Brakes on a car suck..doing maintenance on a car sucks!

[trainrider06]

i am getting old! Changed the rear brakes on my little Toyota Yaris today that i use to get back and forth to work in, and my back is killing me....took me most all day, and was a pain in the rear! Has drum brakes on rear
and I hadn't messed with drum brakes in years! Forgot all my little tricks to getting those dang mainsprings off, it sucked! Oh yeah poked a hole in one of my wheel cylinders too and had to buy/install that also...then bleed brakes....Gowd! Glad thats over with.....now I have to look forward to the wifes Beemer on vacation...gotta fix a $6.00 gasket but tear off half the motor to get to it! Thats gonna be fun fun!

 

[Stambo]

I chuckle quietly to myself when I read things like this.
It's what I do for a living, and have been for 40+ years.
If Yaris rear brakes took my apprentice much more than an hour he would have to have some good reasons.

I sometimes have trouble understanding why people bother taking all day to do something any reasonable mechanic would do in less than an hour and a quarter.
Especially when it comes to brakes, where an error could cost lives.

 

[Tony]

I'm in the same boat. I have not done drums in quite a long time, something over 10 years or so. Every time I get into my tool box, I see the old drum tool that I used to use for the springs back there. It can be a pain, that's for sure.

Stambo, we do it because over here, these little foreign cars are expensive as hell to get work done on. No matter the cost of the car, a simple brake job here will cost as much as a down payment on another one. lol.

 

[vimy]

I've been fixing cars for a very long time, I don't do this as a profession.

The novelty of working on a car died out with me when I was still a teenager. I do this wretched activity only to save money.

.....now I have to look forward to the wifes Beemer on vacation...gotta fix a $6.00 gasket but tear off half the motor to get to it! Thats gonna be fun fun!

Yeah, you've got to see the perverted humour in having to do pull the motor to bits to change a cheap, non-descript, but vital gasket.

May I ask where this gasket is located?

And yes, I despise drum brakes.

 

[trainrider06]

I chuckle quietly to myself when I read things like this.
It's what I do for a living, and have been for 40+ years.
If Yaris rear brakes took my apprentice much more than an hour he would have to have some good reasons.

I sometimes have trouble understanding why people bother taking all day to do something any reasonable mechanic would do in less than an hour and a quarter.
Especially when it comes to brakes, where an error could cost lives.

This is true, this little job should have taken me less than an hour, and a wheel cyclinder should not have been needing to be replaced. I went to school worked for a time in the industry back in the 80's had a few hot rods that I built myself.
I haven't touched a brake job since the 80's though, and forgot a few tricks of the trade until I waddled through the first side...the other side took me about 20 mins once I remembered what I was doing lol.
You have to consider average joe doesn't have a lift, and things like that in order to save time.
It was all manual labor for me, floor Jack, 4 way lug wrench.....slip of a screw driver into a wheel cylinder
going back and forth to get parts, etc...this eats time...

- - - Updated - - -

I've been fixing cars for a very long time, I don't do this as a profession.

The novelty of working on a car died out with me when I was still a teenager. I do this wretched activity only to save money.



Yeah, you've got to see the perverted humour in having to do pull the motor to bits to change a cheap, non-descript, but vital gasket.

May I ask where this gasket is located?

And yes, I despise drum brakes.

Vimy, it's that gasket between the block, and oil filter assymbly and it's an automatic, so I have to take a couple other things off. Her power steering pump has to be replaced also (this is the 3rd pump too) have to pull that off, so I'll replace it too.

- - - Updated - - -

I've been fixing cars for a very long time, I don't do this as a profession.

The novelty of working on a car died out with me when I was still a teenager. I do this wretched activity only to save money.



Yeah, you've got to see the perverted humour in having to do pull the motor to bits to change a cheap, non-descript, but vital gasket.

May I ask where this gasket is located?

And yes, I despise drum brakes.

Vimy, it's that gasket between the block, and oil filter assymbly and it's an automatic, so I have to take a couple other things off. Her power steering pump has to be replaced also (this is the 3rd pump too) have to pull that off, so I'll replace it too.

