Replaced Rear Brakes on a Nissan Versa - WHEW !

[Corvette Owner]

I Replaced Rear Brakes on a Nissan Versa, whew what a job ! I hate drum brakes ! They are like a jigsaw puzzle. Two springs took me 40 minutes to get back on.

It was my daughter's-in-law car. We got the best OEM Type pads from NAPA, $60 with a $9 core charge. She called Nissan to see what the whole brake job would cost there, $480 ! So I guess even they have problems doing this job !

Should add this car has 100,000 miles on it. Not bad. My Nissan Murano brakes did 105,000 miles, they must put great pads on Nissans ! I used OEM for replacement on my Murano.

 

[abycat]

cool good to know. I got a 2011 with 30,000km on it so i should not need some for a bit. the wife drives about 30 years older than she is so i should be about the 100,000 range for my replacement as well.

I have the service manual and all the tools i need so it should be pretty easy for me. I hear all this talk about ceramic pads and cross drilled and slotted rotors so when 100,000 comes around i might just put some nice rotors on it for kicks.

But i guess 100,000 for pads is pretty good considering they are oem. I might just get all oem parts when i do mine.

My dealer buddy said he would give me cost on parts so i will test that for sure.

How does she like the car?? I have the hatchback and i could not be happier. I would also reccomend this car to anyone. Just a joy to drive.

There is only one concern which is addressed with proper cleaning and that is the rear wheel wells have a spot on the bottom most part on the front and back of them to collect sand and dirt . ive even seen ping pong ball sized rocks in there. It could cause a corrosion problem later in the cars life so dont let too much crud pile up in there.

I do a hand detail every couple days but the wife uses the auto car wash that my company cleans so i know every inch of that place and can put my name on the cleanliness of the car wash. She gets the package that has the underbody rinse and soap them rinse then dry. She doesnt do it too much cause i keep the car spotless. Its black so it looks great all washed up. I made a wand for my pressure washer that has upward pointed high flow low pressure nozzles that i can run soap or rinse through and i use that to clean the underside of the car. I have small ramps i drive it up when washing.

Keep us updated on the car. Im gonna do the same. I have had nothing done to mine except the moonroof i got put in which is awesome!!.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: Corvette Owner
I Replaced Rear Brakes on a Nissan Versa, whew what a job ! I hate drum brakes ! They are like a jigsaw puzzle. Two springs took me 40 minutes to get back on.

It was my daughter's-in-law car. We got the best OEM Type pads from NAPA, $60 with a $9 core charge. She called Nissan to see what the whole brake job would cost there, $480 ! So I guess even they have problems doing this job !

Should add this car has 100,000 miles on it. Not bad. My Nissan Murano brakes did 105,000 miles, they must put great pads on Nissans ! I used OEM for replacement on my Murano.


You just needed to find an old geezer to help you with the drum brakes. There was a day when it was drums front and back. Rears do not do a lot of the braking, so good shoes lasting that long is not that unusual.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: Corvette Owner
I Replaced Rear Brakes on a Nissan Versa, whew what a job ! I hate drum brakes ! They are like a jigsaw puzzle. Two springs took me 40 minutes to get back on.

It was my daughter's-in-law car. We got the best OEM Type pads from NAPA, $60 with a $9 core charge. She called Nissan to see what the whole brake job would cost there, $480 ! So I guess even they have problems doing this job !

Should add this car has 100,000 miles on it. Not bad. My Nissan Murano brakes did 105,000 miles, they must put great pads on Nissans ! I used OEM for replacement on my Murano.


You just needed to find an old geezer to help you with the drum brakes. There was a day when it was drums front and back. Rears do not do a lot of the braking, so good shoes lasting that long is not that unusual.

True they don't experience much wear.

Often I end up replacing rear brake shoes because the wheel cylinder leaked and then destroyed the lining.

 

[yonyon]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: Corvette Owner
I Replaced Rear Brakes on a Nissan Versa, whew what a job ! I hate drum brakes ! They are like a jigsaw puzzle. Two springs took me 40 minutes to get back on.

It was my daughter's-in-law car. We got the best OEM Type pads from NAPA, $60 with a $9 core charge. She called Nissan to see what the whole brake job would cost there, $480 ! So I guess even they have problems doing this job !

Should add this car has 100,000 miles on it. Not bad. My Nissan Murano brakes did 105,000 miles, they must put great pads on Nissans ! I used OEM for replacement on my Murano.


You just needed to find an old geezer to help you with the drum brakes. There was a day when it was drums front and back. Rears do not do a lot of the braking, so good shoes lasting that long is not that unusual.


Make sure you're old geezer is just telling you what to do and not doing it himself, unless it's a truck. He can certainly look at all the parts and tell you what they do and where they go, but they're a lot smaller than the ones he's used to. You do not want him to get so frustrated with "fiddly little chinese springs" that you find out he's a lot stronger than he looks.

 

[Brons2]

Back in the day there used to be a "drum brake tool" that made it easy to put the springs back in place.

My first car, an 86 Honda Accord, had drum brakes and I changed the shoes quite a few times in the 258K that I had it.

 

[Ken2]

There are more than one type of self-adjuster on rear brakes. Periodically check that the brakes are in proper adjustment and the self-adjuster is clean and working correctly. (My Tundra self-adjusts every time the parking brake is used, not when reversing. Some people never use the parking brake, so their Tundra rears don't get adjusted.)

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: Ken2
There are more than one type of self-adjuster on rear brakes. Periodically check that the brakes are in proper adjustment and the self-adjuster is clean and working correctly. (My Tundra self-adjusts every time the parking brake is used, not when reversing. Some people never use the parking brake, so their Tundra rears don't get adjusted.)


Whats a parking brake? Never seen or used one!

 

[artbuc]

Originally Posted By: Brons2
Back in the day there used to be a "drum brake tool" that made it easy to put the springs back in place.


Yeah, I called it a screw driver, lol.

 

[JTK]

As much as I love rear drums, little ones can be a pain. All the hardware is really packed in there.

Regardless, it's still better than fiddling with parking brakes built into the hat of the rear rotors like most all these days.


Joel

 

[mechtech2]

A tool usually makes spring installation easy.
But some drum systems should be put together WITH the springs on the shoes, and then pried apart to fully install them.