Brakes (again)

[rsawatson]

Last November, I was unfortunate enough to have total brake failure (two front slave cylinders blew) and the entire system - master, slaves, shoes, drums 'n' all - were completely replaced.

Having been replaced, from the outset it was noticeable that when braking, there was a strange pulsating 'rubbing' noise coming from (I think) the front of the car whenever I applied the brake pedal. Dismissing it as a defect, thinking that the noise was coming from where the shoes had yet to bed in, I left it alone and hoped it would go away in due course.

Well over 2,000 miles later, having adjusted the brakes up twice, the noise is still very much present and is showing no sign of waning. It sounds as though the shoes are rubbing against the drum harder in certain spots than in others. My guess is that the drum(s) could be warped (I've heard people say that newly manufactured drums are prone to this). If they are indeed warped, it's rather disappointing.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Cheers,

Ryan

[bmcecosse]

Swap the drums side to side - just to see what happens.

[MarkyB]

Sounds like an oval or badly machined drum, that will never bed in.
It should be easy to identify which side is wrong, try putting the old drum on it, after degreasing it.

[chrisryder]

i've given myself a similar fault to rsawatson. not cured it yet but haven't had chance to try yet!

took the drums off last weekend to paint them (makes it faster, honest!) and made sure to keep the correct sides. and now i've got the same problems. so my drums won't have changed shape in the brief time they were off. i'm guessing it's poor adjustment of the shoes. that's where i'm looking first!

[rsawatson]

Thanks all. I will try and find time to adjust up this weekend and, if no luck, see if swapping over makes any difference. My suspicion however is that the drums are misshapen.

Ryan

[bmcecosse]

The idea of swapping is to see if the problem transfers over from one wheel to the other with the swap.

[rsawatson]

I took off all of the drums yesterday; cleaned them and readjusted the shoes. The noise has since disappeared! (perhaps brake dust was causing it...?)

Thanks for your help.

Ryan