The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Just wondered if anyone else has had a rear brake shoe "pop out". I had a complete brake failure yesterday after the right rear shoe apparently came loose, causing the brake cylinder to expand until the seal popped off.

From the other threads, I see that some people have had the retaining clip come off, but everything looks intact on mine. Somehow it has come out of the retaining plate at the bottom of the drum.

I can fairly easily put it all back together, but I don't want to see this happen again... particularly facing a very red light at 70kmph with the pedal on the floor. I did notice the handbrake is pretty effective on the front wheels though!

See photos of failed drum brake.

Bugger mate!

That looks like a random occurance! I haven't seen this before. Before seeing the pics I thought your shoes had worn down and you'd popped a brake piston out of the slave cylinder...

The secondary braking system isn't the greatest but its better than nothing - it works on opposing front and rear brakes - so basically your front left and rear right work with one system and the front right and rear left work on the second system. Effectively you were trying to brake with two wheels. The front disc hand brake is VERY effective. Glad to hear it work well for you!

Not much I could offer other than to say make sure its seated properly before you put the drum back on If it happens again, renew the springs etc.

Cheers

Bennie