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2006 Yaris


hawkerpaul
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The missus is buying a 2006 1.3 T-Spirit on Monday.

Took it out for a test drive last weekend, and all seems great. The one thing that I wasnt 100% keen on was the brakes. They didnt seem particularly sharp.

Is this a common "feature" of the yaris around this age?

If so, has anyone on here tried fitting EBC grooved brakes with RedStuff pads, and if so, did you see a big improvement with these?

thanks folks.

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Brakes are perfectly fine for the car although I'm sure some of the T-Sport boys have fitted uprated parts - but for standard driving, the OEM brakes should be perfectly OK. Ours are quick "grippy" with a strong initial bite.

It may be that the pads have glazed over time or that the caliper pins need a clean.

My first job would be to remove the pads and give the surfaces a very light "roughing up" with emery paper, push the piston back into the caliper a bit to make sure its not sticking and clean the two "slider pins" in each caliper to make sure they're not sticking (I used an old plastic scourer from the sink to clean off any gunge without actually damaging the metal pin...)

Then remove the rear drums, wipe out any dust with a clean paintbrush (being careful to wear a mask...) and roughen up the brake shoe lining as well with emery paper.

Put it all back together and for an hours work, at least you know the brakes are then working as well as the manufacturer designed them.

I did that with my daughter's car (only 2 years old) and she noticed a big difference in the initial bite when she pressed the pedal....

I've never been a fan of uprated disks and pads for normal road use, because they're designed for "performance driving" to stop normal brakes overheating. They often don't work as well when cold (normal road use) because they need to be warm to work properly. They're fine if you drive really ahrd and always have your brakes up to temperature, but most times in normal road use, the brakes are stone cold when you press the pedal, so you want brakes that are designed to work at their optimum at cooler temperatures.

Ferodo do a premium range of pads that are designed for normal road use, but are better than normal spec, so I'd take a look at their web site if you're really wanting to change, but if the brakes are working properly, the OEM brakes work fine. There is a standard for replacement pads which have to meet OEM standards. If you are swapping pads, it pays to make sure that you buy a proper brand that does comply with the OEM standard...

Basically, if you can hit the brakes on a good road surface in the dry and the ABS kicks in, then you're stopping the car as quickly as the tyres can grip the road. No "better" brakes are going to stop you any quicker - because the tyre grip is the limiting factor. If you hit the brakes and you can't get the ABS to kick in, then that suggests the brakes could grip harder with improved stopping power. Worth trying that simple test anyway before you invest loads...

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Some great tips there, cheers mate! :thumbsup:

She's picking it up on Friday now (she couldnt wait and wanted it for the weekend :rolleyes: ) I've rang the dealer and told them to investigate the brakes. I noticed there was a lip of about 2mm around the outer rim of the discs where they have been worn down by the pads, so maybe they will fit new discs+pads, but somehow I doubt it!

As for the rear drums, is it only the handbrake in these, or are they also used in normal braking?

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The rear drums do the braking at the rear. They're not just for the handbrake....

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I didnt realise the drums were involved with braking too. Thought it was just the handbrake shoes in there. You live and learn! :)

I've changed discs and pads before, but never done anything with drums and shoes.

How do you remove the rear drums to access the shoes?

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To remove drums, jack up relevant section of car, chock front wheels so the car cannot move and place in gear, axle stands, remove wheel with handbrake off and drum pulls straight off.

No retaining screws.

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Every car has a brake on each wheel that works when you press the pedal to stop the car - of one type or another.

If it didn't, the car would be unstable under braking and likely to skid....

There are some cars with rear disk brakes that have little drums as well, and those little drums are for the handbrake - but on any car that has "just" drums at the rear - they work from both the footbrake as well as the handbrake.

The method to remove the drums varies slightly from car to car, but the basic principle is the same...

1) jack up the car WITHOUT the handbrake on. (Make sure its in gear and the other wheels are properly chocked to stop the car rolling).

2) Remove the wheel...

3) See if there are any small screws holding the drum to the hub. Most don't have any because the wheel holds the drum on anyway, but some had a couple of screws holding the drum in place as well.

4) The drum may now just pull off, but its likely to be stuck on the brake shoes inside the drum. DON'T hit it hard with a hammer as its cast iron and may shatter. There are probably a couple of metric bolt holes in the drum near the centre of the hub opposite each other(typically 6-8mm). The idea is that you put two bolts in there and gradually tighten them. Tightening the bolts apples force aganst the hub and forces the drums off the shoes...

To put the drums back on, just slide them on over the shoes and make sure they're back seated on the hub "square" so that the hub will rotate. Then put the wheel back on and tighten the wheel nuts to the right torque. (103Nm for the Yaris). Make sure you tighten the nuts with the handbrake still "off", otherwise the handbrake will lock the brake drum and you won't tigten the nuts properly.

If you do anything with the rear brakes - be very careful to make sure that the car stops straight afterwards. We had a major braking stability issue with our Mk1 Yaris that took weeks to fix and was eventually traced to the rear brakes - only after I'd swapped all the front disks and pads.

To check for this - take your car out onto an empty road and take it up to at least 50mph. Then brake firmly to a stop and see if it brakes straight or pulls to one side. Ours pulled to one side but you didn't notice it during normal driving, only when you had to brake firmly from speed. Frightened us to death when we had to brake hard on the motorway and we could hardly keep it in the same lane....

To this day, I don't know what the issue was - there was nothing obviously wrong with the rear brakes. I dismantled the shoes, springs and handbrake lever and reassembled them again and the issue went away.....

Whether there was a spring that could go back in two different ways and I picked the wrong one or what, I don't know, but if you do anything to dismantle any of the rear brake assembly, make sure you do a high speed brake test afterwards on a clear road so you know the car does stop straight before its too late and you find out in a real emergency stop.

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