how to open Brake Drum

[petrified.rabbit]

What? pictures?

[07_aveo]

On the 04's, the OE brake drum is part of the wheel bearing and wasn't removable without taking the whole bearing assembly out.

[whitefish]

So are the drums seperate from the hub on 05 and up? Likely need to do my brakes soon as well and would be good to know before I start hammering something.

[tripingmylifeaway]

my passenger side rear wheel was locked up when i went to leave work. the e-brake cable is loose when not off and i loosened the adjuster just to make sure. i ordered the drum, shoes, cylinder, and hardware from autozone just in case i need them. is there anything else i might need or need to know before i screw it up worse than it already is? when i get to work on monday i plan on wacking the crap out of the drum with a rubber mallet and throwing some hot water on it cuz i found some places online that suggest doing this to free up the shoes (as long as the cylinder is not frozen). if i can atleast get it home to work on i would feel better about it.

[serega12]

On the 04's, the OE brake drum is part of the wheel bearing and wasn't removable without taking the whole bearing assembly out.

You say 04's.... did the fix the issue in 05+ then? I'm nowhere near having to change those yet at 28k miles, but it's a good thing to know for people who're closer to that.

[tripingmylifeaway]

got the drum off finally. the pad on one of the shoes came off and got jammed in the bottom of the drum. got to give a holler to fellow aveo owner who towed me back to his house and put me on his lift. he saved my butt on this. all in all everything looked good except for the one shoe coming apart.

[johnygogo]

I had a similar problem with my 04 Aveo this past December 09. My rear passenger wheel locked up and I thought it was the e-brake. After rocking the car back and forth for a bit and trying to figre it out I had to get it towed to a mechanic. It turns out the 1 brake shoe came undone (unglued) and I had to replace the brake cylinder which broke and the wheel bearing.

It took GM 3 days to ship all the parts because they sold me the whole backing plate kit which came with all the hardware. The 1 back wheel bearing cost me $180 cnd. I still don't know what caused the chain of events but I'm assuming it may be the broken (unglued) shoe. My mechanic believes it could of been the brake cylinder. I probably did more harm than good when I was rocking the car back and forth thinking the e-brake was causing the problem. It also probably would of helped if it wasn't -27C outside but after all that it cost me about $580 to fix.

I'm just happy this happened to me at work and not some where in the middle of nowhere.

[dragonwarrior2016]

I changed the brake shoes on this car and it hard, First keep the emergency brake off have a helper apply the brake while you have a long flat head screw driver gently pry it off until it comes off. once inside there is a spring that controls how you want the brake shoes to be loose or tight they are always suppose to be in the middle so that when you replace them again it is no problem Brake shoes and drums last about 150,000 Miles but will go out if you run a paper route like I do. I Changed mine at seventy-five thousand miles and the car brakes well.

[serega12]

Good to know, thanks for the info, warrior. That means I got a while before rear brake change either way since I'm only at around 30k.