Rear Brake Shoes

Anyone replaced their rear brake shoes?? What was your mileage?? Did you go with Nissan replacements such as is found at Xterraparts.com or didja go with afttermarket ones??

I'm at 50K miles and haven't done front or back yet. I was thinking I may take my wheels off this weekend to see how much is left. The fronts should go before the backs do though.

You have an automatic right? Your pads probably won't last as long as mine. I've actually gone well over 80K on pads before, so I probably have quite a bit left still. As if I ever use the brakes! :D

I did mine recently at about 30-35k miles. They were worn to the backing, or at least within a hair of it, and the drums were slightly scored. I think it was crud from 'wheeling that was responsible for the scoring of the drums and that there was a smidge of lining left after all now that I think about it. Either way, it was as close as I care to take it.

As for shoes, the Nissan ones are $80 or more from a dealer, $62.50 + shipping from xterraparts.com. I ended up getting a set of Wagner aftermarket shoes for under $25 from a local parts store.

I presume you are comfortable with doing a drum brake setup. One tip you might not have heard, hold the shoe in position with a large C-clamp while you re-attach the retainer spring. Wish I got that tip before I did mine.
If you're not too comfortable with the process, I can give you the cliff notes.

Brent

Brent,

Did you just do the rears? Seems odd they would be toast before the fornts. Guess I better check mine.

My local stealership wants $92 for the front pads! :bloated:

My fronts were done at 30,000 miles. They were making a hell of a noise. I had no time and had just moved so I took it in to a garage. They charged about $250 for the whole job which sucked. They didnt bleed the system properly and I had to take care of that to get rid of the damn brake light on the dash. The pads were dirty too and made a hell of a noise as some of you who wheeled with me in Canada might remember. Damn that sucked. Ended up putting some orange goo on them to help smooth them (Les Schwab - free). They have been decent since. Im at 45,000 now and need to do the rear shoes. I was pulling a loaded trailer the other day and could feel the need. I prefer to do my own work and after the last experience it will take the same investment of time. I wish I could take it to the Stealership but I dont have a crowbar handy to help them pry their heads out of their arses.

Chuck,

My front pads got changed in the high 20k range. I should have checked the rear shoes then.

Brent

Brent brought up a good point. If you play in the mud on a regular basis and are still running 15" wheels, make darn sure that you include cleaning the rear brakes when you clean up (actually you should do this no matter what size wheels you are running, it just becomes more of an issue with the smaller wheels). The mud gets trapped in there by the wheels and will REALLY grind up your pads. You also may have to release brake pressure by backing off of the adjustors to get the drums off. Don't expect the auto adjustors to readjust them either. You will have to readjust them manually while the rear wheel is off.

While on the subject of brakes, my new brake lines will be arriving within the next few days and as soon as they do I will post photos for those who are interested in lengthening their brake lines.

Originally posted by warmonger
The mud gets trapped in there by the wheels and will REALLY grind up your pads.


I learned this the hard way. Neglected to clean my rear brakes after a mud encounter and ended up replacing my rear shoes at just under 30K.

Dog

Chuck in case you did not know Brent has an auto so brakes are usually replaced more frequently then those with a stick...I did my fronts just before GOX II at about 50,000 miles, this was prevenatative maintenance on my part for the long trip but after looking at the pads I could have driven 20,000 more miles on them.

I went with the Nissan pads, very cheap for the mileage I have gotten out of them and the brakes...well dam they work real well so why mess with it, not all brakes pads are made the same.

Originally posted by warmonger
If you play in the mud on a regular basis and are still running 15" wheels, make darn sure that you include cleaning the rear brakes when you clean up (actually you should do this no matter what size wheels you are running, it just becomes more of an issue with the smaller wheels). The mud gets trapped in there by the wheels and will REALLY grind up your pads.

Gordon, the wheel size does not contribute to any crud getting to the pads. The pads are behind and inside the drum, the wheel sits over the drum. Mud can build up inside the drum and mess up the pads, or it can build up between the wheel and drum and mess up your wheel balance. A larger wheel would reduce the latter, but the former is just as likely.

