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From: Fred on 27 Jun 2010 09:29
Hi,

I have a 2004 Citroen C3. Occasionally when braking there is a squeal.

The front of the car uses discs, which I am more familiar with. I have
taken off the front wheels and there is a lot of friction material
left on the pads and no sign of any grit trapped between the pads and
the disc, so far so good.

That leaves the rear brakes and they are drums, which I don't know
much about. I do have a Haynes book but that doesn't always tell the
truth does it! The car has done seventy something thousand miles and I
don't remember the rear brakes ever being changed at a service, so
could it be that it is time to renew them?

Any hints or tips on working on/looking at drum brakes?

TIA
From: Stu on 27 Jun 2010 13:23
On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:29:15 +0100, Fred <fred(a)no-email.here.invalid>
wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I have a 2004 Citroen C3. Occasionally when braking there is a squeal.
>
>The front of the car uses discs, which I am more familiar with. I have
>taken off the front wheels and there is a lot of friction material
>left on the pads and no sign of any grit trapped between the pads and
>the disc, so far so good.
>
>That leaves the rear brakes and they are drums, which I don't know
>much about. I do have a Haynes book but that doesn't always tell the
>truth does it! The car has done seventy something thousand miles and I
>don't remember the rear brakes ever being changed at a service, so
>could it be that it is time to renew them?
>
>Any hints or tips on working on/looking at drum brakes?
>
>TIA

They're more complex than disc brakes, but not as difficult as they
look once you get stuck in. The golden rule is to work on one side at
a time only - then if there's anything you're not absolutely sure
about, e.g. which side of the shoe the spring hooks on, as you
reassemble, you can always refer to the other side. A good pair of
mole grips is very helpful when replacing the springs, because a fair
effort is sometimes needed to expand them and it's a lot easier if you
don't have to squeeze pliers at the same time as you pull.

Refer to haynes when it comes to the order of removal/replacement and
setting up adjusters etc. If they're not excessively worn, you can
usually manage to clean them out and grease the contact points on the
backplate with no dismantling, but at that mileage I expect they will
be. In fact the squeal may even be an indication that the linings have
completely worn away, in which case you'll need to take a good look at
the inner drum surface and consider replacement of the drums as well
as the shoes.

Good luck

Stu
From: Ret. on 28 Jun 2010 03:31
Fred wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a 2004 Citroen C3. Occasionally when braking there is a squeal.
>
> The front of the car uses discs, which I am more familiar with. I have
> taken off the front wheels and there is a lot of friction material
> left on the pads and no sign of any grit trapped between the pads and
> the disc, so far so good.

Not really - because the squeal can still be coming from the front pads. It
is often caused by one of the pads vibrating against the caliper.

There are two main ways of dealing with this problem - remove the pads and
use a file to chamfer off the 'leading edges' of the friction material - and
putting anti-squeal shims on the back of the pads. You can buy these in
motor accessory shops in the form of a rectangle of black heat-resistant
self-adhesive rubberised material. You cut out the required shape, peel off
the backing, and stick it on the rear of the pads before replacing them.

I have stopped squealing pads on several occasions using this latter method.

--
Kev

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