I am at my absolute end here with this goddamn car i swear. Can someone enlighten me on the buying of new brake components? I took replaced my rear shoes (91 si) like 4 months ago at most. at the time i purchased new rear drums just to have all new parts. When I put it all on, the car would violently grab like the drums were the most warped things ever. Threw on my old drums, all good. Returned the drums life went on. Fast forward to now, the drums are warped to the point where you can feel the car surging when you come to a slow stop. I go to kragen to have them turned, not enough material left I'm told. The woman at the counter says if I buy new drums i will have to have them turned even though they are brand new. Strange, ive never had that issue with buying new front disks for my other cars. I come back later to buy the drums, guy behind counter tells me you dont HAVE to but its reccomended. SO whatever I buy them, put them on tonight, total bulshit almost as bad as my ""old" drums. Has anyone had experience with this? Do I really have to go pay an additional $20 to have brand new drums turned? I looked up slhondaparts.com and hondaauototiveparts.com and they both want like almost 70$ a piece for these things (comapared to 20$ each). Im about ready to throw this car into a firepit as this brake thing is the least of my problems but currently the most annoying. Thanks for any advice.

Brian

 

i believe the "warped rotor/drum" feeling is probably a worn out rack end bushing. your in luck, they are only $10 from honda and are just a bitch to put in.

and for the record, ive never turned new drums or rotors EVER. and ive replaced a lot of them.

what makes you think its the rear causing the "warped pulsing", and not the front. i think wherever you took your drums that said they are too far out are full of ****. unless you couldnt lift your ebrake more than 2 clicks, or you drove around with your ebrake on, there is no way your drums should be out that much in 4 months.

in short, describe exactly the problem you are having with your car. does it feel like rotors and or drums are warped? how new are the fronts since they are responsible for something like 80% of your stopping force.

 

well, 4 months ago i returned the "**** new" drums and ran my old ones since they werent that bad. i know its not the rack end bushing because I replaced that along with both inner ball joints like a month ago. There is still some issues with the front end but the reason I know its the rear is because i can go like 25 mph and pul up the ebrake a click or two and it causes the car to pulsate. I also just changed the front disks less than 4 months ago with new pads, but to eliminate that I put on a fresh set i have tonight as well. Again, if i brake with just the rear brake via the ebrake, the problem is there.

 

that is very strange. the only thing i can think of is that you didnt put the drums back together again correctly. either that or your proportioning valve is all jacked up.. but that would not make much sense.

the drums when you put them back together have to be very nearly flat, like

( )

if they arent, it might cause problems.. but still that shouldnt be an issue because its very unlikely that that is what is causing it. i wonder if your drums were drilled off center, like the lug holes werent drilled perfectly center. ive got nothing though, ive got cheapy rotors and drums on my car and i havent had anything like that before. i had a chevy nova a while ago that had 4 wheel drum brakes, and i never had that problem either. very strange.

 

Maybe a bad rear bearing? If you have aftermarket wheels, there are little plastic rings that center the wheel to the hub. Concentric rings I think. Maybe those are missing?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by The AntiRice &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well, 4 months ago i returned the "**** new" drums and ran my old ones since they werent that bad. i know its not the rack end bushing because I replaced that along with both inner ball joints like a month ago. There is still some issues with the front end but the reason I know its the rear is because i can go like 25 mph and pul up the ebrake a click or two and it causes the car to pulsate. I also just changed the front disks less than 4 months ago with new pads, but to eliminate that I put on a fresh set i have tonight as well. Again, if i brake with just the rear brake via the ebrake, the problem is there. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I'm going to give you the best advice you can ever get as far as fixing rear drums goes. Get rid of them and buy disks. You can get the rear swap for $150 pretty easy, its a one hour job, and you will THANK GOD every time you have to do maitenance on your car. Granted, they are a bit heavier and really don't provide THAT MUCH better braking....the convinience is well worth it imho.

 

the wheel are oem honda LS mesh wheels. Ive thought about doing a rear disk swap but at this point that doesnt really help me. The car has about 10 other things it needs before it needs rear disk brakes. this car is becomming such a headache if you guys only knew teh half of it...

Brian

 

Ok, sounds to me like there are going to be a lot of things that you could trouble shoot and try to fix. This would require a lot of time, and probably some cash. IF I WERE YOU, I would at the very least pick up a set of rear hubs/drum brakes that work for sure, and swap everything out. You can probably find this stuff for free, especially in your area.

 

Well to pin point the problem FOR SURE (dont know if you've done this yet) but get up to speed and stop with the e brake only. If it surges then yes the problem lies in the rear. Believe it or not i had this same exact problem on my beater S10 truck. After doing a rear brake job, it 'surged.' Changed the drums and it did the same ****. I then changed the shoes, even though they were fairly new, but they were "cheapy" ones. I bought the best shoes they had and my problem was gone. Good luck.

edit; just re-read and u already did the e brake test

 

just to update it for anyone who cares, had the new drums turned this morning (+$20) and put them on tonight, problem solved. I guess you cant buy new brake drums and expect them to be "good as new"