Brent

Be nice to poor Gordy. He doesn't have rear drums like the rest of us. That is one of the many reasons he is running 16" wheels. For him the smaller wheel size would cause mudd to pack in on his disks. This does apply to our front breaks though. A good power sprayer trip would be a very good idea for all of us after a mud run.

If he has rear discs, that's news to me. I know he upgraded to Stillen rotors up front, and stainless lines all around, but that's all I recall.

Brent

I ended up going with an order for the shoes from XTerraparts.com. It came out around $80 with 2 day shipping. That sucks but I can live with that.
I went to Shucks and a bunch of other auto parts stores in Seattle and they all told me that the rear shoes were not available on the XTerra and that they could order them but they would have to come from the Stealership or the web so I would be better off buying them off the web myself. Apparently Nissan doesnt release maintenance parts to the after market for about three years as they want you to go to the stealership (thats what Schucks told me anyway).
Ill be buggered if I go anywhere near a dealership for a brake job around here...



Rear discs??? Im not sure id bother on an XTerra... Id be interested in pics though.

My understanding (from his web page) that Gordon has the prototype Stillen discs. War if you are out there let me know if I am off base. Also how are the new brake lines coming?

The wheel clearance on the 15" wheels traps mud between the wheel and drum and won't release it short of taking the wheel off and cleaning both the drum and wheel. It retains the mud long enough that it grinds in to the drum. I was shocked the first time I put my truck in a serious stuck situation and saw how much work I had to go through to get the mud clear of the drums. The 16" wheels don't trap the mud as badly as the 15" did and I got nowhere near the same amount of mud out as I did with the 15" wheels. As best as I can see it the mud getting trapped gets shoved in behind the backing plate as the wheel spins. I have buried my truck in some pretty nasty crap and I have noticed a marked difference in how much mud makes it in the drums now that I have switched wheels. In fact, I ate up a set of shoes from mud already. And heck, I may just be blowing smoke up your @#$, but I just have seen a difference in how much goop makes it in my rear drums with the switch. I also don't have the heebie jeebies on the way home anymore since the change. I would say that is again due to the extra clearance I now have that isn't trapping as much mud as before. You don't have to believe me, I am just stating what I have experienced so far. I will be testing it again shortly and if I see the same thing I saw on the last couple fo trips, I would have to say there is a difference. Prior to the change it wasn't uncommon for me to remove the rear wheels and find a band of mud wrapped completely around the rear drum along the edge where the drum met the backing plate.

Originally posted by OffroadX
If he has rear discs, that's news to me. I know he upgraded to Stillen rotors up front, and stainless lines all around, but that's all I recall.

Brent

Well now that's a slightly different situation than I was considering. Mud packing in between the drum and wheel and then working its way towards the backing plate and then inside the drum could very well be more of a problem. I thought you were saying that mud would get into the drum on its own, as if there was a larger gap or something.

Brent

Im interested in the affect of mud on the shoes. Ive sunk my truck in the best goo Washington has to offer and ive got almost 50,000 on my shoes and they are just now ready for replacement. I wonder if it has something to do with the rain here all the time in seattle. It is usually raining when I play in the mud and then I usually drive a haul on the interstate home. Spinning and rain water might be clearing the wheels (stock 15 XE). Im not sure WA has the same gumbo to offer that you find further south though...

We joke about our mud not being mud but liquidified cement. It hardens up instantly on the ride home. It requires a pressure washer to get it off. So much so that I will probably get a small portable 1300 psi pressure washer so I can quit getting kicked out of car wash joints. The next time I do it, I will shoot photos of the aftermath and show you what I mean. Here it rains in buckets for a few minutes or so, then quits as quick as it started. Rarely does it rain all the way home. So the mud dries and cakes and next thing you know your truck feels like it has square wheels. It gathers heavily under the front splash shield and gets trapped between the frame and front diff so bad that it has to be chipped out with a pry bar and then the rest pressure washed to remove it. If you don't wash out the cooling fins on your rotors as soon as you get home, the rotors will overheat and warp from the dried mud not allowing proper brake cooling. You would be amazed at how nasty it really is.