Brake shoes

[Coaster]

Hello all,
Is it best practice to replace brake cylinders when replacing brake shoes?

 

[Stivino]

Not if there's nothing wrong with them.

 

[KingboyD]

Its not a bad idea, its an easy job to do, they dont cost much and and if they were to burst you would be replacing the contaminated shoes again.

 

[Watchmaker]

Unless the cylinders are leaking, it is not normal practice to replace them when changing the shoes. The fitting, of the shoes, is a straightforward job but, adding a cylinder change, when it is not necessary, doubles the complexity of the job and, unless you have an automatic brake bleeder, a one man job turns into a two man job.

 

[Coaster]

thanks for your thoughts

 

[237]

Unless the cylinders are leaking, it is not normal practice to replace them when changing the shoes. The fitting, of the shoes, is a straightforward job but, adding a cylinder change, when it is not necessary, doubles the complexity of the job and, unless you have an automatic brake bleeder, a one man job turns into a two man job.

In this day and age it is not worth the risk going to the trouble of replacing brake shoes and not bothering to replace the wheel cylinders they may look ok but we all know in this day and age that parts do not last like they used to! so if you are going to replace the shoes then it is false practice not to replace the cylinders as with Mondeo's the cylinders are pretty cheap and in fact they are so cheap now it is not even worth buying a new seal kit and repairing them. The chances are you replace the shoes and then you get a wheel cylinder go so now you have to do the job again and replace the shoes again.
So way up the cost? entirely up to you but you can bet that when the cylinder does go your going to wish you had replaced it when the shoes were off!