I just took some photos of my brake pads today. Are they in need of replacement? Let me know if these images don’t show up.
Here’s a link:
http://ima…A335nu0mrj
http://ima…3335nu0mrj
Let me know! Thanks!
Peter
Those are shoes.
Somewhere in the world (like in a repair manual) you’ll find a minimum thickness spec for the shoes. I’d just find out what it is and measure. The pictures show up fine but it is a little hard to tell - just on the look I can get I’d guess you’re probably ok for a while. But I’d just measure.
hard to tell. you have to compare each pair, and the front and back shoe. my theory is… if you went to the trouble of dissembling them… replace them!
1/16th of an inch is when you need to replace the pads. Looks pretty close to me, especially as the pad you can’t see too well is always the thinnest.
Pads often don’t wear evenly. Pads are cheap, rotors and calipers are expensive, so I’d change the pads now.
Right, they are shoes. Please do not rate me poorly for describing the part as you described it. Since you will obviously not be repairing the parts yourself, it did not seem to be relevant. Get the shoes replaced before they wear out completely and score the drums. Oh yeah, instead of calipers you can substitute brake cylinders for the part that, when you allow the brake pad/ shoe wear out too far as the part that will blow out and leak brake fluid and cost you a lot more money than you might spend if you just replace the shoes right now.
The part you can see looks OK, but marginal. The lowest point on the front and back shoes determine the thickness and whether or not to replace. Disregard the thicker areas and look for the thinnest. If there is an area thinner than what you have shown, then definately time to replace.
If you do this your self you will have to ream and rebuild the brake hydralic wheel cylinders. Replacing the shoes isn’t that difficult. You need to do the hydralic rebuild properly or you will have leaking brake fluid. You will also need to bleed the brakes. If this is sounding complicated then get the job done by a pro.
Uncle T, I don’t understand why I’d need to rebuild brake hydraulic wheel cylinders. Why can’t I just replace the shoes? Thanks!
I would only do the cylinders if they were leaking or sticking or something. In that case, I’d also just buy new/remanned cylinders rather than rebuilding them myself. Uncle T may have reasons I’m not aware of though.
If you don’t rebuild them, they will leak and ruin the new shoes. Not to mention being unsafe. When you put the new shoes on the plungers that come out of the cylinders will be moved and can contact dirt which is abrasive. The dirt will abrade the rubber of the plunger and a leak will develope. It is pretty much standard procedure to rebuild the wheel cylinders when you service drum style brakes.
Drum brakes and disk brake calipers are different in this regard, you don’t have to rebuild a caliper in most cases on a disk brake.
Here is a nice discussion of it if you want to check it out:
http://www.crxsi.com/info/brake/Wheel-Cylinder-Inspection-amp-Service.htm