Dusting off drum brakes

[sciphi]

The rear drums on the Cruze weren't stopping that well, even though they were in adjustment and no mechanical issues were apparent. The drums even had the original machining marks on them! Everything on the backing plate was coated in a thick layer of brake dust that was several millimeters thick in some spots. Dusting them off with high-pressure air (I did wear a N95 particle respirator and did this outside) made them work a lot better. I'm amazed that simply removing the dust had that much of an impact.

Service history on those brakes is that they're the original drums and shoes, have been eyeballed and regularly manually adjusted every 5-7k miles, and the car has 119k miles on it.

 

[eljefino]

And people don't want to change their ATF because "all that clutch material floating around, helps"

 

[Warstud]

Yes...I always notice a difference in braking after cleaning the wheels off or on a rainy day. The dust act's as a lubricant....much like Graphite.

 

[Falken]

I did this yesterday when putting on my Winter tires.

Released the parking brake and banged on them with a medium hammer and got them off.

Quite a bit of brake dust was trapped in the drum.

I inspected the pad thickness well, put the drums back on and installed the Winter tires.

The Fit seems to go through pads on the front at a rate of 3x the wear of the back drums.

 

[splinter]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
..Dusting them off with high-pressure air (I did wear a N95 particle respirator and did this outside) made them work a lot better..

I had asthma as a youngster so I use a healthy stream of water on the 'dust' into a suitable catch basin for disposal.

 

[zach1900]

I've never noticed this pin rear drums but i have on front discs.

 

[donnyj08]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
And people don't want to change their ATF because "all that clutch material floating around, helps"


Happy Birthday!!!! I just noticed the cake beside your name!

 

[zach1900]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
And people don't want to change their ATF because "all that clutch material floating around, helps"
yes because atf fluid isn't designed to deal with clutch material at all. Please.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Originally Posted By: Warstud
Yes...I always notice a difference in braking after cleaning the wheels off or on a rainy day. The dust act's as a lubricant....much like Graphite.



I have noticed better rear braking, afaik, in wet weather. Why is this?

Also, on a 2006 Cobalt LS 4-lug are the rear drums manually adjustable? What tool? Do you turn a cam near the shoes or something? About 138,000 miles and really needing a fluid exchange/bleed as they are squishy and you can hear creaking when letting off the pedal. Also, take a while to engage the brake (pedal travel). The brake light has illuminated a time or two this year for a few minutes.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Originally Posted By: Falken


Released the parking brake and banged on them with a medium hammer and got them off.



I see you specified. Must mean you left the emergency brake engaged during drum removal at some time in the past. I do recall hammering away some time ago, then realizing it. A bit of a d'oh - aha moment!

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Originally Posted By: Falken


Released the parking brake and banged on them with a medium hammer and got them off.



I see you specified. Must mean you left the emergency brake engaged during drum removal at some time in the past. I do recall hammering away some time ago, then realizing it. A bit of a d'oh - aha moment!


I've done that. Fun doing it in a shop environment and when you realize try to act all cool like you meant to do it.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Uh oh triple post!!!


Thank you for wearing a respirator! And thanks for posting about it! Maybe when some of us 'safety risk' people perform the task in the future we will have our eyes and lungs covered!

all the gear all of the time

Let us see....hard hat, safety glasses, faceshield, dust mask, respirator, coveralls, gloves, boots, jack stands tires and a backup. Redundancy can be quite nice!

I always seem to forget to pump my brakes after a pad change, and luckily do not hit a car backing out or luckily think to pull the handbrake.

I have never changed out shoes. The old Saturn I drove had 290,000 plus highway miles and still had plenty of shoe. Just dust them, bleed them, spray lubricant on the springs, cams and other visible parts, adjust the parking brake and they seem to keep doing what they are supposed to do.



I would like to somewhat over adjust the drums on the Cobalt as it seems I get some dive during brake application. Alot can probably be attributed to the worn struts, but if the drums had some more initial bite then it seems they would have a better feel.

 

[Falken]

"Nothing is a better teacher than failure."

 

[mjoekingz28]

Be careful what you say Falken. Especially with an absolute statement such as this.


Let us say you are racing a motorcycle. You are dragging a knee at the top of fourth gear in a corner. You get giddy and stay on it. What do you want, a soft rev limiter, a hard rev limiter, or possibly toast the engine/drivetrain.

You may say the soft limiter as the other two may break your bones.

So, in parenting we would like for our friends, loved ones and children to take our word for it or be shown safely what can, would, should, or could happen were they to err. A green 16 year old with a supercharged v-8 may not get to learn from his mistakes if he hits a bump midcorner while under heavy throttle. But conversely, if he has an underpowered three speed automatic four cylinder he may never realize his mistakes-but never crash and burn.

Kind of how 2 strokes taught you good manners of how to carry speed, while 4 strokes could use the low end torque to power out of their lack of skill and hence, not lose time.





I don't even know what I am trying to say exactly. I just do not like your statement. To me, it seems you are saying you dying or going to prison is the only way to learn from a mistake.

I like to try to think that if we are to achieve perfection, then on that path the mistakes we make are so minor that we do not really fail from them.

Like in the Chris Kyle movie. Instead of a sniper aiming for a torso, he should aim for an inscription on the button of the shirt that the torso is adorning.

 

[Falken]

mjoe, sorry, I meant it more in the sense of going to the grocery store and forgetting to buy beer.

That happens to me, lots.

 

[mjoekingz28]

Better stock up! Dont yall get snowed in about this time of year? I think Chicago gets hit the hardest in the United States.

 

[sciphi]

Been there done that with forgetting the parking brake was on while attempting to remove drums. It did knock loose a lot of dust, though!

 

[JTK]

I used to pull the rear drums on my 2007 Chevy Cobalt LS from time to time to wipe out the dust, mainly because it was so easy to do. I applied never-seize to the hub face when the car was new, so the drums would pull right off. I hope the next owner appreciated it.

 

[ryanschillinger]

Shops I used to work at did a "clean and adjust" on the rear drums for some reasonable price. They would use a portable parts washer to scrub everything down then blow dry with shop air. Lube the contact points, put it back together and adjust both sides. You don't want to breathe the dust from the shoes, so it was good they used the parts washer to rinse everything out first.

 

[mjoekingz28]

So the linings are still hazardous to our lungs? Just not as terrible as the asbestos?




Like 134a is still toxic, but miles better than R-12?!