Maybe its just me but the search feature doesnt seem to turn up answers anymore. While investigating the infamous clunk in my rear end, I finally pulled the wheels off and the brake shoes are toast on the forward shoe on both sides, while still a lot of life on the rearward shoes. Had the oil changed at the dealer today and they said the center bearing is still good. Difficult to pull the drums without wiggling the e-brake cable so I think the e-brake was not releasing correctly, causing the clunk.

So, do I rebuild the wheel cylinders if they are not leaking? Or just turn the drums and buy cheapo shoes at the discount parts store?

As long as the cheapo shoes fit OK go for it. I wouldn't screw with the cylinders unless they are leaking. Then you have to go through the whole bleeding process with the load sensor and all. It's not like the discs where the pistons change settings with new brakes, but thats me. If it ain't broke yet, leave it alone.

well you will need to fix the problem in the ebrake cable or the wheel cylinders or you will end up with the same problem of worn front shoes again.

Went to the local tire shop (BigO) and the guy there said the brakes were not adjusted properly and would cost 300 bucks for them to replace shoes and turn drums. Figuring they dont know what the heck they are talking about, I went to Napa auto (where they always seem to know about vehicles) and the guy told me the shoe wear was perfectly normal, since the forward shoe typically does all the braking and the rear shoe is for the emergency brake.

I had bought lifetime shoes yesterday at autozone for 20 bucks, and the napa guy said not to replace the cylinders if they are not leaking. He also said you need to pressure bleed the system if you change the cylinders, and newer vehicles require a complete brake fluid flush every two years since the fluid attracts moisture abd can rust out brake components.

The FSM does not say anything about pressure bleeding, just says to do the bleed the old fashioned way, but it does say to bleed the LSP and BV, but does not say how to bleed those 2 components.

jed, it has a regular old bleeder on it. lsp & bv is one unit. the bleeder screw is up on the driver's side frame rail in that piece. you can't miss it.

I've never heard of or seen just the front shoes wear, so that is new to me. Its not normal. Both the e-brake and the hydraulic cylinder push on the front and rear pad equally (normally).

I would check the e-brake mechanisms (drum off) and make sure both shoes can move when pulled. Same for the hydraulic part.

Yes, you should flush your brake fluid every couple of years because the fluid absorbs moisture, which will eventually rust and pit the piston bores and they will then leak. It will save you money down the line. You don't have to use a power bleeder, but you can. I like the Motive Products power bleeder (there is a review here somewhere). Standard or gravity bleeding will work for a simple flush though.

I was using the search feature to read up on rear brake issues and I found this old post that matches what I found last night when I pulled my drums. The front shoe is worn down almost completely while the rear one has lots of life left. Did you ever discover what was causing this to occur?

My drums are badly scored/grooved also. I'm going to try to measure them before I take them to be turned to be sure that I have enough meat left. Now I know what's been causing the terrible grinding sensation I get when I use the brakes.

I don't know the cause, but my front shoes were also worn more than the rear ones. The drums were still in good shape but I had them turned anyhow since they had plenty of material and were 8 or 9 years old untouched. With a 5 speed and extra slick winter roads, I'm really light on my brakes, though. I would throw the few bucks at new spring retainer cups. A week after I did my drums the retainer pin pulled through the cup necessitating another teardown.

Unfortunately my brakes get a lot of use these days. Traffic is 5x what it was when I moved here a few years ago.

I'm going to have a good look at what could be causing this when I take the drums off to have them turned. Does Toyota sell some kind of a brake hardware kit for the rears? If so, I'll get one of those for when I change the shoes.

My local dealer has never known anything about any kit - ie the top end cleaner/solvents you might have read about from Gettel, hub rebuild kits, any kit.

The FSM lists 2 c-washers, 1 e-ring and 1 gasket per side as non-reuseable.

The first time I did mine after having different shops in and out of there for the first couple years of it's life I found no gasket (afaik it's just paper), and I was able to reuse all but one of the 4 (talking both sides now) c-washers. I did pinch them back closed a bit and flatten them back out in a vise. Both e-rings were fine. The retaining cups were fairly wallowed out, and once the one blew and locked up the shoe, I replaced all 4 on that side and held on to the other 4 in case.

So, if you want everything on hand that could be rendered useless:
4 c-washers, 2 e-rings, 8 retaining cups, 2 gaskets, 2ea fr/rear shoes. I guess you could also replace the pins that feed through those hold down cups (4 total), but they seem to take the r&i abuse better than the cups.

And of course, try hard enough and you can render any of the parts useless, but the hard parts are pretty hard and the springs pretty stout.