So, when you take you truck in to have the brakes inspected, what do you expect them to do? Rear drums specifically.

Look through the little inspection hole to check the thickness of the shoe linings or actually pull the drums off and look at the mechanics?

Case history: Your truck has about 94K on it and has never had any problems with the rear brakes, but the fronts are just about worn and need replacing.
Fronts get replaced. Rears are at about 4mm and are good for another few months before they recommend replacing.

 

They should pull atleast one of the drums off and visually inspect them, the shoes, internals and the drum itself for wear, broken pieces and or cracks, etc. There are gauges they use to measure the depth of the shoes like he told you whats left. When braking the rear brakes hardly do much work. The fronts do the majority of the stopping. What the mechanic told you is most likely correct. I would guess you should get more then a few months though. I know on my smaller car, I went through 2-3 fronts before I even need the backs changed. This truck has been good all around so far with 30k on it.

 

That's what I was thinking too. They didn't. Within two weeks, one of the wheel cylinders failed and misaligned on the shoe. Made braking real fun.

They do say, that even if they did, they would not have been able to see if the wheel cylinder was going to fail anytime soon.

But then he tells me that Dodge knew that the design of the wheel cylinder was faulty and they've improved them since. Seems they should have replaced them for nada.

Cheap S.O.Bs.

 

hmmm thats news to me. Yeah I doubt they could have seen a failing brake cylinder unless it was leaking or w/e. How did it fail or misalign? Did one of the pistons freeze up causing one shoe to be pushed out or something?
All the wheel cylinder does is push two pistons in opposing directions on the shoes, the springs retract the shoes after you let off the pedal, viola brake operation The adjusters push the bottom ends of the shoes outward, again in opposing directions, so that when the cylinder is activate the proper travel is met so that the brake shoes, well brake... That make sense?

 

Without the repair paperwork in front of me, from what I understand, one of the springs on the cylinder failed, so the piston allowed the shoe to 'float' off and become misaligned.

It just seems that they should have done a better job of checking a the brakes on a vehicle with that many miles on them. Just looking through an inspection hole isn't truely doing an inspection, to me, or my wife. Yeah, she was kinda PO'd too.

 

This is why they went to a dual spring design...sometime in 2006.

 

Ok I am guessing it wasnt the cylinder itself but one of the return springs or adjustment springs which would allow it to "float". Its not a total failure but the brake wont totally engage though.

Yeah I would hope they do more than that. Brakes are kinda a big deal. There is some spring update for some of the Dakotas if I remember right. Maybe that's what the guy was talking about. I'll do some digging to see if I can recall the issue.

 

something don't sound right....the wheel cylinders dont have springs on the cylinder itself, as lighteningbolt said, the springs are on the shoe and there is not enough room inside the drum for the shoe to "float off" and become misaligned without a whole lot of noise going on....how did you find out about the failure?

 

Well, driving and stopping, or the lack of stopping, that is.

When I would come to a stop, it was like a washboard. Then last Wednesday or Thursday, I was on my way to the dealer to make an oil change appointment, and the brakes failed on me! When right to the floor! But only once. They firmed up right away.

Figured they should check the brakes out better as they had just done the fronts last month and the washboard had been happening for a couple weeks. (Yeah I know. What took me so long, right?) They pulled the drums off on Saturday and found the failure. The guy that took the truck in on Friday figured it was most likely a misaligned shoe.

Drums brakes aren't my best knowledge base. I know what they look like. I hate working on them. I know the wheel cylinders have pistons and springs are involved somehow and if they aren't placed right, things don't work right. So, take my description with a grain of 'DOH!'

Why else would I come here for answers?

 

haha no worries man, thats what everyone is here for, to help and be helped