that Mitsubishi changed the brakes from 2017 on. Be careful when checking compatibility online, some vendors don't recognize the difference.


You'll have to tell us how to pronounce your forum name.

[Cobrajet]

I have a hard time believing the brake drums need to be replaced at only 55k, especially if you hear no grinding. Did the shop you went to mic them? My car has 171k on it now, and I have no reason to believe the drums are damaged. Though I am due for rear shoes again!

Replacing the rear brakes on these cars is NOT a hard job for any mechanic, as everything is essentially 'toy-sized'. But one bugaboo these cars have is parts cost and availability.

Parts are expensive from the dealership, and, as has been noted, this is probably where your mechanic is finding them. Most of his usual sources might say aftermarket replacements are unavailable. It should also be noted that shops almost never sell parts through for cost...they mark them up. So $800 worth of parts from the dealership is $960 for you. Add in labor and perhaps tax and I can see how a brick-and-mortar shop could come up with a $1300 estimate.

When I made this thread there were really no aftermarket options available for the rear brakes on these cars. It was OEM or nothing. I went with used parts since it was relatively easy to find wrecked low mile '14-'15 Mirages in my area and I was doing the work myself. New parts from Mitsubishi such as brake drums were hideously expensive, and still are. On top of that, everything seems to take a week to get at the dealership parts counter. But in 2021, aftermarket companies are starting to catch up.

I would buy the parts being suggested by Car Nut and others and have your mobile mechanic come install them. The tools I have listed in the first post are tools any mobile mechanic should be able to bring with them.

With new aftermarket drums ($200), rotors ($80), pads ($40), shoes ($40), and labor ($100ish), I can't see this really costing more than about $400-$500. But I'd get a second opinion...or even a third...on the need for new drums.

[Dirk Diggler]

Hello All,

I stumbled upon this forum and didn't realize that I probably should not be here. But I am DESPERATELY needing help! It appears that you all are probably the most knowledgeable and trustworthy group.

I have a 2015 Mirage with around 55,000 miles. I live in Austin, so lot's of braking. My front breaks have now been placed 3 times. 2 by my dad and 1 just last week from a company that comes to the house. My dad lives in PA, so he could not help this time. The mechanic informed me that I need new drum brakes and shoes in the rear and that they are unsafe to drive. Now - I knew that the front needed to be replaced due to the constant grinding, but I never really noticed a grinding in the rear.

The mechanic told me that he was not able to change out the drum brakes for this particular model due the drum brakes and the bearing being one solid part. When I called my normal mechanic, they quoted $1,300 due to this. Urgh! The Mitsubishi shop, over the phone couldn't understand why they would need to be replaced anyway. From reading this forum, it appears that this is a common thing with these cars.

I now have another mechanic coming out and at this point my greatest fear is that I will be taken advantage of as far as cost and work that ACTUALLY needs to be done to my car. This new mechanic said they he would simply need to remove and repack the seals and bearings. From research and this - I am not certain that that is the case.

Any advice is soooo welcome! Please help!

Three sets of front pads and rear drums at 55k miles? Either you ride your brakes constantly or something else is going on with your car?

[davidricardo86]

If you have gone through 3 sets of disk brake pads, then your rear brake shoes probably are shot...and I'm not surprised that the drums may be trashed as well. So my guess is these guys probably aren't lying to you.

You could always drive slowly (10-15mph) in a parking lot and then slowly pull up on the parking brake handle while keeping the brake release button depressed. This will apply the rear brakes without the fronts. Listen for any grinding then. Again...based on how many times you have replaced the front brakes without servicing the rears, you almost certainly need new rear shoes at this point and probably drums as well.


Let's talk about parts pricing...

You could easily spend close to $800 (list price) if you called a local Mitsubishi dealer and said "I need 2 new brake drums and brake shoes for a 2015 Mirage". Ummm...so don't do that. I assume that's what these guys may be doing to price this job. But even at that...I'm not sure where the rest of their estimate is coming from. For $1300, I'll drive to your house and do the job myself. I'll even give you a $20 Mirageforum discount.

You can buy the brake drums (bare) from AutoZone or O'Reilly...but you will have to remove the wheel bearing, wheel studs and ABS ring from your old drums and install them in the new drums (not super-difficult, but not trivial either if someone is doing this in a mobile operation). See this post to see someone actually doing it. This may be the absolute cheapest way for a DIYer to do rear brakes on a Mirage...but a hired gun mechanic coming to your driveway won't want to deal with all of that crap.

The easiest thing to do is to buy a set of complete brake drum assemblies...that include the drum, wheel bearing, wheel studs and ABS ring already installed. You can just take these out of the box and throw them on the car. At this point it looks like RockAuto.com is the only place to get drums like this...



At least one person (this guy) has purchased these complete drums from RockAuto and installed them...and he said they worked fine. Unfortunately he never told us exactly which part number he ordered from RockAuto. It's one of the 2 Centric drums pictured above.

Be careful... AutoZone will show you pictures of a complete Mirage drum assembly on their website...but when you get it, it's a bare drum with nothing included. More info on that here.

HERE are Raybestos brake shoes that will fit on your Mirage. You should be able to find these at almost any local parts store for less than $40.


So just figure out where to buy the drums or tell the mobile mechanic guy where to get this stuff from. Or better yet, just show him this thread.

I recently (05/18/2021) purchased Rock Auto Centric drums, part number 12246026 (part number stamped on drum: 24268EC-1. 46026) and they arrived as bare drums. Buyers beware! Rock Auto made it nearly impossible to get any customer service or to report the problem and get any sort of resolution. The pictures online clearly show it as a complete assembly with studs, bearings, c-clip, ABS ring, etc. But when i tried submitting pictures for missing parts to Rock Auto the website got stuck in a loop and i was not able to proceed with a claim. The only resolution i was able to get was a refund or store credit but I have to pay for shipping back. WTF?! This is false advertisment and rip off in my opinion, I'm beyond pissed.

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[Cobrajet]

Ooof. There are two part numbers for the Centrics...12246026 and 12346026...I wonder if this is the difference?

I replaced my rear shoes again two weeks ago at 173k. The Raybestos shoes I put in last time held up much better than the OEM shoes did. I went almost the same amount of miles (first set at 83k, second set at 173k), and the Raybestos shoes could have been left in another 10-15k.

However, I did have to use the 'release lever' on the shoe adjuster to get the drum off of the passenger side (it was very fiddly). One drum has more miles on it than the other one on my car (see earlier posts in this thread), and I think the one on the passenger side actually had 173k on it. When I finally got it off there was a quite noticeable ridge. There is very little extra metal on these for wear or turning on a lathe, so I knew it should probably be replaced.

I put it back on and looked into getting new drums. I ALMOST ordered the Centric 12246026 last week, but decided to hold off. Coincidentally, a 2015 Mirage showed up in my local P&P last week so instead of ordering new I just pulled the used OEM drums off of that car instead. They are in good shape.

Glad I did. I have seen posts where people have gotten complete drums from Rock Auto for these cars, and now you say you didn't. I wonder what gives?

[Top_Fuel]

I have seen posts where people have gotten complete drums from Rock Auto for these cars, and now you say you didn't. I wonder what gives?

I was wondering the same thing?!? Now I would hesitate to tell anyone to buy drums from them.

I wonder which part number this guy ordered?!?

Sounds like RockAuto needs to step it up a little bit on the customer support side, too.

[Fummins]

That is odd, even the pics right on the centric website show the drum with bearing and studs...https://centricparts.com/part-detail/12246026 but no mention of whether it's bare of complete.