Turn rear brake drums?

[robkay]

Hey everybody! Scheduling an appointment to have my rear shoes replaced (would DIY it, but it's too cold in the Great Lakes region now). The service rep says that drums today are thin and, as such, they do not turn them anymore, but just replace them. Is that true? The car still has the original OEM drums.
Oh--2007 hatch, about 75,000 miles. THX!

[LuisPRTRD]

if the drums or to thin you should replace them if u turn them u run the risk of vibracion on the pedel when u brake

[robkay]

Yes.

The shop is telling me they do not turn drums anymore period, they replace them. So, the question is, is it true that the OEM drums are too thin to turn at all and must always be replaced? Hard for me to believe.

They just gave me a price of $220 just to stick the shoes on (I supply the parts). Seems ridiculous to me.

[LuisPRTRD]

Its not that the oem drums or to thin but drums and disks get thinner over time so probably thats what they mean

[Geoff Peace]

Brake drums do wear over time, but very slowly. They can, however distort and be slightly oval. Usually caused by drivers braking hard, so heating the drum and expanding it, then pulling the handbrake on tight. As the drum cools it tends to an oval shape. Check for out of round, (oval) and measure the diameter in several places. 200mm. I think, but check this.
Regards Geoff Peace

[LuisPRTRD]

^+1

[ex-x-fire]

I'd have your original drums machined, their probably made from much better iron then the new ones. Unless the drums are ground up from bad shoes, they should last the life of the car.

[robkay]

Thanks everybody. This shop in Ann Arbor specializes in imports and has developed a great reputation over the years. They used to be VERY customer oriented. But, I found out that the service manager who had been there many years is gone and I fear that the shop has adopted a profits ahead of everything philosophy. This happened to a great shop I used to go to in Ft. Wayne, IN, too. A lot of the great people who were there left and they became no different than a dealer.

When they haven't even looked at the brakes, but tell me on the phone they're going to throw away my drums and put on new ones, that gives me a bad inkling.

[CTScott]

New drums can be purchased for under $20 each, so it may be hard for the shop to justify the cost of having a set turned down with new ones being that cheap.

[yarisgeo13]

It looks like you still need to shop around about putting on the OEM brakes. But if you let go to long, you'll end up paying a lot anyway!

[robkay]

Good point.

Thanks for weighing in on this CTScott. (If only the shop would charge me $20 for the drums--ya know what I'm sayin'?)