Difference in drum brakes?

[heavywoody]

It appears through looking at Rock Auto's website that there are two different sizes for the rear brakes (which is news to me, I thought they were all the same per model year; I can understand changes from 89 to 96).

It looks like there are 7" and 7.875" brakes. Which one do I have?

Forgive my newb-ness, I have never touched the drums on my car (other than painting the drums).

[DTMAce]

I think there is a difference between US and Can versions, outside of that, I didn't really know of an issue with size. lol

I can't remember either.

[3X00-Modified]

Euro spec is 7.875 IIRC... I think, at least I remember reading that Euro ones were larger, I don't know the size of the top of my head though.

You painted your drums.... you ricer... LOL

[Koots]

If there is a CAN/USA drum brake difference, hopefully they were generous to me and my fellow Canadians LOL

More than likely, we got ripped off and the US gets the bigger brakes. That's always how it goes, we rarely get better options.

[Money pit Beretta]

Could be wrong, but I thought that the size was stamped into the drum. Or it could have been on the backing plate. I don't remember, it's been almost 8 years and one car ago. I have not touched the brakes on the 95 yet.

[3X00-Modified]

Looking at Advance though they list it as 7 7/8" shoes... hrmmm

I guess go with 7 7/8" thats the ONLY ones they list on Advance Auto.

[heavywoody]

Well I ordered them... we'll see how it goes.

For the record Jon, they were painted black to cover the rust. Maybe this time I'll paint them yellow or bright orange!

[themixer]

red for +25 HP

[heavywoody]

That's so 2000. Bright orange is where it's at now, just ask the Porsche guys!

[woody90gtz]

That's so 2000. Bright orange is where it's at now, just ask the Porsche guys!

2005

[heavywoody]

You were behind the times, lol

[GTZfan]

Well I can confirm that Canada/Europe brakes are bigger. US market brakes are the smaller ones.
You can check at Rockauto, the corresponding parts should be marked for Export. They were so when I ordered my brake parts.
I've got european Berettas, official export models, so they got the bigger drum brakes. The whole drum brake assembly is quite different actually, the brake cylinder is bigger too.

Koots... looks like US customers got ripped off this time

[Koots]

Nice! For once we get something completely different LOL

I had a 97 Honda Civic EX, which was a Canadian model, which was optioned more like the American LX but with the bigger brakes and swaybar of the EX...The Canadian LX was the US DX, the Canadian SI is the USA's EX...

I hated it all and it made it really confusing while searching the internet for stuff.

[3X00-Modified]

Local autoparts stores list the 7 7/8 drum though, they don't say "export only" either.

Bottom line you want the shoes to look like this



not this


I'm not sure what the "proper" size is, but some of the listings say except for US market, or W/O export specific market.

The top six parts on a 96 RockAuto listing is for a US market setup. After that it alternates.

[Koots]

The sizes must have been different while the cars were in production, but the aftermarket probably just wanted to build one style for replacements and luckily went with the larger, better design.