Genuine Toyota Brake Shoe Kit 04495-35230 One of the most important maintenance items of a Toyota vehicle is making sure that the brakes are in good working order and that it can brake safely. This requires that the brake system be inspected and if any adjustments/repairs are needed that they be taken care of right away. Today we will be covering the "how to" and "need to" of keeping the rear shoe brakes properly cleaned and adjusted. First we need to understand that there are two types or rear brakes on Toyota vehicles, Disc type (with brake pads) and Drum type (with shoes) braking systems. This is a Disc type braking system with brake pads. This is the Drum type braking system with shoes we will be discussing today. Why do the Rear Drum Brakes need adjusting? The quick answer is that as the brake shoes wear down from repeated braking, the distance that the shoe has to travel in order to contact the drum increases. The drum brakes are now considered out of adjustment and do now provide as much stopping force as they once did. The more complicated answer is called Brake Bias. Brake bias is a representation of torque values at each end of your vehicle expressed in a percentage form. For example; 65/35% means that the front brakes are expected to produce 65% of the braking duty, while the rear brakes produce 35%. This is a rough estimate on an average vehicle. As the shoes wear down and the rear brakes become out of adjustment, the percentages can skew to 80/20% or more. Thus with the front brakes doing more of the work, they wear out faster and braking distance can become longer. How do I know that my Rear Brakes need to be adjusted? While it is possible that your Toyota Dealer recommended this maintenance service to you either because of miles driven since this adjustment was last performed (at least every 10,000 miles), we recommend that you check the adjustment yourself by pulling/pushing on your parking brake. To do this, start with your vehicle idling in the Park position, fully depress/pull up on the parking brake. Now with your foot on the brake pedal, shift from the Park position to the Drive position and slowly take your foot off of the brake pedal. The vehicle should not move forward with the parking brake engaged. Pay close attention to how far you had to depress/pull on the parking brake handle as this will give indication also of how well the rear drums adjusted. If the travel was short to medium length, and the brakes hold the vehicle while is in Drive, then they should be good. If you had to pull on the handle for a longer distance and/or the vehicle moves while in Drive with the parking brake applied, then it is time to have them checked and adjusted. Now for some quick tips/benefits of keeping the Rear Drum Brakes cleaned and properly adjusted... * Better Braking- braking travel distance is kept lower due to the rear brakes helping out. * The front brake pad wear life is increased. * Less chance of brake squeal noise from having the brake dust cleaned out of the drums. * The Technician can check on wheel bearing play (front wheel drive) and see if the rear axle seals may be leaking (solid axle vehicle like Tundra). * While you will hear that Rear Drum Brakes are "self adjusting" and never need to be adjusted, there are some Toyota vehicles that do a better job at this than others. Just perform the check above and see for yourself if they need to be adjusted just a bit tighter. *This is a quick picture of the parts of a typical Rear Drum Brake Set-up. How are Rear Brakes Cleaned and Adjusted? Isn't that why you came here in the first place? Ok then, now that you have some basic knowledge of what rear brakes are and why they need adjusting, here are two quick videos showing you how these Toyota Rear Brakes get cleaned and adjusted....
