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?

 

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

 

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..

 

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. :)