Brake pads worn out at 25K!

[Top_Fuel]

On the subject of wearing out your front pads prematurely...

Are you guys regularly (at least a couple of times a year) taking off your rear drums and cleaning/adjusting your rear brakes?

My daily driver is a 2009 Pontiac G5 XFE (Chevy Cobalt twin). My car has 175,000 miles on the original brakes. I keep my drum brakes clean and in constant adjustment. The automatic adjusters don't cut it. Every 4-5 months I can always get 5-10 clicks out of the adjusters. I think this has gone a long way in preserving my front brakes. My front pads had about 40% left the last time I checked. My rear brake shoes will probably need to be replaced by 200K miles, but I'm not complaining. Oh...I do drive my car very easily...but about 40% of my driving is still in the city.

[deleted user]

I get the dust out of my drums whenever I have the rear wheels off. The adjustment is easy to check, 5 or 6 clicks of the latching mechanism is perfect.

I agree with you completely on people who never use the emergency brake causing the front pads to wear out quickly. In extreme cases it can cause other damage, even failed boosters when the pedal travel gets to be several times greater than it is when the rears are properly adjusted. It happens more frequently with automatic transmissions since most people just shove it in park and never use the e-brake.

regards
mech

[El Kapitan]

does using the e-brake adjust them?

I heard that if you go into reverse and slam the brakes on a few times this will also adjust them. true, or not?

[Top_Fuel]

I heard that if you go into reverse and slam the brakes on a few times this will also adjust them. true, or not?

Generally speaking, using the brakes in reverse is supposed to keep them in adjustment. In reality, this really doesn't always work that well...at least in most of the drum brakes I've seen. When my brakes are properly adjusted, I can only pull my e-brake handle up 1-2 clicks. If I can pull my handle up and hear 6-7 clicks, I know it's time for me to adjust them.

[cyclopathic]

Here's some more reading on the subject with a somewhat different approach:

http://www.mossmotors.com/SiteGraphi...ake_discs.html

The semi-metalic and ceramic pads have some amount of copper in the pad, which acts as lubricant to prevent brake grabbines at low speeds, and it takes a few hundred miles for it to work it in the rotor. Also during brake application high spot can overheat and quench due to instant cooling by otherwise cold rotor. Quenched high spot will be harder and wear less, so problem develops.

Here is a link on how to bed-in brakes. I've been following similar procedure since motorcycle times. Bike rotors are expensive and don't get changed every time you change pads.
http://ebcbrakes.com/articles/how-to...ban-driving-2/

[cyclopathic]

On the subject of wearing out your front pads prematurely...

Are you guys regularly (at least a couple of times a year) taking off your rear drums and cleaning/adjusting your rear brakes?

My daily driver is a 2009 Pontiac G5 XFE (Chevy Cobalt twin). My car has 175,000 miles on the original brakes. I keep my drum brakes clean and in constant adjustment. The automatic adjusters don't cut it. Every 4-5 months I can always get 5-10 clicks out of the adjusters. I think this has gone a long way in preserving my front brakes. My front pads had about 40% left the last time I checked. My rear brake shoes will probably need to be replaced by 200K miles, but I'm not complaining. Oh...I do drive my car very easily...but about 40% of my driving is still in the city.

When we traded in 96 Protege with 434k it still had the original rear pads. I think I took rear drums off once at 200k? but after looking at pads and cost to turn drums put it back. Pads had at least 50% left at that point. We may have swapped front/rear pad at that point as it is the leading edge of the front pad which gets worn out.

Drum brakes have return spring and require more initial pressure to engage. On other hand they are easier to lock up at high pressure, as the leading edge of front pad gets pushed in by drum rotation. Because of this it is hard to design balanced mixed disk/drum system, most designs underload rears. I think unless someone left e-brake on and drove off, rear drum brakes will not need any work and last lifetime, YMMV.

[El Kapitan]

Generally speaking, using the brakes in reverse is supposed to keep them in adjustment. In reality, this really doesn't always work that well...at least in most of the drum brakes I've seen. When my brakes are properly adjusted, I can only pull my e-brake handle up 1-2 clicks. If I can pull my handle up and hear 6-7 clicks, I know it's time for me to adjust them.

based on your criteria for clicks, I definitely need an adjustment. thanks for the heads up.

[cyclopathic]

based on your criteria for clicks, I definitely need an adjustment. thanks for the heads up.

Automatic adjuster only works when you are going backwards and applying brakes. Have never been an issue our driveway is pretty steep, but it could be a problem if you never back up or don't brake going back hard enough to engage rear drums.

Try to accelerate in reverse and hit brakes hard a couple times before taking rear brake apart good luck.

[cyclopathic]

based on your criteria for clicks, I definitely need an adjustment. thanks for the heads up.

Does anyone know if Mirage e-brake has an automatic brake cable adjuster like Dodge? The Dodge e-brake I have taken apart had a self-adjusting mechanism which would take slack off the cable and would leave only 1-2 clicks. If Mirage doesn't have it, the number of clicks will not be an indication of how far pads are from the drum.

[Eggman]

We may have swapped front/rear pad at that point as it is the leading edge of the front pad which gets worn out.

It has been my understanding that due to the self-energizing design of drum brakes the shoes are not to be swapped like this? It can make for excellent forward braking but fast wear.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_b...characteristic