A Dog Under My Desk...

[Eupher]

...and a 2004 Sienna that needs a brake job.

I'm a musician by trade, a QA guy by career, and while I'm no stranger to tools, I've never done a brake job on this vehicle or ANY vehicle with FWD.

When the dog yawns and stretches, that's my cue to dive in.

I'll be over at the Sienna forum in case anybody's looking for me -- or if I somehow get lost.

[TrailDust]

Here's to you for serving your country!

Welcome to Toyota Nation, I'm sure you'll enjoy it here. Which part of Missouri are you from, if you don't mind my asking?

[BLUEMEANIE]

Welcome!! x2 on what part of MO ... I'm in St.Louis.

[Eupher]

Thanks for the warm welcome, TrailDust and BlueMeanie!

I live and work in Moberly, which is 30 miles north of Columbia. This is the part of Missour-ah where the corn- and soybean fields rule; where the cattle roam free (within their fenced pastures, of course); and I'm the guy who doesn't drive a pickup.

They look at me weird over here.

And no, I'm not originally from this area. If I were, I'd probably have a pickup and a bit of a southern-style accent.

[TrailDust]

Oh, cool, you're up near Florida and Mark Twain lake. That's a very beautiful area of Missouri IMHO, and one of my favorite places to visit.

[BLUEMEANIE]

I ride (bicycles) in that area all the time. My sis lives in Columbia.

[Eupher]

Welp, I did the front brakes and didn't have a problem at all. Definitely different than I remember when I was a kid when FWD cars were limited to the Olds Toronado.

So today when I go to tackle the rear drums, I get the drums off just fine and even with 146K on the clock, the rear shoes look like maybe 1/16" has been worn off. So there's no need to replace the shoes.

However, I noticed that one of those counterweights fell off the drum. This is not good, as it was tack-welded on poorly to begin with and with the rust and whatnot, it had fallen off. To make matters worse, I saw a spot where there USED to be a counterweight and nothing was there, meaning, of course, that one had fallen off some time ago.

This makes perfect sense. The drums are out of balance. This puts additional load/work on the rear shocks AND I get an out-of-balance shimmy in the entire minivan at speed. It's annoying.

I called and checked around and discovered there's no real way to balance rear brake drums. They can turn them just fine, but balance? No way, Jose.

As I don't want to have to put another set of rear shocks on the van anytime soon, I have to replace the drums apparently. The linings are just fine - no severe grooving at all. But they're out of balance and that spells trouble down the road....

Any thoughts in this area, gentlemen?

[BLUEMEANIE]

Are you handy with a torch? You could tack on a new counter weight. Just find a piece of steel that weighs the same as the weight you still have.

...might even be able to get away with a cold weld like JB or PC7 or something.

[Eupher]

Originally Posted by BLUEMEANIE

Are you handy with a torch? You could tack on a new counter weight. Just find a piece of steel that weighs the same as the weight you still have.

...might even be able to get away with a cold weld like JB or PC7 or something.

Never welded a thing in my life, and I ain't gonna start now!

I called and checked around. The prices of what these guys were demanding pretty much nullified getting a local welding shop to tackle this.

I went ahead and ordered replacement drums. The price for new drums is comparable to what they would've charged me for welding.

I appreciate the response, however!

[Eupher]

Let me add a bit more detail about this brake drum being out of balance, as I think it's important.

First off, I have a 2004 Sienna LE.

With about 80K on the clock, I noticed a sound from the rear that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I went through the usual balance-the-tires thing with no real effect. The sound gradually got louder. I finally took it in to a tire place and he noticed that the rear shocks were gone - the seals had partially failed and the shocks wore a collar of hydraulic fluid.

At this point the van probably had about 100K on it.

Okay, so I put shocks on it. Oddly enough, the sound went away so I'm thinking that the problem is solved. Now with about 145K on the clock, I'm hearing that sound again -- it sounds like something out of balance and I get a slight shimmy in the steering wheel.

I went ahead and did the front brakes and as I mentioned up-thread, when I did the rear brakes I noticed that a counterweight had fallen off one of the drums. The other drum showed a spot where a counterweight USED to be, and this was the tire that had the most noise.

I called a couple of parts stores in town. They all turn drums but none of them balance drums. They basically said that if you have a balance problem, you're basically screwed. You have to buy new drums.

So I started looking at drums. A few brand names popped up and I checked on the most "premium" of the group. I asked the question if brake drums are manufactured such that they are balanced without counterweights (like rotors) or if they all come with the counterweights tack-welded on the face plate -- answer: they all come with the counterweights tack-welded.

So it's reasonable to expect that these counterweights will, at some point, fall off the drum. When that happens, a balance problem occurs and it has an impact on the shock absorber, causing premature wear.

Lesson learned for me -- spend the extra money up front and get rear disc brakes. This drum brake business is ancient technology!