Questions about Rear Brake Drums

My '13 Tacoma has a mild jerkiness just before coming to a stop. I don't feel it in the steering wheel or the brake pedal so I think the rear drums are bad.

I've got 28k on the clock. If I replace the drums, do I have to replace the shoes as well?

 

I would, but only at 28K? Try to get them turned Wow but I can’t see 28K and needing drums

 

Yeah, its odd right? But I can't think of any other cause for the oscillating slightly-jerky stops.

 

Still probably fronts. 90% of the time it's front even if not felt in the steering wheel. I'd toss some new front rotors on and see how it does. I'm machined rear drums twice now thinking it was rear and nope... It was front.

 

Find a deserted road and perform a normal stop with just your e-brake.
See if it pulses. Then you know front or back.

 

X2 on parking brake as stated above
@Tacoma Mike

 

That's a great idea. I will do that.

 

^^^ this! Didn't even think of that.

 

Hmm... so I just got back from trying this out. The unevenness isn't as bad but it's still slightly there. Perhaps all four sides are bad.

If I replace the front rotors and rear drums, do I also have to replace the front pads and rear shoes?

 

I think you need a visual inspection on your brakes, I can’t imagine you need new brakes @28k unless they were installed wrong or the rears adjusted wrong. What type of driving do you do? Stop and go city?

 

Mostly short drives around the city.

 

Tacoma brake pads usually last a lot longer than 28k for the front and there the ones that do a majority of the braking. With 28k on a 13 means you don’t drive much, they may just need to be inspected for rust/ corrosion from not being used.

 

You mean rust on the rear drums right? There is no rust on the front rotors.

 

Where ever, that’s why I think you just need a visual inspection to rule things out first before you start buying parts.

 

Well... it's been doing it for a couple of years. Never bothered me much because I don't drive it often. Now that I'm driving it more frequently, it's getting annoying. I would think any rust would have worn off in the last couple thousand miles. Just a guess really.

 

The front brakes could be slightly warped (this can happen to brakes that are extremely hot from use and then driving through water which cools them down rapidly causing warpage of the metal), or you could have gotten some grit in between the brake pads and the brake rotors. I would first take it to a shop like firestone or a shop that does brakes and get them to take measurements/ visual inspections; it would be a lot cheaper to just get them milled back on a brake lathe. Your rear drum brakes do very little when it comes to normal braking- think like 80% front/20% rear (this isn't exact). My '06 taco truck has over 230k miles and I havnt had to replace the rear drum brakes yet...I still inspect regularly and they are nearing the spec cut off.

 

Had the same issue as you, pulsing as I slow down but the steering wheel didn’t shake.
Turned out to be my front rotors…

Something I did was buy autozone Duralast brake pads and rotors so when they get used up or warped, I can just exchange them because of lifetime warranty on the pads and 3 year warranty on the rotors.

I had this truck for a little over a year and warped the rotors twice already and had a bad time finding a good shop around me to “turn” my rotors. Think they did a crappy job and that’s why I still had pulsing

 

Anyone thinking it is the Transmission downshifting? I have a 13, automatic , 67k 6 cyl. that often has a little jerk/lerch when applying brakes at slow speed when almost stopped. The feeling is the entire truck jerks, no notice thru the brake pedal nor steering. Seems like truck is free wheeling then down shifts. Mine has done this for years. Same thing happens if I take foot off gas while going down a fairly long hill, truck seems to free wheel then down shifts with a noticeable lerch, and rpm's increase.

 

If he thinks that you just pop it into neutral while slowing down.

 

Most likely issue is you have pad material unevenly bonded to the front brake rotor(s) due to improper bedding of the brakes. Most people think this is warped rotors and it isn't that either.

Some reading for you before you needlessly dump a bunch of money. Granted replacing all the brakes will work fine at first until poor braking habits again deposit an uneven coating of pad material onto the rotors.

https://alconkits.com/support/brake-pad-info/110-the-real-truth-about-warped-brake-rotors

Try re-bedding the brake pads.

https://brakeperformance.com/bedding-in-rotors.php