i just changed my rear brakes and removed the rear rotor to get it turned and noticed what looks like drum brakes inside. I assume this is for the emergency brake. Does anyone know how often we are supposed to replace those?

 

not often cause the e b rake is rarely on

 

That would never wear unless you drive with the eBrake on... which somebody's girl did 3 years ago at the begining of these boards...

 

FYI......please do not call the parking brake an emergency brake. Just try to stop your car with it sometime!

Used as such, while never forgetting to release it prior to a drive, the mini rear brake shoes should last about a million miles.

 

The wee drum brakes in the rear of my '88 Supra have 218,000 miles on them. Original shoes. No, I've never stopped the car with them. Replace the shoes when they are worn out, which will be never.

The reason for the small drum brake is that a drum brake is "self energizing", so it holds better when stopped. Also, if you've ever looked at what it takes to make a hydraulic disk brake double as a cable-operated parking brake, you'll see why lots of people use a secondary drum. Some old Hondas had this. Boy, what a complicated mechanism!

Asterix

 

hmm that would explain a lot, I think, cause when I park on somewhat of an incline, I pull the parking brake before releasing the peddle, then when I do the car rolls back slightly, almost like putting an automatic in P, but.... when my pads were low all the way around, it had trouble holding the weight of the car, when I put new pads, not affecting "mini-drum" the gripping power of the parking brake was better than before, great I just confused myself???

 

Those can be adjusted... they have the small "stick a screwdriver through the tiny window" thing...