Hi all

First of all I am glad to be part of this forum 🙂

I have a Focus 2011 with rear drum brakes
I have been getting grinding noise on low speed when I start braking to a stop of late
The brake shoe calipers on one side are about 4mm in thickness and the opposide side about 4-5mm
The holding springs, clips and piston appear in good working order
Today I gave both rear brakes a good clean and realigned the shoe calipers
When I first drove off and braking to a stop the grinding noise dissapeared however after a few start and stop sessions the grinding noise returned
I have looked under the car and there is nothing visually loose I can see

I am contemplating whether it is worth changing the tension springs

Any suggetion is greatly appreciated

Regards
 

2 hours ago, JohnIEAlb said:

Any suggetion is greatly appreciated

 

I too have suffered from squeaky drum brakes on my Mk2. I solved it by doing the following. Take it to a closed off road, or a very quiet one, and at about 20Mph, apply the handbrake for a few seconds, accelerate again, then repeat. This action will force any debris/rust on the inside of the drum to be scrubbed off. It may or may not work for you, but it'll cost you nothing to find out.

What do you mean by brake shoe calipers?  Callipers are on disk brakes , calliper holds the pads and pushes them against the disc. Do you mean the brake shoe linings?  The asbestos type material that wears down .  (I know it’s not actually asbestos these days)

52 minutes ago, isetta said:

What do you mean by brake shoe calipers?  Callipers are on disk brakes , calliper holds the pads and pushes them against the disc. Do you mean the brake shoe linings?  The asbestos type material that wears down .  (I know it’s not actually asbestos these days)

Hi

Apologies, yes I meant to say Brake Shoe lining

Regards

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

I too have suffered from squeaky drum brakes on my Mk2. I solved it by doing the following. Take it to a closed off road, or a very quiet one, and at about 20Mph, apply the handbrake for a few seconds, accelerate again, then repeat. This action will force any debris/rust on the inside of the drum to be scrubbed off. It may or may not work for you, but it'll cost you nothing to find out.

Thanks for the suggestion StephenFord

I have opened the drum and full removed the brake shoes and gave a through clean of the backing plate which was indeed very rusty

I might give your suggestion a go

Regards

Hi all,

So it turns out the noise was caused by loosened tension springs and clips holding the brake shoe in place.
After replacing the abovementioned the noise went away 🙂

Thanks