How long

[JediButch]

Love this site. Lurked here for years, and here is my first post.

How long - on average - do rear drum brake shoes last. This can be in miles or ratio in relation to the fronts (like 2 to 1 etc.....)

I know many replies will start out "depending on your driving habits".

Her car is an '03 Ford Focus SE.

Thanks.

 

[dwendt44]

Well, yes, driving habits and auto use are a good part of the life of brake parts. Mostly highway miles, like me, get different results than a stop and go grocery getter.
Some cars use two, maybe even three sets of front pads to one set of shoes on the rear.
Part of the reason is the rear shoes don't 'auto adjust' like they should or used to back in the rear drive days; results in the front pads carrying much/most of the brake load.
BTDT.
Even those little adjustment slots are gone now.

 

[The Critic]

Usually 1.5x as long as the fronts. So, I'd expect them to last at least 60,000 miles.

Also, some of the newer cars will wear out the rears and the fronts at the same rate. Some people blame electronic brake force distribution for this. In addition, sometimes the rears will actually wear out faster due to the softer material.

 

[mechtech2]

We see 2-3 to 1 [rear life to front]
With rear disc brakes, the rears last somewhat less.
The average civilian should get 80-100+ from his stock rear drum brakes.

 

[Mr Nice]

We gave our old Civic to my nephew and at 190K miles....its still has the original factory drum brake shoes.

They will easily outlast the front pads 3 (maybe 4) to 1


My old Mustang also had rear drums. Still had the original shoes when I got rid of the car at 140K miles.

 

[ChiTDI]

BUT CHECK THEM !!
Ratios above are pretty sensible, but I had a Voyager w/18k out of the factory and the shoes were just over the rivets. New shoes and turned the drums.
150k miles later, the shoes and the drums were still OK.

 

[artificialist]

I often see the rear wheel cylinders leak brake fluid and cut short the life of brake shoes. It seems that many wheel cylinders leak at 50K.