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Recently my rear drums started squealling very loudly and it's getting annoying. I'm fairly certain that they are still good. I changed the first set of front pads around 32k miles and currently at 65k, but there's still a lot of material left on the front pads. Up until about 41k miles, the car was drven a lot in the city, afterwards I moved and now most driving is done on the highway so brake usage is reduced greatly.
I had a mechanic check the drums for me, he rotated them while they were on the car and got a feel for them and suggested that I go spray it down at a car wash with high pressure hose. I've tried that and it did not help much.
I will be removing the drums and cleaning them with brake kleen. While I'm doing that, is it advisable to resurface the drums and sand the shoes? It was a suggestion given to me by a friend. I can have the drums resurfaced for $6 ea.
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2007 Camry 2.4L 5M
Last edited by touringcamry; 09-10-2005 at 07:57 PM.
Before you spend the money on resurfacing, brakleen the parts like you intended and after they dry pry the shoes gently away from the backing plates and spray or brush white grease where the shoes contact the backing plates (3 pad areas per shoe).
Before you spend the money on resurfacing, brakleen the parts like you intended and after they dry pry the shoes gently away from the backing plates and spray or brush white grease where the shoes contact the backing plates (3 pad areas per shoe).
Exactly right. I use high temperature disc brake grease on these 6 points where the shoes contact the backing plate. A friend of mine, who is a former Toyota tech, recommends a product called Syl-Glide, if you can find it. I believe NAPA sold it at some point.
I pry the shoes away from the backing plate with a slotted screwdriver and then use a small artist type paint brush to brush on the grease. Just be carefull not to get any of it on the brake shoe area that actually contacts the drum.
Uh...how do the drums come off? I thought they just pull out...but that's not it...
There looks like two holes there, do I put a screw in there to force it out against the metal plate inside?
edit: That was exactly the way to remove it.
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2007 Camry 2.4L 5M
Last edited by touringcamry; 09-11-2005 at 01:54 PM.
First spray the hub portion of the drum (the large hole in the middle) with wd-40 or the like. Then take your biggest hammer and moderately hit the outer edge of the drum on the face (rim side). If this does not dislodge the drum you can hit harder, I would but some might worry about warping the drum, or thread bolts into the two holes you mentioned. If you use the bolt trick do not crank down on the bolts all at once - hit on the drum after each increase in bolt tension.
I dio know I have never replace the rear drums for wear, also the rear shoes last a really long time. To replace them because they are old is a waste of money, they do little braking, but can have a bug effect of brake pedal height and feel. Use your parking brake regularly or clean, lube, and adjust the rear brakes every 5-10k.
I use the parking brake every time. I am from hilly San Francisco, where the parking brake is very necessary. I'm not there any longer, but that's where I learned to drive.
I just never knew I had to clean them until they got really noisy. They had been making some noise prior, but they just became unbearable so I had to do something about it.
I was looking at prices for rear shoes...why's there a core charge for the shoes? I don't ever remember having to pay core charge for front pads.
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2007 Camry 2.4L 5M
Last edited by touringcamry; 09-12-2005 at 02:20 PM.
How long does the rear drums usually last? 2 or 3 set of front pads?
Does it last longer because the rear does less braking, or drums don't wear away as much material?
Exactly!
The rear brakes do a smaller percentage of breaking under normal driving conditions, and also have a much larger surface contact point to actually DO the breaking.
Think of how much surface area a shoe has compared to a pad.
My rear brakes are making a weird noise. When I press gently, it is normal. But if I press the brake harder, to where the pedal becomes harder to press, the dum brkes start making a rapid taping noise. I don't have ABS so it's not that, and I'm not pressing hard enough to lock up the wheels.
I use the parking brake every time time I park the car if that makes any difference.
When I cleaned the brakes, I cleaned them all off with Brake Kleen and put Napa Sil-Glyde on the three area per shoe where it rests against the backing plate. I also took some 200 grit sand paper and cleaned the drums slightly where I couldn't get the brake dust off with just the cleaner.
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2007 Camry 2.4L 5M
Last edited by touringcamry; 09-14-2005 at 09:00 PM.
Now that you have added 'thumping' to the noise part we have a different beast.
Make sure the thumping is being caused by the rear brakes. Do this by using the parking brake only to slow after the thumping starts with normal braking. If the noise is present you will need to have the drums trued (resurfaced) as they are warped.
If this noise just started after you removed the drums recently then I would suspect your removal techique somehow warped them - no offense intended.
The thumping started only after I did this cleaning. They never did that before. I'm fairly certain that it's the drums because I can hear it start on the right side and then there's a few seconds delay and then it'll start on the left side.
It just squealed before and it just became louder and louder until it became unbearable which is why I cleaned them. But never was there any other noise.
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