 

[Stambo]

As a professional I would never replace brake shoes on a car without also replacing the wheel cylinders.
The reason being that as the shoes wear out, the pistons in the cylinder work further out of their bore.
Over time, especially if the brake fluid has not been regularly changed, rust forms in the bores where the pistons don't run.
When you put new shoes on, the pistons get pushed back inside cylinders past the rusted areas damaging the seals.
3 months later the vehicle has brake fluid leaking past the seals on to the new shoes.
Back to square one, the whole lot has to be replaced again, shoes and all.
If someone brings a car to my shop asking for just shoes to be replaced I suggest they take it elsewhere.
When it come to brakes, do it right or not at all.

 

[trainrider06]

As a professional I would never replace brake shoes on a car without also replacing the wheel cylinders.
The reason being that as the shoes wear out, the pistons in the cylinder work further out of their bore.
Over time, especially if the brake fluid has not been regularly changed, rust forms in the bores where the pistons don't run.
When you put new shoes on, the pistons get pushed back inside cylinders past the rusted areas damaging the seals.
3 months later the vehicle has brake fluid leaking past the seals on to the new shoes.
Back to square one, the whole lot has to be replaced again, shoes and all.
If someone brings a car to my shop asking for just shoes to be replaced I suggest they take it elsewhere.
When it come to brakes, do it right or not at all.

Thats probably good advice, and yeah I have seen those wheel cylinders just as you described on cars...we used to hone em and install a rebuild kit in em. As long as the inside wasn't pitted that is...

 

[Stambo]

Thats probably good advice, and yeah I have seen those wheel cylinders just as you described on cars...we used to hone em and install a rebuild kit in em. As long as the inside wasn't pitted that is...

Dunno about over there but here the average wheel cylinder is anything from $15 to $25 NZ, a kit might be heading towards $10.
By the time you hone it, clean everything up and put it back together it's kind of false economy to do it.
As far as alloy cylinders go, honing them takes the fine polished surface off as most hones are too coarse for alloy, making it worse than if you had just cleaned them and put seals in.

 

[trainrider06]

Dunno about over there but here the average wheel cylinder is anything from $15 to $25 NZ, a kit might be heading towards $10.
By the time you hone it, clean everything up and put it back together it's kind of false economy to do it.
As far as alloy cylinders go, honing them takes the fine polished surface off as most hones are too coarse for alloy, making it worse than if you had just cleaned them and put seals in.

Yeah I paid 19.95 for the wheel cylinder on mine....yes your correct time wise it's just best to replace....if you have all the tools pressure bleeder, compressor, air tools, lifts...those sort of things make it lickity split. Back in the days of my youth I used a bumper jack....talk about slow going then hahaha....oh and those crappy lug wrenches...sometimes I'd get my hands on a fancy bottle jack though, and a 4 way!
But primitive conditions, and not having the correct tools to help do the job quicker kinda gets a guy to do it in as short time with what ya have....and get on down the road with it. I don't have access or my air tools I used to have, I do have hand tools though that I kept over the years. I have yet to have a cars brakes fail because I didn't replace all the wheel cylinders, or caliper after a brake job I did on it though...not saying it can't happen but none of my own personal cars I've had trouble with, and I've had a bunch of em.
My budget also will not allow me to take my cars to the best mechanics possible either, wish I could, I hate working on cars anymore...used to love it! At the same time I won't take my car to some half baked mechanic either, is why I will do things myself because I at least know I didn't forget a screw or bolt, or had something wrong that was a $10.00 fix and was charged a $100.00. I've been around cars/bikes enough to know also what I can and can't get away with fixing or replacing and keep the car safe on the road, instead of spending money on the chance that something might break....I ran into a problem a few years ago though, still do not know what in the world went wrong on my bike...took the front wheel off to take it in to get a new tire put on it...came back put wheel back on and my front brake had no brake at the handle....you could see the pads trying to move when you squeezed the handle but handle was coming all the way back to the grip with no brake.
Tried bleeding the brakes, even rebuilt the master cylinder as a last ditch attempt....nothing...put it on a pressure bleeder....nothing....then after bleeding bleeding bleeding. I gave up, it sat for a day, walked up and squeezed the handle.... had brake! never did know what happened to it...was one weird deal! Best I can figure somehow an air bubble got into the line somehow...and finally worked its way down out of the system on one of my last bleeds on it.