Brake shoes and brake fluid

[Donald]

OK, now that the drum is off onto the wheel cylinder. The area behind the drum is a mix of brake dust and brake fluid, everywhere including the shoes. Can I spray with brake cleaner and reuse? This is a truck I am selling and do not want to do both sides with new shoes. They are the rear, so not the main braking force.

 

[Bgallagher]

Are the shoes OK? If so you can replace the wheel cylinder cheap and clean/adjust the brakes.

 

[Kuato]

IMO you're good.

Originally Posted By: Brakleen website

Applications ABS, disc, drum, brake cylinders, brake drums, brake linings, brake shoes, calipers, clutch discs, disc brake pads, discs. Safe for use on all brake systems including: Springs & Wedge brakes

 

[RooflessVW]

If the brake fluid is soaked unto the shoes, I would put new ones on both sides. Don't half-a$$ brakes.

I actually would have had a shop do both sides, because I can't be bothered with drums.

 

[ecotourist]

If there is brake fluid on the shoes they will grab (which could put the truck out of control). No way to clean them that I know of.

I suppose you could disclose to a prospective customer that the rear shoes are contaminated with brake fluid and they will grab when braking - but it would be safer all around to just replace them.

 

[ecotourist]

For legal liability reasons it would be better to just replace them. You don't need someone coming back at you with, "I didn't know that grabbing brakes could put me out of control".

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Have a shop with ASE techs do the repair so it is done right and consider the expense part of selling the vehicle. Don't do it half per VW.

 

[BrocLuno]

Your selling this thing. Put in a brake cylinder. Use a can of brake clean and scrub pad to get most of the fluid off the shoes. Then wipe down with lacquer thinner. Fill the master cylinder and bleed the brakes. Clean everything, high temp grease the self adjuster threads and all, adjust and drive on.

BUT, I'd check the other side too. I'll bet that one is weeping and about to go... I'd put new cylinders on both sides.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Have a shop with ASE techs do the repair so it is done right ,and consider the expense part of selling the vehicle. Don't do it half per VW.

 

[KrisZ]

Sell it "as is". No need for ASE certified mechanics or playing an ambulance chaser.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: Donald
OK, now that the drum is off onto the wheel cylinder. The area behind the drum is a mix of brake dust and brake fluid, everywhere including the shoes. Can I spray with brake cleaner and reuse? This is a truck I am selling and do not want to do both sides with new shoes. They are the rear, so not the main braking force.


Yes, you can. Its not ideal, but if the lining is still thick enough then clean the shoes with Brakleen, let them dry, then "scuff" with coarse abrasive and re-install. I would remove the shoes first and then Brakleen them separately from the backing plate rather than douse them along with the backing plate, since that could move grease (as opposed to just brake fluid) onto the lining. If the axle seal is OK, there might be a little grease around the hub but it shouldn't be flung all over. And you don't want to re-locate any of it onto the lining. Brake fluid on lining- not all that bad. Gear oil or bearing grease on lining - pretty much need new lining.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Shoes are only about $20 a set.

 

[BigCahuna]

Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Have a shop with ASE techs do the repair so it is done right ,and consider the expense part of selling the vehicle. Don't do it half a**ed per VW.
Only a person that doesn't know what he's doing, or how to do brakes would pay a shop to do brakes on a vehicle that's being sold. I've never heard of "the expense of selling a vehicle". If I'm selling a vehicle it's a "as is where is sale". That's how you make the most on selling a vehicle. Fixing up a used vehicle to sell it is dumb.,,,

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: Kuato
IMO you're good.

Originally Posted By: Brakleen website

Applications ABS, disc, drum, brake cylinders, brake drums, brake linings, brake shoes, calipers, clutch discs, disc brake pads, discs. Safe for use on all brake systems including: Springs & Wedge brakes


Don't understand this American obsession with "brake cleaner". I have some, but it doesn't seem to be particularly useful for cleaning brakes.

Its a mixture of volatile organic solvents. Volatile organic solvents are for cleaning oily things. Your brakes shouldn't be oily and if they are you've got problems that aren't going to be solved by a squirt of brake cleaner.

Brakes are usually dusty and they may be contaminated with brake fluid, as in this case. Both these contaminants can be removed with a miracle product called water, which you can buy if you really want to, but the free stuff works too.

Its superior because it isn't very volatile, is good at wetting and washing away dust, and because its a good solvent for brake fluid, which mixes with it readily. Also its available in huge quantities.

