Ford Brake Shoes

Frequently Asked Questions About Ford Brake Shoes

1. What are brake shoes?

Brake shoes are brake components inside your vehicle’s brake drum that serves as its contact point. Whenever you depress your brake pedal, the wheel cylinder in the drum brake engages and pushes the shoes outwards against the brake drum, creating friction and eventually stopping your car.

2. What’s the difference between brake shoes and brake pads?

Brake shoes stop your car by pushing itself outward, while brake pads move closer to stop your vehicle. A caliper squeezes the brake pads, causing them to press against the rotor disc. Additionally, you can find brake pads around your rotor instead of the drum brakes. Lastly, brake shoes last longer than brake pads.

3. When to replace brake shoes?

There are several ways to tell if you have worn out brake shoes. For one, if you constantly hear grinding noises when you press down on your brake pedal, it means its friction material is starting to wear down. Another telltale sign that you have worn out brake shoes is if you feel vibrations when braking.

4. How to measure brake shoes?

There are two ways to measure your vehicle's brake shoes: the outer diameter and width. When calculating the outer diameter of your drum brakes, you’ll need to remove the brake shoe from the drum brake and use a caliper to measure the distance between the two brake shoes. To measure the width, place the caliper across the narrowest point of the brake shoes.

5. How to make your brake shoes last longer?

To extend the life span of your brake shoes, you must slow down gently. Erratic brakes are one of the common causes of worn-down brake shoes. Additionally, it would help to keep your car weight in check, as large loads mean your brakes have more kinetic load to worry about when stopping.