brake shoe de-lamination - 2nd time

So yesterday my wife phones and says that the back end of our 2000 ws is "grinding". I meet her at the grocery store and sure enough "grinding" it is. I drive home (~5km) and park the van. Today I pull both drums and 3 of 4 of the shoes have the friction material de-laminated from the backing plate. What makes matters worse is that last April (10,000 km only ago) the same thing happened to 1 of the shoes. 'Course when 1 shoe goes bad you gotta replace all 4. To make matters worse, 1 of the friction parts has spun around so that it's ripped the seals on the wheel cylinder and totally messed up the drum.

I've just now come in from replacing 1 wheel cylinder, 4 shoes and spring kits, 2 drums. Nothin' says "I love the wife on valentines day" better than a non-planned brake job. :rofl:

So, I went to my auto parts place and they replaced the shoes under warranty. The rest, my responsibility.

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem or not but my advice to anyone doing rear shoes is to buy the shoes with the riveted friction material over the adhesive bonded shoes. Ironically the adhesive shoes are the "better, more expensive ones".

Piper

Just asking.. Are you sure someones not leaving the E brake on.?? If not something sure seems to be grabbing back there.. Since the rear brakes add only 20% Of the braking you can sometimes not even notice if something is going on... Just a note.. When I had straight drive cars I use to take off with my E brake on all the time.. I dont hardly ever use them on Auto trans unless I need to.. But there again.. Just asking. Not accusing.. :smile:

But there again maybe they were bad rear shoes.. I use the bonded pads and never had any problems..

I've had this happen twice on vehicles, and another time while I was installing them when I dropped a shoe maybe 12" off the ground.

I used to prefer bonded shoes thinking there was less chance of scoring the drums with the rivets. Now I only buy riveted shoes.

could've been a bad batch, I would research the manufacturer and see if any info has spread online. Also as mentioned before if the brakes are dragging they could've been overheating, causing the bonding material to deteriorate and come apart.

Can you tell if the lining was wearing evently? If they weren't that could also make the linings to come apart as the force of braking is not distributed evenly across the shoe.

Hey Piper.. Other than the fact they fell off did you notice if they were worn at all.. Im sure they may be damaged but just wondering if you noticed any high wearing areas.??

Regarding the e-brake, 100% for sure it is and has been off. We used to have a Aerostar that was notorious for bad e-brake behavior so both my wife and I never use the e-brake. I know that it does and did work as I check it monthly but that certainly wasn't a contributor to the cause of the shoe de-lamination.

In general the shoes had very even wear. When I install shoes I "arc" them as instructed by an old mechanic so that they push into the drum evenly. (Essentially I take a rasp and knock off high spots so that the drum rubs evenly. 'Course you have to make sure to be careful of brake shoe dust etc etc). I know some brake techs just install them and drive for a bit with dragging which "sets" them but I prefer to fit the shoes myself.

The one drum that the shoe had torn the wheel cylinder was really badly scored and needed replacement. I doubt turning it would have worked as the damage was deep. The other side looked pretty good as the friction material was off the shoe but hadn't moved. It did fall off when I "flicked it" with my finger. Ironically this was the side that I pulled apart first. I thought to myself, a lot of noise for "just this". When I pulled the other side apart it was much more apparent the noise was from it.

Sooo, on we go. I'm just glad my wife told me when she did and I wasn't away on business and we weren't on a long trip and the weather was good 'cause I don't have a garage.... gawd :banghead:

Piper