Hello.

As you can tell from my posts, I am pretty new to the world of cars. Unfortunatly all I can bring to this forum is more questions than answers.

So today at 5PM Central time I endevoured in a task to *gasp* change my drum breaks. I had a "car care seminar" video on how to do it and the "Chiltons" manual on how to do it.

I raised the car up and put it on some jack stands, removed the drums and proceaded to the car parts store to get them resurfaced. I bought new pads for $12.99 w/ no core charge and some break cleaner.

I got home and my friend was there and we got started; we took off the springs with his father's tools and it seemed pretty easy till we had discovered we had damaged the wheel cylender somehow. When we went back to the store I got 2 new wheel cylenders and... to make a LONG story short.. we got all done/bleed the cylenders etc. troqued the wheels back on and at 12:00AM I went inside after a short test drive and I can tell you the breaks work just as well as before.

You see, other than changing the exaust with a stock one. This is my first real venture in fixing automotive things.

I really think replacing the drum breaks on our 1987 Jeep Wrangler will be easier (bigger everything and more room).

My only questions are:

Why do cars STILL have drum breaks in the rear? Disc breaks are not redundant.

Is a slight (almost silent) rubbing noise normal after changing the drum shoes? I assume it's the break shoes and springs breaking themselves in.

I bled the rear breaks because that's where I opened the line. Do I need to bleed the two front onse too?

Why is there a differance in the breakshoes on an 1995 Automatic Honda Civic EX versus a 5 speed of the same type?

Oh god, I wish I had a 5 speed!
Thank you for reading.

edit:// pic of my honda

 

The answer to your question would be an economic's answer. Drums brakes are much cheaper than disc brakes and have a rather good reliability but not well as the disc brakes of course....(Answer this then,why doensnt every car come w/ cd players if that has been around for like ever now and are cheap as hell?) Eventually the drum brakes are going to be phased out when the disc brakes parts become cheap as hell too,what a coincidence!

 

and then we will have some new brakes... squares maybe..

 

While cost is the primary driver, cars in general don't need rear disc brakes because most of the braking is done by the front two wheels (and with most cars of today, most of the weight is up front to begin with, augmenting the forward weight transfer during braking). Lower end cars will forever come with drum brakes because it saves on production cost, and because rear discs are unnecessary.

 

The front brakes are on the same circuit as the rear (well, kitty corner anyway), so ideally yes.

Why is there a differance in the breakshoes on an 1995 Automatic Honda Civic EX versus a 5 speed of the same type?[/QUOTE]
Shouldn't be.