GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I'm trying to figure out how much money I'll have to shell out to get my rear brakes changed... I tried to look at them previously but couldn't get the drums off. And if I can't get the stinkin' drums off, I'll be darned if I'm going to try to replace them myself. I'm at 66,000 and hearing lots of noise back there when applying and releasing the brakes. The parking brake isn't holding for crap. I think I definitely need brake shoes back there, and who knows, maybe the drums are trashed too, depending on how wore out the pads are. It doesn't seem that this issue has come up too often, so I figured I'd ask. And where can I take it so I stand less of a chance of getting ripped off? I just really don't want to end up with someone trying to tell me "you need this, you need that, blah blah blah..." when I probably don't need such things to be replaced in order to still drive safely. You guys know my car, and these days I feel it is worth only the minimum required investment to keep it roadworthy and safe to drive, not a penny more. Sad, isn't it? And besides, I simply can't afford to pay for crap I don't need!

when you tried to get the drums off, did they move at all? (and I don't mean normal spinning) ?Recently changed rear drums on a slightly older corolla, and the drums were sort of "rust welded" on to the hubs. No movement independent of the hubs at all, had to smack them to get them to come loose.Sometimes the brakes will wear a little of the interior of the drum, and the self adjusting brakes will take up the slack, but then you can get a ridge grow on the inside of the drum that won't clear the brake shoes when you try to pull the drum off. There is usually an access hole on the inside of the hub where you can reach in and de-adjust the brakes to provide more clearance, but it can be "interesting" if you're not sure what do do in there.as far as where to take it to have it done, call around for estimates. don't overlook the mom&pop service stations

They didn't move at all... Tried beating them with a hammer as well, couldn't get them to break loose so I gave up instead of continuing. One of the few times I've given up when I should have. lol! I later found the proper procedure in the softcopy service manual after asking about it here and found something that I needed to take off the back, can't remember for sure. However, I still don't think even with armed with that information, that I should attempt this seeing how things turned out up front when I changed out the pads and followed the instructions in the manual. I still have my original rotors up there because apparently the instructions didn't go into enough detail for me to understand what needed to be done when removing the rotors. There's a lot more inside that drum that I could screw up.I was hoping I could count on my cousin's AC Delco repair shop to get this taken care of. While I haven't called yet for pricing, my dad has had plenty of work done there and says it's probably not going to save me enough money to warrant the drive to get there, which is something like an hour and a half drive from here. I will check the various other small guys here once I can get some feedback on who is worthy. I still have the dealer and tire shop that I go to if need be... And if all else fails, I guess those national guys but i dunno...

The local shop where I get my tire work done wanted $129 to replace the shoes back there... Ouch, but what can ya do? Time is of the essence this week, so I couldn't use my one day I'll have off where places will be open to go about and get an oil change at my usual dealer location because I'm at 3,000 miles already, then get the brakes done up the road. So, I called the dealer to see how much they would charge. $139. I figured for the one stop shopping experience I'd just bring it to the dealer. It's $10 but in these days, I'd spend that in gas to get to the other place and back home since it was quite a haul from the dealer anyway.Whad'ya know they tore into it and at a tick before 70,000, they found the damn shoes to be around 50% worn. Hooray, I'm good for a while longer! They cleaned everything out back there in an attempt to do something about the funky noises, which I don't think I've heard lately but I did tell them about. So it's not making noise now, nor was it when I brought the thing in. My usual $21 bill became $44, I'm not complaining. I needed this break on mah brakes man, especially since I now have no choice now but to replace that climate control assembly in the dash, as I found out over the weekend.. . The money those guys at the dealer saved me today, ah, I'm a happy camper. Not as much as I would be if they would have looked at the dumb thing for free, but hey, I'll take what I can get.