So I was changing the snow tires on my 2000 3.8 today and took a look at the brakes as I usually do. I replaced the rear shoes and drums, springs etc 2 years/20,000 km ago. When I looked closely at the rear shoe 3 of 4 the rivets holding the pad abrasive to the actual shoe seem to have broken off. This allows the abrasive pad to move on the shoe and I'm going to have to replace it. Has anyone ever had this happen? What sort of warranty do these shoes usually have? They are Raybestos shoes which I think are pretty good. It bugs me though that I have to do both sides, springs, 4 shoes, all because of 1 pad shoe.

Looking for advice regarding what I should say to my auto parts guy, not how to do the job as I'm fine with that.

Piper

What store you got them from? How old are the drums and how are they looking? If they're past their weardown thickness that could explain things as the new shoes are designed to grab on to the round surface of the drums and if the drum are worn out the shoe won't make 100% contact causing stress points.
I'll take'em with me to the auto parts store as proof and also bring the receipt if you have it! Some brake shoes come with a lifetime guaratee some come with just a year or so. Who knows you might get lucky
If the drums are in specs range then I would make it a point that the auto parts store File a complaint to the manufacturer. You don't want to mess with those shoes again, very dangerous if the rear brakes stop working on you. You could jam your brakes or worse loose braking power altogether!

As I've mentione before... I bought a CV Joint from Advance Auto Parts a few months back and and apparently had the wrong exciter ring installed. When I took the van for a test drive I could not get it to stop at low speeds because the ABS wheel speed sensor couldn't sense the one wheel with the wrong exciter ring slowing down on par with the other three wheels. Very scary, I could've gotten into an accident!
I took it back and they wrote a letter of complaint on my behalf, to this day I haven't heard from the manufacturer, but at least there's proof if the incident if something like this were to happen to someone else that could end up less fortunate than me.
Hope you get it resolve without problems.

Well I found the bill, can't believe it actually. It was fall of 2006 so I'm about 18 months since I bought the shoes and drum. The shoes, aside from the broken rivits, look like they're about 1/4 - 1/3 worn or pretty much new. I don't have a fully accurate way to measure the drum but as it was new too I'd expect there's a fair amount left on it. It's just the rear shoe's pad that has broken allowing the actual abrasive to slide in and out on the shoe backing plate. It's back together right now as I didn't have the parts at hand to replace it and the auto parts place is closed. I'll go tomorrow and get the new stuff. Hopefully the shoes will be under warranty but I'll need a new spring kit. Of course when I did the repair in 2006 I replaced all shoes, drums, springs... so don't think I only did half a side or something stupid.


Piper

my understanding is that shoes and pads are lifetime warrantied these days. but you never know. i'd take them back and show them the evidence.

my understanding is that shoes and pads are lifetime warrantied these days. but you never know. i'd take them back and show them the evidence.

I've always had good service out of Raybestos products in the past, not happy to hear about this as they're my second choice when Bendix are too expensive. The only time I've had a brake shoe linning separation was with ones that were actually pressed and glued together, can't remember the brand tho!

At the time I thought I was a good idea to get those since I had no rivets to worry about if I let the shoes wear out too thin. But the same thing happened to me, after about a year one of them separated. I went back and specifically requested riveted shoes as replacements.
Now most manufacturers are making them without rivets to save time and workmanship, so hopefully they turn a better product now as opposed to then.

Piper -

I once had some uneven rear brake shoe wear on my Windstar - which I ultimately tracked to one side of the wheel cylinder sticking.

There are two pistons in each wheel cylinder; each piston presses the end of one brake shoe when the brakes are applied. I discovered that one of the pistons no longer moved on one side of the van. Since the other piston still moved, that brake still functioned to some degree - but most of the load was being handled by one shoe, so that shoe was worn badly.

I replaced the wheel cylinder and brake shoes, and all was well.

To check for this problem: Remove the drum and brake shoes. Carefully use a screwdriver or similar tool to press each piston in toward the wheel cylinder. Don't damage the seal! Each piston should move - and then return to its original location when released. In my case, only one side moved. After replacing the wheel cylinder, I tried to remove the stuck piston. I was finally successful - but it took some effort and a hammer. I suspect water or other contamination got past the seal and created corrosion that caused it to stop moving.

so it turns out that I was using a Wagner set of shoes not raybestos and they were glued on not riveted as I said earlier. Regardless the abrasive part of the shoe has delaminated from the rest of the shoe. When I got the new shoes today the auto parts store told me that Wagner (which is Federal Mogul) wouldn't warranty the part as they (Wagner) will say that I've been driving around with the parking brake on which caused the delamination. Ya, right. While I don't feel I'm being lied to by my auto parts store what a flimzy excuse for Wagner to use. I looked on their website to see if they have a 1-800 number but they don't. So, I guess I'm stuck buying another new set and installing them and hoping for the best.

I will check the cylinder though Phil - thanks for the tip. My hunch is that they're ok as when I did them 18 mths ago things looked good. Famous last words:banghead:

Piper