Au2ro
Member
I have had problems with the drum brakes on my A2 ever since getting it but was happy keeping on maintaining them until the garage seemed not to want to help solve the underlying problem without me chucking loads more money at them.
The rear brakes have often been binding and the garage has replaced the wheel cylinders several times as well as shoes and drums recently and the cables have been replaced too but less recently.
The last time I took it in they said that brake shoes were slipping off wheel cylinder piston and damaging the cylinders which is why they had to replace them so frequently and said that the backing plate would need replacing this time. Of course they quoted an horrendous price for doing this.
Anyway I had a look at the brakes myself thinking that I would maybe tackle it myself and save the labour charges and spend more on a decent make of replacement parts, especially a good pair of cylinders that will last, Brembos or whatever anyone here could recommend.
When taking the drum off I did see what the garage meant as one shoe was sitting on the rubber behind the cylinder's piston instead of on the piston itself. I noticed that the piston had a ridge on it on one side that I guess should keep the shoe from slipping off but it must have been worn or there must have been too much travel in the shoe towards the backing plate for the shoe to stay sitting on the piston as it just kept slipping of after I re-seated it and moved the shoes from front to back moving the pistons to check that they travelled easily enough.
The strange thing was that on the other side of the cylinder the ridge on the piston was positioned towards the drum rather than the backing plate but that shoe was quite secure and did not slip off as I moved shoes from front to back.
Should this ridge be on the backing plate side? Or are there different makes of cylinder that have a better design so as not to allow the shoes to slip off the piston so easily? It would be great to find out that just the cylinders would need replacing with better designed ones to fix this problem without worrying about replacing the backing plate too (though I might as well just replace the shoes and drums as well at the same time anyway).
I have a local place that does powder coating which has done my wheels before and I might just get the drums done there after seeing the results on this forum in another thread. Actually, come to think of it, my original Audi wheels need doing again too.
I have done this kind of thing before (pads, shoes, disks and drums etc.) with other cars so think that I am capable. I have read through several threads on this site on advice for replacing shoes and drums, and that has helped a lot. However, removing and replacing the backing plate looks to be quite a job. Does anyone have any advice on doing or not doing this as the case may be?
The rear brakes have often been binding and the garage has replaced the wheel cylinders several times as well as shoes and drums recently and the cables have been replaced too but less recently.
The last time I took it in they said that brake shoes were slipping off wheel cylinder piston and damaging the cylinders which is why they had to replace them so frequently and said that the backing plate would need replacing this time. Of course they quoted an horrendous price for doing this.
Anyway I had a look at the brakes myself thinking that I would maybe tackle it myself and save the labour charges and spend more on a decent make of replacement parts, especially a good pair of cylinders that will last, Brembos or whatever anyone here could recommend.
When taking the drum off I did see what the garage meant as one shoe was sitting on the rubber behind the cylinder's piston instead of on the piston itself. I noticed that the piston had a ridge on it on one side that I guess should keep the shoe from slipping off but it must have been worn or there must have been too much travel in the shoe towards the backing plate for the shoe to stay sitting on the piston as it just kept slipping of after I re-seated it and moved the shoes from front to back moving the pistons to check that they travelled easily enough.
The strange thing was that on the other side of the cylinder the ridge on the piston was positioned towards the drum rather than the backing plate but that shoe was quite secure and did not slip off as I moved shoes from front to back.
Should this ridge be on the backing plate side? Or are there different makes of cylinder that have a better design so as not to allow the shoes to slip off the piston so easily? It would be great to find out that just the cylinders would need replacing with better designed ones to fix this problem without worrying about replacing the backing plate too (though I might as well just replace the shoes and drums as well at the same time anyway).
I have a local place that does powder coating which has done my wheels before and I might just get the drums done there after seeing the results on this forum in another thread. Actually, come to think of it, my original Audi wheels need doing again too.
I have done this kind of thing before (pads, shoes, disks and drums etc.) with other cars so think that I am capable. I have read through several threads on this site on advice for replacing shoes and drums, and that has helped a lot. However, removing and replacing the backing plate looks to be quite a job. Does anyone have any advice on doing or not doing this as the case may be?
