Doctuh

I had alignment done at Firestone a couple of weeks ago under my lifetime alignment agreement, and had my Firestone tires balanced and rotated under warranty as well. I had noticed mild shudder in my brakes ever since I bought the car 1/10. Firestone said the rear brakes (the DRUM brakes) needed to be cleaned, and for $32 ($22 after their "survey discount") they did so. The shudder went away. I have been seeing multiple threads on here containing long discussions of warped rotors, runout tolerances, and disk brake seating issues. Am I the only one whose brake performance problems were improved by service to the rear, drum brakes instead? Am I living in some kind of alternative reality here?

solman98

Sounds like there must have been some buildup that broke loose while they were banging everything around. Cleaning got rid of if.

sleeper

I cleaned & serviced my rear barkes when I painted the Drums. There was plenty of old brake crud waiting on me to remove..(as I had expected).

I thoroughly cleaned & de-glazed the shoes & drums, greased the backing plates in 4 proper locations & adjusted them precisely...

Then did the painting.. Still stops smooth, but much better (due to adjustment & de-glazing) & also looks better too..

whopper

LOL - my rear brakes NEVER squeeked/squealed until the dealer talked me into a "Rear Brake Service", meaning a clean and lube. It took about 6 months for the noise to go away - wasn't too annoying otherwise I would have looked at it myself.

But I have never had any other issues with the rear brakes. :)