wet drum brakes

hi all,

2000 with 211k miles. rear drums, shoes, cylinders and hardware kit all replaced within 11 months (10k miles). yesterday i'm switching over to snow tires and remove the drums just for a look-see. driver's side is all wet.

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i check the brake line to wheel cylinder torque and it moves just a bit, so i figured that was it.

well... now on disassembly to replace the shoes i find fluid squirting out when i slightly pull back the cylinder's rear gasket (red circle in picture). correct me if i'm wrong, but i thought i read it should be bone dry in there?

Yes, it should be dry in there. That rubber piece is just a cover; the wheel cylinder seal well underneath it.

Looks like you need new wheel cylinders, even though they're less than a year old. I bet the other side is leaking, too. You can check if you've got a warranty on the wheel cylinders - but I don't think I'd use that manufacturer even if they did replace it.

sad thing is they're from the dealer. ford parts.
other side is almost rusty looking- no signs of a leak.
thanks.

fortunately, replacing those cylinders is a pretty easy job and they're inexpensive. I'd certainly buy the aftermarket type, no real difference between those and OEM in my opinion. You may mess up the rigid line behind it so have that line ready to replace if necessary. Some pb blaster will make removal easier for sure. I'd replace both wheel cylinders even if the other is dry, they should move really smoothly and often I find that one side of the piston will get jammed. They should move easily between your thumb/index finger when installed and filled with fluid.Make sure if you're reusing the brake shoes and drum that you clean everything well with soapy water and then brake cleaner. That fluid will contaminate the drum/shoes.

Personally, I wouldn't re-use the shoes. I doubt you can really get every trace of the brake fluid out of the shoe's friction material.

as a general rule nor would I. In the pic tho they look pretty new and it's a shame to pitch them with what seems to be a lot of life left. How much is safety worth I guess is the question.

I have, ftr, re-used brake shoes when this same thing happened to a Jeep Liberty I had a few years back. The drums cleaned of pretty well and there was a bit of smell for the first 100 km but aside from that they were ok in my opinion.

Yeah, they are pretty new...

If someone were to reuse them, I'd finish the cleaning process with multiple soakings with brake cleaner.

i ended up taking apart the leaky one. wow, pretty mundane operation and sealing.
i am erring on the side of caution and replaced the other side- a part of the boot did look oily, and they are under warranty.
and i did replace shoes and h/w.
thanks again.