I have a '93 Civic VX which I just bought. 175K miles. No squeaking or anything.

My friend and I just removed the rear drum to replace shoes and hardware after my mechanic told me I need new rear brakes.

Much to our horror, the innards of the rear brake system look like they have never been touched in the life of the car. The piston looks very corroded, and only one shoe moves when brake is applied.

The inner lip of the "housing," (not sure what this is actually called) is cracked in some places, looks like water can easily come in. Does this need to be replaced?
Does the piston need to be replaced?

In any case, the shop forgot to give us the hardware kit, so we couldn't do the job.

We're now wondering whether or not to let the mechanic do the entire job. He quoted my friend $475 to do the back brakes and fix the ebrake with two new cables, but we're not sure if his quote included replacing the piston and the housing.

If it's easy enough to replace the entire housing and pistons, we'd probably do it ourselves.

My friend has experience in just replacing shoes and hardware, which he is now pretty good at, but feels the other things are beyond his reach.
Could this be learned relatively easily?

Here's a link to pictures we just took of the brakes.
http://dynamitetraining.com/brakes

The question is do I return all the hardware I just bought or do I buy the rest and try to do the job ourselves?

Thanks Jake and Ben.



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daaaaaaamn i've never seen brakes so messed up before...if i were u, i'd take a trip to the junk yard and just snag a new assembly...replacing the shoes require the re-use of alot of parts(springs, adjuster, cable) which look to be in bad condition. chances are u'll need a new cylinder too. all of which will cost quite a bit and snagging one from a junk yard thats in good condition will be alot cheaper and probably easier to replace. also get new drums..

 

well im sure if ya can buy all new springs and clips from most parts stores. and the adjuster you unscrew it apart and clean it up with a steel wire brush then with some grease put some grease inside the threads and on the threads and then remove the cap off clean it up and grease it as well.
preaty easy to redue the brakes.... BUT if the spindle is cracked instead of replacing the WHOLE THING what i would do is clean it all up good with a steel wire brush and spray it down some with brake cleaner to clean the metal realy good.... then get some JBweld STEEL epoxy and mix it up good and smash it into the crack real good from both sides and smooth it down with your finger the best ya can.... will be just fine like that! that stuff hardens SUPER HARD and is just about like steel! great stuff


and easiest way to do brakes........ since ya got a camera already snap several pictures of the brakes...... THAT WAY you know how all the springs go and just put it back all like that.
and the piston assembly has 2 bolts in the rear i believe... simply remove them and it should come right out.
JUST BE SURE TO USE A LINE WRENCH on the brake lines and be sure to spray them down with some penatrating oil..... and like anything rusted be sure to use a closed socket or wrench on all the bolts to prevent striping them and causing ALOT more problems.LOL

with some simple tools its very easy!
some needle nose pliers, some screw drivers, set of line wrenches and basic tools. and some clear rubber hose....
very easy to do yourself.....

for doing the rear brakes be sure to jack the rear up as high as ya can with the front still on the ground... this way all the brake fluid doesnt leak outta the whole system!
just put the clear hose on the bleeder valve loosen it and keep pumping the brake pedal and REMEMBER to keep filling up the brake fluid cause if that goes dry you just wasted time bleeding the brakes and have to do it all over again
just keep pumping the pedal and filling up the fluid until thiers no bubles coming out and the fluid is clear.
then just keep adjusting the adjuster until you have a lite drag on the drum....
preaty easy.... just BE SURE BEFORE YA GET READY TO MOVE THE CAR AFTER DOING SO BE SURE TO PUMP THE BRAKES A FEW TIMES TO BUILD UP PRESSURE IN THE LINES BEFORE PUTING IT IN GEAR!!!!!
otherwise ya risk the posibility of driving thru the wall cause you wont have any brake pressure...

but definatly buy new drums and new pads..
ive only seen one set of pads worse than that and they sounded like a grinding pad!!!!!! if you havent heard any grinding then id say both of them are bad and dont work!

 

Can you be specific in what you mean by assembly? what parts does that include? I think I need a new drum backing.

Addciton2bass: What is the spindle? We need to replace the backing because of the part that is cracked off. (we presume)

Thanks guys for the help!

Btw, the photos above are after using nearly an entire can of brake cleaner....

The whole thing in the red bracket is the spindle? The spindle is the part with the four bolts are coming out of?

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well the spindle is preaty much the whole thing i believe... get a picture of it.... if its jsut cracked just fill it.... or if the whole piece is just missing then replacing it would help..... depending how large of a piece is missing...... get a picture of it if ya can

 

The whole thing in the red bracket is the spindle? The spindle is the part with the four bolts are coming out of?

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aren't these pictures of it? Or do you mean with all the brake hardware off? So like a picture of the backing plate?

 

You can't see the spindle (yet). It's a solid stationary axle that the hub turns on. The hub is the part with the lug studs that turns with the wheel. You have to remove the hub to take the backing plate off. To do that, pry out the metal cover in the center of the hub and unscrew the spindle nut underneath. Now slide the hub and bearing assembly off and set it aside, being careful not to get dirt in it because that will mess up the bearings.

 

i would spray solvent and carb clear on the whole unit. The drum might be bad enough the whole unit would have to be replaced

 

well get a picture of the cracked off section..... so we can see the cracked area first hand...