Thread: Squeaky Brakes

What makes drum brakes squeak?
My series 3 has a horrible high pitched squeak just as it comes to a stop, possible from 5-10 kmh downwards.
A while back I fitted new shoes and they were to big for the standard size drums, consequently they dragged and resulted in the drums overheating.
Can it be resolved or do the drums need machining or something?

Cheers, Mick.

I had a horrible squeal after putting new pads in as well. When I had to do some other work on it I put the drums on the bench and with chalk on the pads worked out where they were not fitting the drums and got into them with a file and made them fit properly. There are now no squeals so either that was what was needed or it could just be that they needed to have the hard surface roughed up a little. If yours have overheated then maybe just roughing up the surface may help rather than actually trying to get the shape perfect.

Cheers,

TimJ.