when to replace rear drum brakes

[bankrobber]

Have 90,000 miles probably half are interstate miles. So I bought new shoes at Peb Boys and the new ones look close to thickness of old ones. I know to replace at 1/16 inch. The new shoes are same thickness as two quarters and old ones are slightly lower than two quarters. Can I run shoes down to one quarter's width?

[Yaris Hilton]

Yes, as long as any rivets aren't yet touching. Conventional wisdom is at least 1/32" clearance for rivets. You've probably got bonded linings, I haven't looked at mine.

[bankrobber]

I never done drum brakes so when I first saw how thin they were I thought had to replace them. The new ones look like about 3/16 of an inch. I probably have 1/8 left
So I just sprayed everything down with brake cleaner. I was getting a short squeak sound when applying brakes.

[Yaris Hilton]

Usually means some sort of contamination or rust.

[UTVitz]

A rule of thumb I was given by a mechanic-if the parking brake is working good and holds the car then the drums are fine. I've stuck to this theory and never had a problem even on an old wrangler with over 130k on it's rear drums.

[Yaris Hilton]

That's certainly true. But when the parking brake gets loose it doesn't necessarily mean you need the rear brakes redone, you may just need to tighten up the cable a bit.

[Black Yaris]

keep rollin on the stock shoes, sounds like you got plenty of meat left