How to change the rear brake drum?

[bentonboy]

Hi there, I recently put alloys on my 2004 1.4 S Ibiza as before it had a standard steel wheel and trim. This has exposed two rather rusty brake drums which do not look good with my new silver alloys! I want to buy this brake drum (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SEAT-CORDOBA-...s_SM?hash=item29ff712c1c&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14). How do I take the two rear brake drums off and put new drums on? Thanks

 

[joop200789]

personally i wouldnt bother as they will just rust up the same as your old drums,i would just take time and effort and paint your old drums properly,unless your drums need replacing

 

[AndrewJB]

As above , I had my Ibiza from new and originally they where painted grey , but quickly they went rusty


I sanded mine down and painted them VRS Green

 

[RUM4MO]

Firstly, I'm shocked to read that Cupra R cars have rear drum brakes - so either I don't know much about Seats (VW owner) or this seller does not know his stuff on UK market cars. Secondly, as said already, a quick degrease followed by a hard scrub down with a wire brush, followed by a couple of coats of Hammerite smooth - maybe in black or any other colour that suits - job done.

 

[Aimez]

Agree, don't paint hem red thou!lol So many sites and ebay sellers but Ibiza Cupra R, Euro car parts have it listed as a 2004 ibiza model WTF?!

 

[st10587]

no cupra has drums on the rear haha

 

[slicecbr]

Hi there, I recently put alloys on my 2004 1.4 S Ibiza as before it had a standard steel wheel and trim. This has exposed two rather rusty brake drums which do not look good with my new silver alloys! I want to buy this brake drum (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SEAT-CORDOBA-...s_SM?hash=item29ff712c1c&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14). How do I take the two rear brake drums off and put new drums on? Thanks

The drums come off via a screw on the face, then prize them out with a flat head screw driver. I would agree with the guys above, unless you need new drums, give them a rub down and paint them, it turned out good for me and doesn't take long, have a look at my readers ride.

 

[gjaf]

Hi,
I've just bought an mk4 and the rear drums are quite badly rusted so I'm planning to repaint. Ideally I'd like to remove the drum to do this. I've had the wheel off and located the screw on the face of the drum (as mentioned above) but from there, do I need to remove the hub nut, or is it likely that the seam between the drum and the central hub is rusted and so the infamous 'hammer' approach is required. Or are there any other magic tricks that anyone knows? I've looked all over the 'net, but can't find anything specifically for the ibiza / vw family equivalents.
Thanks

 

[Aimez]

why bother with all that hassle just paint them in situ.

 

[gjaf]

Hi Aimez, ordinarily, I would do this, but there's quite a build up of rust around the outside rim of the drum, so much so that it's almost filling the gap between the drum and the casing behind. I thought it would be easier to get it off and have a go.

 

[slicecbr]

When the alloy is off, theres just one screw holding the drum to the back plate, I took mine of my ibiza (2003) when I painted mine and wouldn't have been able to get it off unless I had an impact drill, so you'll probably need one to make sure you don't ruin the screw head. Once thats off, i used a rubber mallet on one side and a flat screw driver on the other, and gently prized around the edges and it came off, alot of break dust etc. came out so worth doing it if your going to paint them anyway.

 

[gjaf]

Thank you; that's brilliantly helpful! Yeah, I had a poke around this morning and the screw through the face of the drum was a little nightmare to remove... but the combination of a very blunt-headed phillips screwdriver, WD40 and persistence worked a treat. I just didn't want to go trying to forcibly remove the drum before I was sure I was doing the right thing. Thanks again.

 

[RUM4MO]

I suppose one good thing about getting the drums off, is that at some time in the future, these drums will need to come off to clean out the brakes and/or sort out seized levers. Maybe, after you have painted them, apply a little copperease to the mounting face on the hub so that it will be easy to take off next time.

 

[gjaf]

Hey, thanks for the tip - not too clued up on brakes, so I've been reading up and came across copperease today. I'll pick some up.
On a related topic, I've noticed when I'm braking from higher speeds that I'm getting a strange noise (not scraping, grinding or squeaking, which I assume would indicate a 'normal' issue - stone, etc.) it's tricky to describe the sound because I've not really heard a car make it before, but it's not as high-pitched as a regular brake squeak. I have a hunch it's a front brake issue, but this said, it doesn't seem to affect braking performance whatsoever, so it's nothing major. When I tested the car, I noticed the brakes were pretty snatchy, but I knew the brakes were quite rusty (hence the undertaking above) so I thought it might sort itself out naturally with frequent use. Now I'm thinking of degreasing the front discs and going from there? Either that, or it's a heat-related issue? Any other suggestions?

 

[RUM4MO]

Its probably just a build up of rusty scale at the outer and inner reaches of the "swept" area on the discs, you could chip it off using a small hammer (protect eyes though). If that noise was due to small stones getting jammed where they should not be, then, I'd reckon that you would panic and stop driving the car as they can really make THAT much noise while not causing much trouble! When you say"degrease" the front brakes, I'd reckon that you mean clean them up so that they can move easily and apply a very small ammount of copperease where the pads contact the caliper etc - but never on the friction surfaces or disc swept areas. A spot of copperease on the hub/disc surface where the wheel rests against is a good thing as it stops the wheel "cold welding" or siezing to the hub - when this happens you get quite a shock when you quickly need to replace a flat tyre, better avoided by stopping it happening. Maybe buy a Haynes manual for your car.

 

[Dabbalz]

Don't you have a rubber bung in the drum face to remove???? then line the drum up with the adjuster for the handbrake (usually at 6 o'clock'ish on the drum), back this off, to back the shoes away from the drum, that way you don't pull the shoes off the backplate if they've worn the drum a fair bit. they should come off very easily then.

I could be wrong but thats how all the drum brakes i ever worked on operate. It has been many years since working on rear drums but even some of the rear disk cars i've had still use the disk as a drum brake also (for the handbrake) and they work in this way still.

 

[RUM4MO]

I agree, I think that is why part of my answer was to buy the Haynes book for this car. I think that it is slightly "worse" than you made it out to be, I think that you need to rotate the hub/drum until one of the holes is at maybe "10 o'clock" for one side and " 2 o'clock" on the opposite side - then use a screw driver to release the adjustment rachet to let the shoes retract fully. All that assumes that the levers on the shoes are not jammed!

Edit, I think that the rubber bung is just to see the lining thickness. I think that on the last car that I had with a handbrake drum inside the disc, there was no way of viewing lining wear as it was assumed that unless you had driven with the handbrake "on" then the shoes would last a very, very long time.

 

[Viking]

When you do get the drums off, take your angle grinder to the inner edge (where the drum first goes over the shoes when refitting them) and remove the lip which builds up as the drum wears away. Then when you refit them they'll go straight over the shoes much easier.

 

[gjaf]

Okay cool, thanks for the advice guys.

With getting the drum off, my question was just a case of looking before I leapt for the hammer. It wasn't stuck, however it is just highly probable that the drum's rusted to the hub - I wouldn't be surprised considering the amount of rust I've removed so far!

From what i've seen I think what RUM4MO suggested about the front discs is most likely; that there's rust around the edges of the swept area of the disc and scaling at the outer edge. I'll put my goggles on and get chipping! Rest assured, no friction-reducing product will go remotely near the friction surfaces or the discs - I have some universal degreaser which should do the job removing whatever grease, dirt, rust and whatever else is on the disc currently, and hopefully that will stop the noise.

Once again, thanks for all your help