If I had very contaminated brake shoes I might try taking them off and boiling them. (Don't try boiling brake cleaner). For light contamination you could pour hot water (optionally with washing up liquid added) over the intact brakes.

I've never sold a vehicle so I'm not going to open that particular moral can of worms. I know what I THINK I'd do though.

 

[Silk]

Yep, hot water is all you need to get brake fluid off brakes. If the shoes are saturated, just remove them and soak in hot water. Oh dear, how to get the water off? I don't know, but by the time you figure it out, it will be gone.

 

[Ducked]

Sorry, "and because its a good solvent for brake fluid, which mixes with it readily." should really be "and because its a good diluent for brake fluid, which mixes with it readily."

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: Ducked


Don't understand this American obsession with "brake cleaner". I have some, but it doesn't seem to be particularly useful for cleaning brakes.


We have a hair across our bums about asbestos, which hasn't been in linings since 1989, but "it could be" so we "better be sure" and not use compressed air to clean all the old junky dust and dust-mud out of a drum brake. So the health & safety people said, hey, let's burn through a can of brake cleaner, so it makes a muddy slurry, which drips on the shop floor.

Brake cleaner is good for getting the cosmolene off new rotors. But so would soapy water or gasoline.

As for the brakes, buy some cheapo shoes. Old shoes get glazed just from time. With new shoes the e-brake will work splendidly and who knows that might impress the guy test driving it. WEarever silvers from Advance have been my go-to linings. If you don't want to bang off the old drum on the other side, just do that side.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: Ducked


Don't understand this American obsession with "brake cleaner". I have some, but it doesn't seem to be particularly useful for cleaning brakes.


We have a hair across our bums about asbestos, which hasn't been in linings since 1989, but "it could be" so we "better be sure" and not use compressed air to clean all the old junky dust and dust-mud out of a drum brake. So the health & safety people said, hey, let's burn through a can of brake cleaner, so it makes a muddy slurry, which drips on the shop floor.



I understand caution about brake dust (just because there's probably no asbestos in it doesn't mean its a tonic) but I don't think brake cleaner is a particularly good way to deal with it. Because its volatile, it doesn't wet down the dust for very long, and then, as you say, you've got dry brake dust on the floor.

I put a bowl under the brakes to catch the brake dusty water when I sluice them down,(sometimes I use a plant sprayer initially) and then I dump that directly down the drain. Its still going into the environment, and some of it will probably end up on the sea breeze, but most of it wont.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: Ducked


Don't understand this American obsession with "brake cleaner". I have some, but it doesn't seem to be particularly useful for cleaning brakes.


Actually, its hugely useful for brakes and tons of other things on a vehicle.

Originally Posted By: Ducked
Its a mixture of volatile organic solvents. Volatile organic solvents are for cleaning oily things. Your brakes shouldn't be oily and if they are you've got problems that aren't going to be solved by a squirt of brake cleaner.


Lots of wrong-ness in that paragraph.

First, the BEST brake cleaner is pure tetrachloroethylene (Brakeleen red can or equivalent). The "green" formulae that are a soup of various solvents are not nearly as good, and IMO more dangerous since some of them are highly flammable. But the irrational fear of anything containing chlorine is strong. The fact that your experience is with one of the less effective soups instead of pure TCE is part of your negative experience. TCE is dry-cleaning fluid. If its safe for natural fiber and synthetic polymer clothing, its certainly safe for many metals and plastics on cars (test for compatibility on plastics). By and large it can be used on many more plastics and painted surfaces than the "green" solvent soups can. Many of them will soften, crinkle, or outright strip paint, but TCE will not. If you spill brake fluid on a painted surface under the hood, you can quickly hose it down with TCE brake cleaner to prevent the brake fluid from removing the paint.

Second- grease and oil DO get into the braking system, especially on solid-axle drum brake vehicles where there is seepage from the axle lube or wheelbearing grease into the drum area. If the leakage is normal, it won't spread as far as the braking surfaces but it will accumulate around the hub and is best cleaned when doing a brake job. Brakeleen is good for that, and also for removing dust and brake fluid contamination.

Hot-water washing is OK for the brake SHOES, but you really don't want to be doing that to the backing plates, adjuster linkages, and other components unnecessarily- and its unnecessary because effective, non-corrisive, non-flammable, cheap alternatives like TCE brake cleaner are available.

 

[Donald]

I used brake cleaner in red spray can and got the shoes looking a dull (non shiny) gray/black. Installed the new wheel cylinder and gravity bled the brakes. They feel now like they did before the wheel cylinder blew.